Don't Run Your Dishwasher Overnight

he exhortation to not leave on charge while asleep or out of the house: laptops, tablets, mobile phones etc

That one is a step too far for me in the risk vs benefit. Phones get charged every night at the bedside. Though I do insist on genuine Apple chargers, not ropey Chinese copies off eBay.

The new house I just bought has 5 rooms – and 6 smoke alarms !

Blimey! The fire brigade fitted ours. One in the hall at the bottom of the stairs and one on the upstairs landing.

Worrying about risks which are negligible certainly qualifies in my book.

Okay, now I know that the plural of anecdote isn’t data, but I just googled “mobile phone house fire” and it certainly wasn’t negligible for these people. Apologies for some DM linkage, but how about three kids killed:

How depressing

or five killed (including another three kids), this time suspected a cheap, aftermarket charger (reminds me to add to my first post: cheap chinese bike lights..):

That’s quite sad

And three dogs earlier this year (not clear tbf whether charger or extension lead at fault, but if it wasn’t left on it wouldn’t have happened):

At least no dead kids this time I suppose

A lucky escape this time:

TFFT

Staffordshire seems a particularly unlucky place for such things:

The pets got rescued this time

And that’s just the first few on page one of google…

My point is, based on how I risk assess things, yes, of course, the likelihood is low, but the severity is high, so not “negligible” to me, and certainly not negligible to the people in those stories. To save you having to read any or all of them, there’s pretty much a common feature of people who are, sure, risk averse, but may know a bit about what they’re saying, recommending not leaving phones on charge unattended because it might cause a fire…

I’m really not sure how following that advice could be seen to be stupid, or considered equivalent to not having an electricity supply at all…

What about if I mitigate the risk by washing up instead then leave my Edinburgh Crystal decanter on the rack to dry (more hygienic than usinf a tea towell) then the sun comes through the window, reflects through the decanter and sets fire to the solid oak work top.

I could mitigate this by closing the blinds, but then I will need to turn the lights on. And what if a light catches fire?

Won’t someone think please think of the children!

Insides of a genuine iPad charger compared to a cheap Chinese copy. 😯

Apparently 11 million households have dishwashers. So that’s a 0.004% chance of having a dishwasher fire. Or if you make the rather daft assumption that such a fire will kill you, then you still have 99.7% chance of being killed by something different.

I think the point is not to leave appliances unattended.

Given how easy that is to do, and the potential harm from not doing so, in spite of the low likelihood of an incident, I will stick with my mildly obsessive switching off regime, thanks v much.

You could say that there are several million bike journeys made every year, but only 5 people die. I still wear a helmet, as the consequences of an incident although unlikely, are easy to mitigate.

(with apologies for mentioning the H word)

So that’s a 0.004% chance of having a dishwasher fire.

No, that’s the chance of having a dishwasher fire in any particular year. You need to multiply that by the number of years you intend to have a dishwasher for to establish the overall probability of having a fire..

Personally I don’t go along with the reassurance of a low probability like that in any case – I’d look at it more that there is 100% probability (not technically true, but for the sake of illustrating a point) that there will be 460 dishwasher fires in any given year. There is as much chance of mine being one of the 460 as anyone else, unless I do something to make that not be the case.

And even on those numbers, the odds of having a dishwasher fire are massively greater than the chances of hitting the jackpot on the lottery. Logically, anyone who thinks it’s worth buying a ticket really should think it’s worthwhile turning the dishwasher off when they go to bed if we’re taking a statistical approach.

Non-lottery player here

There is as much chance of mine being one of the 460 as anyone else, unless I do something to make that not be the case.

The fact that each individual has an equal chance does not negate that fact that you still only have a 0.004% chance of it being you.

That’s pretty much the reason my mum gives for playing the lottery 🙂 It has to be someone!

Something will happen somewhere at some point.

hora – Another tip. If you have a spare set of front door keys, keep them in your bedroom. If you are trapped by fire you can lob them out to us which makes getting in more controllable, quicker & less destructive.

Ah good point- our front door has multi-point latches and is that bouncy-plastic material so anything slammed against it would bounce off for the first few tries.

I mentioned this topic to MrsH as she always sets the washing machine to come on during the night.

?

Ah good point- our front door has multi-point latches and is that bouncy-plastic material so anything slammed against it would bounce off for the first few tries.

Hahaha! You wish.

No composite doors that’s another issue but the brickwork usually gives in after awhile.

hora – Another tip. If you have a spare set of front door keys, keep them in your bedroom. If you are trapped by fire you can lob them out to us which makes getting in more controllable, quicker & less destructive.

Works great apart from he’s left the other keys in the lock. 😀

@aracer – love it – Fireman’s key

my dishwasher caught fire twenty years ago. front door had to be knocked in by fire brigade and whole flat redecorated.

does that mean I can leave as many dishwashers on at night as I want because the chances of having two go woof are so low?

igm – Member
Non-lottery player here
POSTED 2 HOURS AGO # REPORT-POST

you are in deep statistical trouble, mate.

We go hinge side everytime.

does that mean I can leave as many dishwashers on at night as I want because the chances of having two go woof are so low?

You know when you occasionally hear about people that have won the lottery twice?

If the worst should happen I can at least blame the wife. Only had the bloody thing about 6 years and so far I have found out how to unload it. Wait for ages and she’ll do it. Put the knives in the wrong way or something else terrible and you’ll never load it again. Still don’t know where I am supposed to squirt the Fairy

Still don’t know where I am supposed to squirt the Fairy

You’ve got bigger issues to worry about than the dishwasher then.

If the worst should happen I can at least blame the wife. Only had the bloody thing about 6 years and so far I have found out how to unload it.

Mind. Boggled.

Hora – don’t leave the keys in the door, it just makes it easy for anyone breaking in to unload in the middle of the night because they can open the door without breaking it (after coming in through a back window)

and all houses of multiple occupancy must have thumb turn locks on all internal lockable doors so no hunting for keys.

From experience ive had a tv catch fire, a tumble drier at my mums caught fire, a customers fridge burnt out the garage, and another custome was watchuing tv while in the bath with the tv safely placed on a small table in the doorway, but with 2 nightlights alight on the top they soon melted through the casing of the tv and set fire to the tv, destroying the bathroom.

as for a previous comment i only live down the road from the fire station, fire engines are not always on base, but out fighting fires, checking premesis, extracting smal children from railings or just driving round.

Risky. You’re a vast amount more likely to have two go woof than I am.

“You’ve got bigger issues to worry about than the dishwasher then.”

😀 😀 😀

bruneep- We go hinge side everytime.

Not suitable for fire service use. Gotta be a controlled method nowadays 😉

Not on my watch

I’m putting mine on now, and going for a beer at the pub #dangerwash

lol

Looking a bit deeper, is there any statistic for the % of these fires that happened in a household without RCD and MCB protection?

That is a very good point squrellking. Having seen the state of my wiring when i ripped it out for rewiring .

Im more worried about the wiring in old houses than i am appliances catching fire….

As its a Friday..lets have a Friday analogy..

Dishwasher users are like Council departments- meetings discussing what they are going to do and how they’ll go about it…whereas sink users are like go-getting private businesses.. just get it **** done.

Another thing- after loading it you’ve got to unload it, moan about the streaks and sometimes scrub the stubborn ones again in the sink with washing up liquid?

Yer anaolgy is as crap as your arguement im afraid.

Was it on here someone was talking about the solution to the unloading thing? Two dishwashers side by side. More plates and cutlery.

Load, wash, then use as supply for clean while you start loading the second.

Looking a bit deeper, is there any statistic for the % of these fires that happened in a household without RCD and MCB protection?

A good percentage of fires start at the consumer unit allegedly – from the end of this year the regs require new installs to be fully metal cases to CU

Was it on here someone was talking about the solution to the unloading thing? Two dishwashers side by side. More plates and cutlery.

Load, wash, then use as supply for clean while you start loading the second.

That was me, yes. Can’t wait to have a kitchen big enough…though given that it negates the need for a crockery cupboard…

I was quite interested to see that washing machines have more fires than tumble driers , because , you know, water?

I reckon theres more risk of me amputating a thumb in the cupboard door while hunting for the dishwasher switch than having a dishwasher fire.