Essay Example on Electric Appliances: Fire Hazards & Recalls Explored

Electrical appliances have become an important component in day to day activities, and today's society has an undeniable reliance on them. However, some of these devices and machines pose a considerable amount of fire hazard due to failure, human error or misuse. Forensic scientists and fire investigators have been able to tie a lot of domestic fires to these electric appliances. To protect users from these hazards, government federal agencies and companies recall hazardous or defective products. On October 20, 2017, BSH Home appliances expanded the recall of dishwashers due to fire hazard (Broome, 2018). Around 663,000 dishwashers were recalled in the United States and Canada. The Consumer Product Safety Commission considered the power cords of specific models manufactured by BSH Home Appliances unsafe after there were extensive reports of overheating which resulted in fires that damaged property.

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The dishwasher has become a necessity in modern homesteads since it minimizes the extra effort taken for dishwashing. The dishwasher major parts include the inlet water valve, the control mechanism, and the pump. The control mechanism is located inside the door behind the control panel. It uses an electro-mechanical set up in which a timer determines the duration of each cycle and initiates the requires functions at the proper times, which are: draining, spray washing and the dispensing of detergent. Modern units have a computerized control system and a door latch which is closed for the system to run. There is an inlet water valve allows water into the dishwasher from the water supply.

The pump is mounted below the water basin, in the center of the dishwasher. It pressurizes water to flow in components such as the spray arm during the pump cycle, and the drain hose during the drain cycle. There are two types of the pump: a direct drive pump or a reversible pump. In the direct drive, the motor operates in one direction only and the pump is installed horizontally. It uses a solenoid to direct water flow from the drain to the spray arm. The solenoid initiates valve opening and closing and the shifting of hose connections. The reversible pump is installed vertically and the driving motors reverse the direction of rotation to switch between draining water and spraying water for cleaning.

The electric motor can be a direct current (DC) motor or an alternating current (AC) motor (Grabianowski, 2016). The power supply to the motor is usually a 60 Hz, 120 V grounded line and a 20-ampere circuit breaker in the cabinet for safety purposes. There is also the heating element for heating the water for washing the utensils. There is a door gasket which seals the interior of the dishwasher and prevents leakages.

In one operating cycle there are several steps that occur. Cold water is piped from the home water supply to the machine. The heating element at the bottom of the machine then heats the water to between 30 and 60 degrees Celsius (86-140 degrees Fahrenheit). The water is then mixed with detergent and the pump pumps the water to the jet pipes which spray the dishes to clean them. The water is filtered and taken through the same cycle. In the end, the water is drained and unused water is used to repeat the cycle and rinse the dishes.

There are various ways in which a dishwasher could cause a fire. The major cause is the moisture that contacts the conductors. Since the controller is at the top of the door, the moisture may reach it if the interior of the door leaks due to the plastic components in the dishwasher releasing detergent becoming brittle and cracking. This may cause a fire. The control bard may also overheat, melt and start a fire. The dishwasher also draws a huge amount of current especially during the heating of the water by the heating element. Due to the large current, the power cord overheats and may ignite causing a fire. This is what caused the overheating of the Bosch Dishwashers' power cords.

It is important for a fire investigator to report failure by electrical components. Reporting electrical failures may help a lot of individuals who have potentially faulty devices from fire and the resulting destruction of property or even loss of lives (Perrow, 2011). It also helps in the maintenance and repair of components and may help rectify mistakes by the manufacturers and hence, develop better appliances in the future (Kececioglu, 2002). Keeping up with the devices that have been recalled helps eliminate them the market as they are a fire hazard.

References

Grabianowski, E. (2016). How Dishwashers Work. Retrieved from How Stuff Works: http://home. howstuffworks. com/dishwasher. html.

Broome, K. (2018). Bosch Dishwasher Error Codes: E15, E22, E01, E09. Science Trends. doc: 10.31988/scitrends.14937 https://errorcodespro.com/bosch-dishwasher-error-codes-e15-e22-e01-e09/

Perrow, C. (2011). Normal accidents: Living with high risk technologies-Updated edition. Princeton university press. https://press.princeton.edu/titles/6596.html

Kececioglu, D. (2002). Reliability engineering handbook (Vol. 1). DEStech Publications, Inc. https://ndesoneandik.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/dimitri-kececioglu-reliability-engineering-handbook-vol-1.pdf