So, someone installed a new washing machine in my apartment, but I noticed that the power prong and cable had been soaking in water. I dried off the prong, but is the plasticized cable still “compromised?” It looks like the waterproof type but I am still concerned.
Also, if such a water-soaked thing is plugged into the wall socket and power turned on for the washer, does it risk damaging the wall’s internal electric wiring as well, or is it only the prong+cable+washer that is at risk?
I would certainly thoroughly dry the cord out right away, to mitigate corrosion … the cord may have been manufactured to be water-proof, but time and dings may have opened up the insulation …
If this helps, I’ve worked many many days in the pouring rain using power tools and extension cords without any problems … plug her in and see if the breaker trips …
Thanks…the cord unfortunately has these narrow rivets/ruts that allow water to stay stuck in them without drying, but maybe airing it out will do.
If it’s a plastic covered cord, like any new appliance would have, and unless there are cuts through the insulation, it should be fine. If it were my washer, I’d dry the plug off and plug it right in.
It shouldn’t be able to damage the wall’s internal wiring, in any case. There’s a circuit breaker further upstream that should trip and kill the power before that could happen.
Ok thanks.
Also, one of the prongs has had its shiny silver-steel coating grazed away a bit, exposing darker metal underneath. Is that important for anti-corrosion? Have any effect.on conduction?
That’s not fatal. It happens all the time to plugs, to no ill effect. But…
The nickel coating prevents corrosion. Corrosion causes bad contacts. Bad contacts cause heating. Heating causes failure of the socket.
If it were me, I’d use it anyway. Sometimes sockets overheat, fail, and you have to replace them. And it’s not like it’s connected to a heater… It’s not connected to a heater, right? If the washer does have a water heater, how much current does it draw? If it’s drawing 10A, and it’s getting hot, and it’s in a damp place, then –
No, not connected to a heater.
If you are really concerned, switching out a washing machine power cord is a breeze.
But I have had extension cords go through what you described with no issue.
What happens if you plug in a wet power prong? (Real question.)
Usually? Nothing. If there’s actually enough water that it can close a circuit, you might trip a breaker, but you’d have to get kinda unlucky for such a small amount of water to end up in exactly the right place.
You’re never going to be able to trip a breaker with a wet plug.
Tripping a breaker requires pulling more that 15A for several seconds. Even very dirty water will have too much resistance to pull that much current over the small surface area that the prongs of a plug create.
In general, you can assure water dryness by dipping the thing in pure alcohol then letting the alcohol evaporate. The alcohol displaces the water. However, I would be concerned about corrosion, especially if your water is hard or the thing had been in salt water, and just replace the cord. A new cord will cost you a few bucks; a house fire may cost you your life.
Never say never when electricity is involved, especially if you’ve never seen what it can do in an industrial setting. I’ve seen wet plugs flash across and singe hands or flare up, releasing quite a bit of smoke. Heavier duty receptacles require shut offs before disconnecting or connecting plugs. Currently I work in a food processing plant and it is a daily occurrence where a plug melts down after sanitation with nothing but really high pressure water contaminating the plug.
In the OPs case, I’d shake out and dry it as best I could, let it sit over night, turn off the breaker if accessible then plug it in. If the breaker cannot be shut-off, wear a sturdy pair of leather gloves. Anything but nylon / polyester. Even wrapping hand in a small towel to protect from flashover is acceptable. Energy has to dissipate in the plug to trip whatever breaker you are planning on protecting you. A GFCI breaker would do that too.
I’m sure all those things are true.
But, did they trip a breaker?
In similar environments to what poppasan mentioned I’ve seen breakers trip for cord caps smoked due to water intrusion. Given the condition I usually found them in I’d say the water itself didn’t lower the resistance enough to trip the breakers/fuse, but enough to sit there and cook. The water significantly contributed to rapid component failure resulting in a trip, idk if that counts or not.
OK, it’s had 36 hours to dry. Now try it.
And at the other end of the spectrum, every winter I have furlongs of extension cords laying in snow to power my xmas lights.
Thanks to all on the above mini-topic. But so now I am reminded that as long as you are not one of the components in the circuit, where failure is a likely outcome, the eventual corrosion of the prong (the oxidation) has a known time to circuit failure for the resistance/conductivity of the metal? There must be tables for that, right?
And about that “cooked” you mention. As opposed to my line of thought above, is melting of the material what really is the key to the failure?
ETA:
And my apologies if the answer is staring at me in the face from your exact words cited…
I’m not really sure tbh. I suspect the water, combined with cleaning agents(or not) make for a path of high enough resistance that it won’t be enough to trip the breaker, but would be enough to generate enough heat to further corrode the steel, brass copper and plastics that these components are made from eventually causing a low resistance path via carbon tracking and arc over that the breaker trips.
Also, that is all speculation on my part. While I know that resistance and conductivity tables do exist, I would imagine that there are way to many variables to calculate any particular time to failure due to moisture intrusion or corrosion. All I know for sure is the things cook till a breaker trips or a fuse blows, and quite a bit of moisture is present on many occasions.