One of my many random shower-thoughts (bathtub?) …
We have all seen the tv-trope of somebody killing a person who is taking a bath, by throwing the hairdryer into the tub.
Which triggered the following Q of mine:
Many hairdryers have different settings quite often 3:
cold blow → say 20 watts
warm blow → say 1.020 watts
hot blow → say 2.020 watts
So my “Colombo Q”: does it matter in what setting the dryer is if you throw it into the bathwater? Would that potential victim laugh if the dryer is thrown in with the wrong setting?
It makes zero difference since the mains wires (120 or 240 depending on where you are) are in the tub as well. It’s no different than tossing a plugged in extension cord into the water.
If they’re doing it in a movie, it’s for dramatic effect.
One source noted 75 cases of bathtub electrocutions between 1979-82 in the U.S., many involving children.
Maybe it’s fewer now that GFCIs are in wide use.
There was a notorious Kentucky case in 1984 where a minister’s wife was killed by a hair dryer in the bathtub. The husband claimed the couple’s cat knocked the hair dryer into the tub. Before he could be arrested he fled and was on the lam for 10 years, then was brought back for trial and convicted of murder for deliberately throwing the hair dryer into the bathtub. The killer wound up with a life sentence (see linked article).
Many moons ago I had my own business. I had a team of admins, contracts folks, and graphic designers who did proposals for Government Contractors. We were a crack team who could come in to save a process that was failing. It’s the sort of job where you work 70 hours a week, then not at all for a while.
One night after two 80 hour weeks in a row I was groggily brushing my teeth before bed, and I accidentally dropped some toothpaste on my hairdryer. The only thought in my head was what a pain that would be to clean up in the morning, so I grabbed the hairdryer and stuck it under the running water. Then I was jolted to fully awake status, thankfully by the POP!! of the internal breaker going off, rather than by an electrical shock.
I could easily have died of exhaustion that night. But exactly the kind of redundant safety gadget that I had always laughed about - saved my butt. I’ll never laugh at safety warnings again.
In answer to the OP - the settings were all at the “off” position. They would have had to cycle through “cold” and “warm” to get to “high,” but none of that mattered because the water completed the circuit.
Whether or not there’s a GFCI on the circuit somewhere is irrelevant to the OP’s question as to if the amount of danger you’re in varies with the hair dryer’s setting.
While you’ll be in less danger if there’s a GFCI present, said danger won’t change if the dryer is on high, low or off.
Hopefully this will be considered a relevant side tangent question rather than a hijack, but it appears the OP’s question has been answered, so I’ll ask— I’ve wondered, how instantaneous are GFCI circuits? If you’re in the bathtub and someone throws in a hairdryer that’s plugged into a GFCI, do you still feel a brief jolt, or nothing at all?
On the order of milliseconds. I’ll have to check to see how much Electro-Boom flinches when he’s zapped by something protected by one.
Also, it should be noted that, if the drain plumbing in your house is PVC (and you’re in a non-conductive tub and otherwise insulated from ground), the GFCI won’t do anything. It needs a path to ground to work. The breaker will still blow, hopefully, but the GFCI won’t even notice it.