Why the car is electrocuted: how to fix this breakdown on your own

Author: Horned Corpse Eaters

18 November 2020 18:41

Tags: auto current eliminate

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Many car drivers and passengers have encountered a strange and seemingly dangerous situation - they are electrocuted when they get out of the car. How does this happen? After the trip, they open the door or, accidentally touching the body, feel an unpleasant sensation. The body seems to be shaken, a burning sensation appears, and chills pass through the body. Fortunately, the consequences of electrical exposure are not always tragic, but this does not make them any less unpleasant. Surely many have noticed that the car gives an electric shock exactly when you get out of it. This most often happens if the passenger or driver is wearing items made from synthetic fabric, or they are wearing new clothes. If you receive an unexpected electrical shock, the shock may be sufficient to cause you to drop the object in your hand. In addition, the consequences are aggravated if the victim has a low pain threshold or increased sensitivity to electric current.

Car and static electricity

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Everyone knows the effect that can be observed when combing hair using a plastic comb; the hair then seems to “stand on end.” Or there is a slight cracking sound when removing synthetic clothing. And if you do this in complete darkness, you can even see small sparks-discharges. People inside the car can also suffer from the same effect. Why does the car give an electric shock? There are many reasons for this. Let's try to identify the most common ones: 1) In this situation, sometimes the indirect fault lies with the person himself. This is explained by the fact that while the car is moving, clothing (especially synthetic) rubs against the seat upholstery. In this case, the person himself accumulates static electricity. This often happens when synthetic fibers or natural wool were used to make clothing. Without even knowing it, when he gets out of the car, he touches the body or door, as a result of which a discharge occurs. Therefore, the answer to the question of why you get an electric shock when getting out of the car becomes obvious. Static electricity accumulated on clothing is to blame. 2) The vehicle itself accumulates a static charge. This can manifest itself in different ways. The car body receives an electric current because during the trip it comes into contact with the air, moving in space. Charge accumulates on it. Accumulation occurs throughout the entire movement. Dry weather also contributes to an increase in charge. It is clear that a person sitting inside a car also has electrical potential. The question is what exactly the charge means. If its charge is the same as that of the vehicle, no one will feel the electric shock. If it is plus/minus, a discharge will occur upon contact. 3) There is another reason why a car door gets electric. This is a technical fault. Its electrical wiring may be damaged due to certain circumstances. This can happen under the influence of abrasion or friction, or detachment from the fixing devices - and then they begin to rub against the body. At this point the wire insulation is destroyed. The exposed area is in contact with the metal of the body. The so-called "test to ground". The car begins to resemble a capacitor with a fairly strong capacitance. And when a passenger or driver gets out and touches the handle or door, they receive an electric shock.

Grounding a household appliance

In fact, 90% of existing buildings lack such an important element.
In new buildings they try to take this problem into account, although not everywhere. On the other hand, even if there is grounding, you cannot be completely sure that it is functioning properly. To find out whether this protective mechanism is in the house, you need to contact the housing office or other authority responsible for the site. The presence of grounding will also be indicated by a special wire located in the panel. If it is detected, it is enough to lay a new three-wire cable to the outlets where protection is required.

Grounding the washing machine

In addition, there are situations when equipment produces electric shock even if there is “earth” at home. This is due to the fact that it is necessary to periodically check the integrity of the wire, and if damage is detected on it, immediately replace it with a new one.

Application of RCD

If there is no grounding in the building, and it is not possible to carry it out at the present time, there is another protection option - installing a residual current device, or RCD. This device automatically stops the power supply if a leak is detected.

The use of RCD has a number of features:

does not protect against electric shocks at all; it is activated after a small charge has already appeared on the surface of the case. That is, if you have such a component at home, you will not be able to completely protect yourself from light tingling, but you will be able to prevent the serious and dangerous consequences of a leak;
If the building has old wiring, the device may have to operate too often. This is not very convenient, since each time the electricity will be turned off and will have to be turned on again;
installed near the input machine, and the operating current of the device should be higher than that of the machine. This is necessary so that in the event of a short circuit the machine will operate and protect the RCD from combustion;
Usually a device with a cut-off current value of 10 or 30 mA is selected. In this case, the lower the value, the less impact you will have to receive before the switch trips.

Recommendation! To minimize the inconvenience when using an RCD, you can go the other way - buy an outlet with built-in protection and use it only in a certain place.

Harm and danger of the situation

Although at first glance it seems that a static discharge will not cause much harm, you should take a closer look at this problem. When the car body is shocked, a small discharge occurs. A clear example, however, of a different nature, is the piezo lighter. But if for some reason there are vapors of a flammable substance, such as gasoline, inside the car? This micro-lightning can ignite them, and the consequences of this can be very serious. Therefore, the question of what to do when the machine is electrocuted should be decided immediately. There is one more extremely important circumstance. While driving, the car driver constantly performs a number of functions. He controls the car, turns on/off various devices - direction indicators, windshield wiper blades, toggle switches for side lights, low beam, high beam. The driver constantly changes gears when the car has a manual gearbox. And if during this action a shock of static electricity occurs, it may suddenly lose control, which is fraught with dangerous consequences.

Surge protector and power cord

In order to less often look for answers to why the washing machine is electrocuted, it is necessary to follow the electrical safety rules even at the stages of installing the equipment. They consist in the banal grounding of the case with the third wire from the socket. If anyone doesn’t know, it is connected to the grounding bus and is designed to drain electricity from the case if it gets on it. Of course, if there is a grounding, you will not be able to determine that there is a leak, but it will still save and prevent discomfort and harm in the form of burns and other tissue defects.

Network filter

The main device that causes the washing machine to shock is the surge protector. This is a small plastic barrel with two pairs of contacts in the form of petals for chips. It is usually located with the petals facing upward, since the power cable comes to it from above. The problem is that there is a very small distance between the contacts, in which dirt accumulates. When it gets wet due to moisture evaporation, a short circuit or breakdown occurs in the housing.

Connecting a surge protector

The walls of the machine are made of thin sheet steel and protected by only one or two layers of nitro enamel, so under certain conditions it will not be difficult for electricity to penetrate the body. The solution to the problem is to clean the contacts and the entire area from condensation. To do this you need to do the following:

Unscrew the back wall of the washing machine to gain access to all mechanisms. It is secured with 6-7 screws, usually a Phillips screwdriver. Some of them will be covered in rust, so first apply a rust remover. For example, WD-40 is an effective liquid for this case.
The filter is located on the left side closer to the lid. The place seems to be secluded, but condensation still accumulates there and becomes a serious problem.
For better access, you can remove the top cover. It is secured with 2-3 screws at the front and 2-3 at the back.
Any work should be started with the power turned off, so first remove the plug from the outlet. And carefully remove the chip with contacts.
There you will probably notice oxide, which should be removed, and it is recommended to wash the contacts themselves with a special product, for example, Presto.
Be sure to make sure that the contacts and the filter itself are dry and free of traces of moisture.

Surge filter in analysis

The peculiarity of this defect is that the body stops beating when the washing machine dries out from moisture, why? Please take this into account and ventilate the room regularly. Moisture will be intensively removed from the housing of the equipment and the room, eliminating the possibility of damage to the boards themselves and breakdown on the housing. Then neither the washing machine nor the water will shock.

How to cope with the “illness”

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Let's figure out how to get rid of the cause of the current: The best thing to do in such a situation is to visit a service station. This is especially necessary when static discharges are felt very strongly. In the workshop, the car will undergo diagnostics, during which it will be determined whether its electrical equipment is in order. Detected faults will be corrected. Application of antistatic strips. You may have seen heavy fuel tankers on the road. What immediately catches your eye is the steel chain attached to the body, in contact with the asphalt. This is how grounding works with heavyweight fuel trucks. You can do something similar, only more elegant. It is not necessary to hang a chain, but anyone can install special antistatic agents. You should start upholstering the interior of the car, be it a model of the domestic auto industry or a foreign car. The most economical solution is to purchase covers. However, you should inquire in advance about their antistatic properties. And, of course, you should pay attention to the wardrobe. If possible, it is recommended to exclude from it things in which you most often feel a shock of static electricity. It is recommended to use special aerosols to humidify the air in the cabin. Firstly, the action of this substance removes the static charge inside the car, or can completely negate the effect of “static”. Secondly, more humid air has a beneficial effect on the well-being of passengers and the driver of the car. If all previous actions have not led to an improvement in the situation: the electrical circuits of the vehicle are in order, the style of clothing has been completely replaced, strips for neutralizing charge electricity and an aerosol are present, but from time to time a small click when interacting with the car makes you remember the laws of physics, there is one more thing means. The reminder of this direction of science is not accidental. You can learn how to exit the cabin correctly in accordance with the rules of physics. First, after opening the door, you need to touch the iron part of the car, and then stand on the ground.

Possible causes of current leakage to the housing

A washing machine is a household appliance that uses electricity as the main driving force. It is used to power the logic board, indicate modes, rotate the drum and heat water, that is, there are plenty of places for its leakage. Let's look at the most likely possibilities:

surge protector or power cord;
control board;
logic board and panel;
heating element;
engine.

Electricity is a dangerous neighbor. It can cause serious physical and mental harm. That is why, if you begin to feel that when you touch the body or drum there is an electric shock, move away from the device.

The car body is electrocuted - how to fix it?

In order to get rid of static shock, you need to know where it can appear. The first most common source of static current may be the car body. Static electricity can occur while the vehicle is moving. The body is subject to friction from the oncoming air flow, and therefore becomes electrified. However, static charge accumulation can also occur when the vehicle is parked in windy conditions.

The ideal condition for the occurrence of static is windy, dry and hot weather. A charge equal to approximately a thousand volts accumulates on the body. In the cabin, the magnetic field voltage will be 0 volts, so everyone inside the car will not face such a shock. If the duration of exposure to wind is long enough, then such a discharge is quite enough to cause a noticeable spark to jump between a person’s hand and the metal body of a car at a distance of about 2-3 centimeters. That is why such an electric shock can be felt already at the moment when the hand has not yet fully approached the car body. This often happens when the driver gets out of the car and immediately closes the door. After the discharge, the potentials between the person’s hand and the body are equalized and when the person touches again, the impact no longer occurs.

So, the most economical option is a special tactic that involves another way out of the car. Many people install side window deflectors on the door frame. When leaving the vehicle, you can touch and push the plastic deflector to close the door. In this case, the plastic does not allow electrical current to pass through and acts as an insulator that protects you from electric shock. Another option involves touching the body with the car key, thus the current goes into the key and is neutralized, making the body safe. As for passengers, they can touch the body with the other part of the palm, since it has the highest resistance to electric current.

But if you do not have the appropriate pads, you can use special antistatic strips that are attached to the bottom of the car. In their manufacture, special conductive materials are used: graphite or aluminum powder. These elements are used as grounding conductors, which simply discharge the electrified body and conduct static current into the ground.

Many drivers, in terms of economy, use a regular rubber strip from a car inner tube. In fact, such a homemade ground electrode will have no effect, but you can try to stretch a wire through an elastic band and secure it to a metal body.

Causes of electric shocks

The reason for the accumulation of electrostatic voltage charge, even on the surface of the human body, even on the body of a car, is the friction of dielectric (non-conducting) materials against each other. So, during a trip, the driver makes numerous movements (turning the steering wheel, changing gears, and so on). To one degree or another, this is accompanied by friction of his body against the upholstery. As a result, a charge accumulates on the surface of the clothing (that is, the person himself “turns” into a capacitor). When you get out of the car and touch (or rather, when approaching) your hand to the metal part of the door, an electric discharge occurs.

What can be done to prevent the machine from electrocuting?

As you already understand, diff protection only turns off the voltage during leaks; the cause of this leak is not eliminated. Therefore, you can take all possible measures to prevent the causes.

Install current leakage protection, RCD or differential circuit breaker. This does not guarantee the absence of electric shocks, but it can protect against serious consequences.

Disconnect the middle terminal of the input capacitors from the chassis if possible. Since the case is not grounded, capacitors are essentially useless and even harmful.

Dry the insides of the machine with a hairdryer, if possible, check the integrity of the corrugated pipes - perhaps they cause excessive moisture.

Security measures

To reduce the risk of electric shock, you must adhere to the following safety precautions:

Touch the body and internal parts of the unit only with dry hands.
Place laundry in the machine and remove it after washing, having previously unplugged the equipment.
After work, leave the car door open, or even better, wipe off any remaining moisture. Thus, it is possible to prevent the appearance of corrosion, oxidation of contacts and damage to the integrity of the insulation, increasing the service life of the wiring.

We suggest you read What to do if the washing machine does not want to drain water

You cannot delay identifying the cause of the malfunction. If it is not possible to determine the breakdown for a long time, you need to contact specialists without waiting until the equipment completely fails.

Each washing machine instruction manual contains information regarding what to do to ensure its safe use. Some important rules are to wipe the machine dry after each use and leave the door open to dry the internal parts.

Device owners do not always perform these simple steps. As a result, moisture gradually destroys the electrical system of the machine and damages the insulation of the wiring. Caring for your household appliance every time after washing will not only allow it to serve for a long time, but will also prevent current leakage to the drum.

In order to protect yourself as much as possible from unnecessary exposure to electric current when operating the device, you must perform the following actions with the household electrical network:

Install a device that performs the function of protective shutdown with a load current rating ranging from 10 to 30 mA. It will react to even the smallest current leakage by turning off the power supply to the panel.
Create a system that balances the potentials of all household appliances in the apartment.
Check the integrity of the grounding. In some cases, the drum of the machine receives current even when the ground is connected. The problem may be a damaged ground wire. You should find the location of the break, check the conductor and make repairs.

If you want to fix the problem yourself, you need to know not only how to fix the breakdown, but also understand what methods should not be used to eliminate it.

If a malfunction is detected, you should not perform the following actions:

If there is no grounding, insert the plug into the socket, turning the plug over, or lay a rubber mat on the floor. This method will not completely solve the problem, but will only prevent isolated shocks of electricity. As a result, electric shock cannot be ruled out;
turn off the power filter of the washing machine. Its purpose is to direct the charge of electricity in the right direction. Stopping the filter does not protect against electric shock when touching the drum of the device;
connect the ground wire from the washing machine to the elements of the heating system. This method is extremely dangerous and leads to severe injury due to electric shock;
remove a separate PE cable from the electrical panel. It should be remembered that you cannot install a separate grounding conductor, and also use household appliances using a socket without grounding. In this case, the optimal solution to the problem would be to remove a wire consisting of three cores from the distribution panel and connect an outlet that meets all safety standards.

When installing an automatic washing machine, do not forget about grounding. When it is connected, even in the event of a breakdown, electric shock will not occur. We should also not forget about preventive inspections; if suspicious malfunctions appear, it is better to seek help from a specialist.

Small children should not be allowed near the operating device. It must be remembered that such a household appliance as a washing machine carries a certain amount of danger.

Why does the drum get electrocuted?

The metal drum of the washing machine is not insulated in any way and if there is a breakdown, it can conduct current perfectly. The slight “tingling” on the hand that the owner feels when unloading laundry indicates faulty internal wiring. If the drum of the washing machine is electrocuted, there is a high probability that it is in contact with a cable that has insulation problems. You need to disassemble the machine, find the damage and replace the defective wire with a new one.

Another reason for electric shock is when the machine is washing while in the bathroom.

If you feel the effect of current through the water or faucet (when water from the tap begins to emit current), then the problem may be a violation of the integrity of the insulating coating of the wires in the unit itself.

This is especially dangerous if this has not happened before - this is a very dangerous indicator. A short circuit from the inside of the devices will lead to expensive repairs to the washing structure, which you cannot do yourself.

What to do in this case? Turn off the power to the washing device and call a technician immediately. Don't try to fix everything yourself!

A huge number of sites and forums where there is an active discussion of how to repair equipment yourself can recommend you a lot of things. But remember that it is much easier to give advice thoughtlessly, but the authors of the advice will not bear responsibility for any accident.

The best solution would be to contact a service center or repair shop for washing devices. Moreover, these should be highly qualified specialists, not just radio installers. This is all complicated, because our “smart” household appliances are so complex that not everyone can understand them.

And it is not necessary that high-quality consultation and reliable repairs will be expensive to build. Don’t forget that “the miser pays twice,” so it’s better to trust everything to the professionals!

If the washing machine drum is electrocuted, it is likely:

The electrical wiring in the washing machine is faulty. You need to disassemble it and check the integrity of all wires inside the case. Insulate, solder, replace damaged wires;

breakdown can be caused by faulty heating elements or motor. They urgently need to be repaired or replaced.

Causes of electric shocks

In the input circuits of the machine there is one double or two single capacitors - their purpose is to prevent interference from the engine and electronics from entering the network wiring. Similar filters are available in almost any technology.

The capacitors are connected according to a midpoint circuit - one from phase to body, the other from zero to body. Anyone who is at least a little familiar with electronics knows: if voltage is applied to two identical resistances connected in series, then at the midpoint a voltage of half the applied voltage will arise. And the two capacitors are resistances for alternating current (reactance). In other words, half of the supply voltage appears on the case - 110 V.

However, the internal resistance of such a midpoint is quite high (I call this “low load capacity”, in amateurish terms), a large current cannot arise from such a connection. In principle, a competent electrician understands all these things; I wrote this for complete “dummies” in electricity. Therefore, a person may not feel this tension on the body.

But in a humid room, any slight current is felt more strongly. And a lot can depend on surrounding factors - small currents can flow through a wet floor and then there will be no unpleasant “tingling” sensations. This effect does not always happen - apparently, the capacitance of the midpoint capacitors is strongly influenced here; in many devices it is purely symbolic and this does not cause problems.

Several facts can be stated unequivocally: 1. With proper grounding, nothing like this can happen in principle, but it doesn’t exist. 2. The current through the middle point is less than 10mA, otherwise it would be impossible to connect the machine through an RCD. 3. It is impossible to remove the middle point of 2 capacitors from a machine under warranty.

In another case, problems arise due to “fatigue” of the equipment - when it has worked enough and is a little worn out. Excess moisture occurs inside the housing: flexible pipes wear out or, even worse, the tank leaks. If puddles do not form under the machine during washing, this is not yet an indicator of tightness. The pipes, for example, may splash only slightly at the highest speeds - no external leaks are observed.

Paired with worn wiring, humidity provokes various current leaks. By the way, often due to a leaky pipe, the electronics begin to malfunction - the equipment does not complete the entire cycle of the washing program or washes for an inappropriately long time. Apparently, the “brains” themselves are unlikely to be wet, but the sensors may well have wet contact with the body, thereby sending false signals to the control processor.

In general, no matter how you twist it or how much you argue, the problem requires an adequate solution - installation of grounding and current leakage protection (RCD). But if there were grounding, no questions would arise: the capacitors in the power supply would not cause any shocks, and a fault inside the machine would simply prevent the RCD from turning on normally. And if the RCD was constantly tripping, the device would be taken to a service center or they would try to fix it themselves.