Electric shock!

[oggy777]

If i touch my sink with one hand and the metal of my dishwasher or washing machine with the other i get an electric shock (nothing leathal but you notice it). Touch the sink, washing machine or the dishwasher on its own no shock. I might add this only happens if the electrical appliances are plugged in. WHY?

[mattie]

This shouldn't be happening, get an electrician to check whether your sink has been bonded, and don't wait, there have been cases (not many) of fatal electric shock in these circumstances.

[thundercrack]

bonded or not, you should not feel anything. don't chance it, very important that you get it checked. a member of parliments daughter was fatally electrocuted when she was unloading her dishwasher and touched a metal rack screwed to the wall ( a screw had penetrated a live wire, but caused no problem at the time). she had felt tingles before and never got it checked out. poor girl died, so get it sorted.

[Disco Fever]

Good answer thundercrack, i'm a sparky and I was reading the said article in a wholesaler a couple of months ago and it's all true.

Oggy777 you have something wrong with either the cable of the plugtop on the dishwasher or washing machine or if I think what it is then the socket outlets that run the power for your appliances are NOT EARTHED hence your getting a tingle or shock as the fault cannot run down the earth and is using the path between you and the earthed metal sink top. Unplug both items and get an approved electrician to check your wiring, NOW....

[oggy777]

I will get a sparks to look at it. Thanks. But from your comments, your telling me both appliances have the same fault? Seems unlikely. Both appliances plug into the same double socket, which seems wired up correctly. Dont think the sink is bonded could this be the problem?

[Mortartube]

It sounds like an earthing problem which requires immediate attention.

There may be a faulty appliance leaking current to the earth bonding on your copper plumbing pipes somewhere in the house, not necessarily in the same room. When you touch the sink, which may be live and an earthed appliance electricity flows through you and through the case of the appliance to earth.

I assume that this is a prolonged tingle rather than a static type shock which goes as soon as you've been shocked.

Anyway I would suggest making this apriority to get sorted.

[Disco Fever]

You are getting a slight tingle from your appliances because they are plugged into the same socket and that socket IS NOT EARTHED, if your sink was properly bonded or not you would still get a tingle, your wiring might look alright but if the cable from that socket to the next has come out from the next socket then the earth path will be you as you touch the appliances and the sink top, unplug them and get the wiring checked ASAP....

[Silvercat]

We bought an old cottage that still had the old electrics in, complete with fuse boxes with fuse wire etc. We intended to redo the electrics but never got around to it until I started to get shocks off the bathroom and kitchen taps after we had been there 4 years.

Wierd thing was my husband never had a shock at all.....so took me weeks to convince him there was a problem. I particularly was scared of getting in the electric shower as I had a bad tingle or two if I touched the metal shower head pipe. anyway, we took out a loan and got a good electrician in.
By this time it was so bad, I would only touch the cooker with oven gloves on, just in case.

Our fuse box was so old and decrepit the electrician took photographs of it to show his mates in the trade, he said our system was not earthed properly hence the shocks I was getting. It was the worst fuse box he had ever seen.


Its all sorted out now, and money well spent. You can't put a price on your safety so get the problem sorted asap.

[BillyNoMates]

When you say that the double socket is wired correctly is it ? Have you checked/had it checked ?

You can get this problem if there is crossed polarity between live and neutral on the socket wiring.

[beso]

Many modern electrical appliances leak a small current to their chassis through radio intreference suppression capacitors. This current normall flows to ground via the earth system of the power circuits in your house.

The sink will be grounded via the copper pipes probably to the hot water system ground.

It sounds to me like the power points used for the appliances are not grounded and the RFI capacitor leakage is going through your body. If the insulation in the appliances fails you could receive a potentially fatal shock.

Don't plug the appliances in again until you have this looked at by a professional.