No! I will not Sign off on it.

[CHJ]

 

[duke]

Wow, never seen at combo like that before

 

[Cabinetman]

What country was that from Chas? Reminds me of 1950’s American stuff. They are pretty lax when mixing water and elec, this was an hotel recently.

 

[CHJ]

USA YT vid clip, so guess the USA Ian.

 

[Steve Maskery]

We have a power socket in our bathroom. A friend of ours had a leccy inspection and was marked down for NOT having a power socket in the bathroom, "in case someone wanted to dry their hair". Absolutely bonkers.
S

 

[RogerS]

Nowt wrong with that. Just be careful where Willy is . He's a bit of a sensitive soul l

 

[SamQ aka Ah! Q!]

Nowt wrong with that. Just be careful where Willy is . He's a bit of a sensitive soul l

And you know this how? Exactly what incident lead up.to you espousing this knowledge? Hmmm?

 

[Guineafowl21]

I’ve never quite understood our aversion to bathroom sockets. Arguments against them could be applied equally to kitchen or outside ones, or negated because they are allowed 3m from bath/shower edge anyway. If they’re safe (even required) in France, then why not here? Do the French have a higher impedance?

Similarly, there’s an awful habit up here of putting the bathroom/loo light switch outside the room, or using one of those filthy pull-cords. It’s taking the water/leccy fear to extremes, as there’s nothing in the regs to say you can’t have a normal switch in the normal place.

 

[spb]

I’ve never quite understood our aversion to bathroom sockets. Arguments against them could be applied equally to kitchen or outside ones

The argument against them goes: if you are sitting or standing in a pool of water, like a bath or a shower, and also in that water is either a metal drain pipe or a tap fitting with a metal supply pipe, then there's a low resistance path to ground passing through you. It's the immersion of the human in water that's important; the reason it doesn't apply to kitchens is that most people don't spend significant amounts of time sitting in the kitchen sink.

The bigger counterargument is that most drain pipes are plastic these days, but they who write the electrical regulations don't want to make people inspect the whole house's plumbing to determine whether the sockets are compliant.

 

[Guineafowl21]

The argument against them goes: if you are sitting or standing in a pool of water, like a bath or a shower, and also in that water is either a metal drain pipe or a tap fitting with a metal supply pipe, then there's a low resistance path to ground passing through you. It's the immersion of the human in water that's important; the reason it doesn't apply to kitchens is that most people don't spend significant amounts of time sitting in the kitchen sink.

The bigger counterargument is that most drain pipes are plastic these days, but they who write the electrical regulations don't want to make people inspect the whole house's plumbing to determine whether the sockets are compliant.

That is a fair point. But compulsory RCD protection goes a long way to mitigate that. What you could do is insist that, if there is a bathroom socket, that the taps/drain be non-earthed, simply confirmed with a wander lead during a normal EICR. Even with a socket 3m away, this could be defeated with a simple extension lead. And what of the French?!

It’s interesting, how you can construct shock scenarios that essentially ban bathroom sockets, but not kitchen ones, probably because we really need kitchen sockets, so turn a blind eye. For example, in my kitchen, installed 2021 with leccy certs, I can hold the earthed metal sink and simultaneously touch a nearby socket (or, even more easily, handle something plugged in to it). This hand-to-hand shock is arguably worse than hand-to-foot in a bath.

 

[Windows]

Tried to wash our cat in the kitchen sink once. She grabbed the cord of the toaster and tried to pull the whole thing in with her. If we’d had the toaster in the bathroom that could never have happened.

 

[Guineafowl21]

Tried to wash our cat

As a vet in a previous life, I can tell you your problem started just here^ our cat is self-cleaning, thankfully.

Toasters and most light fittings are a curious example, I think, of grandfather rights. If I showed you a new device, where you could hold the earthed casing and simply poke at live wires/contacts, you’d send me packing. I think we’re just used to them being that way. They’re considered safe by familiarity.

 

[Windows]

As a vet in a previous life, I can tell you your problem started just here^ our cat is self-cleaning, thankfully.

Our cat took the same view as you, but to be fair, it was the first time in 17 years that we’d ever felt the need to wash her. Greasy.

 

[Cabinetman]

I’m amazed you aren’t shredded trying to wash a cat! If it had been scrubbed every week from birth you might have got away with it, perhaps a dry/powder shampoo next time?

 

[mwinfrance]

We have a power socket in our bathroom. A friend of ours had a leccy inspection and was marked down for NOT having a power socket in the bathroom, "in case someone wanted to dry their hair". Absolutely bonkers.

Welcome to the french way of life..or death

In our bathroom here , originally there was a shaver socket ( on a 13 amp line ) with a light switch above it, both less than 10 cm from the hand basin at the same height as the taps. Reachable from the shower just by pulling the curtain back and reaching out your wet arm too.

I've seen places here with no RCD , or fuses ..just connector blocks wired directly after the meter, one to "live" one to "neutral"..nothing at all in the house earthed, and no earth wires in sight. The sort of houses that unsuspecting Brits and others buy to do up and retire in.

 

[mwinfrance]

One would think that considering the way one of the most famous "sons of France" Claude François , "CloClo" died , that the french would be more careful with the leccy here.. Eh ben non!

 

[Lons]

I’m amazed you aren’t shredded trying to wash a cat! If it had been scrubbed every week from birth you might have got away with it, perhaps a dry/powder shampoo next time?

That's almost the case with our Labrador if we try to wash her. She happily jumps into every filthy pond or puddle and rolls over in anything disgusting but clean water is a no no.

 

[mwinfrance]

It's a lab, golden retrievers are even worse, roll in their own corpse if they could they would DAMHIK..