Household appliance's case energized – faulty appliance or faulty socket wiring?
Moved to a new place and put up my tabletop dishwasher. While loading it up, I grazed the edge of its case. At first, I was wondering why this edge's paint coating would be frail and give me a scratch when I realized it isn't frail, it's energized!
So I grabbed the only tool I had, one of those voltage testing screwdrivers that light up when you put your finger on its back cap, to check for voltage against ground.
Apparently the dishwasher"s case does bear a current against ground. After some basic inspection, it turns out that not only the socket to which the dishwasher is connected has no grounding wire, the entire apartment has no PE wiring at all. (FWIW the landlord, who bought this place recently, is unhappy with given condition and announced to fix it. Located in the EU, 230 V, PE mandatory for new installations.)
In my previous place there was proper PE wiring. Now I can't tell for sure if there was the same issue in my old place, given proper grounding would have be the path of least resistance and not let me feel a jolt. Although ... I remember that for that one edge I was wondering before why it "scratched" me.
What do I make of this? Is the dishwasher faulty or do those zaps when I touch metal parts come from bad wiring? The current wiring was probably done by a layman. On a side not, the dishes come out squeaky clean. No arcing or buzzing observed.
Posted Aug 8, 2025, 9:12 PM UTC