beware of fridges!

[Ivan]

A few days ago I pulled the fridge plug out of the wall socket when it was running. Accidentally, I touched the pins of the plug, and got a pretty severe electric shock. I guess the compressor was still freewheeling, and therefore generating electricity which I then shorted out. It makes you wonder why these aren't subject to some kind of G83 disconnect.

[clockmanFR]

Welcome to the shocked plug club.

Yes, we all do it, once.  It seems an awful lot of electrical appliances used to discharge their capacitors this way, although they were supposed to decay on there own.

Now, I am allways telling my family and the children "don't touch the plug you might get a belt from the capacitors".

 

[SteveH]

 Yep... Was the Moulenex liquidiser/grinder that used to get me... All for the price of a cheap reverse wired Diode or two
...

[clivejo]

Please add washing machines to the BEWARE list. 

I got a wack from one just the other day when I swapped the plug for an electric hedge clipper!  I normally always only hold a plug via its insulation, dont know why I grabbed the pins this time, but it sure did teach me!

[Ivan]

Ah, capacitors - that makes a bit more sense. I would never have thought of the potential. It does really beg the question how everyday appliances get away with it. If you happened to grab the live pin with one hand and the neutral with the other AND had a dodgy heart, I imagine it could be life-threatening, and yet no doubt all of these appliances have CE certificates.