After roughly 2 years my Montero is no longer. RIP Big Car, you have lasted the 2nd longest of all my vehicles.
I read that story on Fark.
I’m pretty sure she died because she bought a dubious Chinese bootleg USB charger on Amazon. That is my best guess.
It might not have been the charger’s fault if the whole thing fell in the tub. Most of those multi-port types take a direct 120 VAC cable, and there’s no reasonable expectation of water proofing. If just the phone fell in the tub though, then yeah a half-decent charger should have handled a short no problem, and half volts shouldn’t cause a problem unless you jam the electrodes under your skin.
True. but usually people have the direct plug types that are physically in the wall socket itself, and a long USB cable. The other kind isn’t as common for muggles.
Also, considering she had a burn mark on her hand, I think I’m right.
Granted, it could have been a situation where voltage hit the water, and the current returned through her, her hand, and then neutral on the phone end itself. But that seems moderately unlikely.
Also assuming the house didn’t have GFCI…
Yes. I don’t think the power in the battery of one phone alone is enough to kill a person. Though, I wouldn’t recommend submerging a non-waterproof phone in a tub with yourself. To kill this person, it was almost definitely plugged into the wall. They could have been saved by either using a legit charger, and not some cheapo one, or GFCI.
AFAIK GFCI is required in all bathroom, kitchen, and outdoor power outlets. If this is not the case in your living place, it is relatively easy to add. I recommend doing so ASAP. A very low cost and easy way to greatly reduce risk of accidental death.
GFCI within x feet of a sink or bathtub has been code for decades.
Some people live in places that are older than decades.
I read through the article a couple more times, and I think I was mistaken that anything fell in the tub. It sounds like the phone was just within reach. So what probably happened is she was in the tub (making her skin very conductive), she reached for her phone, got water on the cable shorting the power out, the shitty charger started pushing 120 VAC at the output, and this flowed through her hand to the water to the drain. If that’s what happened then yeah either a better charger (handling a 5V short isn’t that big a deal) or a GFCI should have prevented it.
In the UK, outlets are banned in bathrooms full stop as far as I can tell. Every hotel I stay in, there are no outlets in the bathrooms.
Sadly, FWIW, charging a phone IN the bathroom is a super dumb thing to do. Didn’t she ever watch an old PSA cartoon?
Of course but I’ve never been anywhere that GFCI wasn’t installed at least in the bathrooms. Even the house from the 1920s I lived in when I was a kid had been updated. My point was more that it’s surprising that no updates had been made if the house is that old.
It’s real easy to have a faulty GFCI too. When was the last time you tested yours?
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The other day actually! But the point is well taken I’m sure the majority of people have never tested them.
The only sockets I’ve ever seen in a bathroom in this country are specific “Shavers Only” sockets. They’re two pin European style sockets with pretty limited output and either have fuses or GFCI devices. Even then they’re not what I’d call common.
That’s pretty much all I use the plug in my bathroom for is charging my electric razor which I don’t use plugged in anyway. My wife doesn’t use a hair drier because she quite rightly describes them as a toaster with a fan attached.
I should test my house’s GFCIs…
[quote=“Ikatono, post:236, topic:210, full:true”]
I read through the article a couple more times, and I think I was mistaken that anything fell in the tub. It sounds like the phone was just within reach. So what probably happened is she was in the tub (making her skin very conductive), she reached for her phone, got water on the cable shorting the power out, the shitty charger started pushing 120 VAC at the output, and this flowed through her hand to the water to the drain. If that’s what happened then yeah either a better charger (handling a 5V short isn’t that big a deal) or a GFCI should have prevented it.
[/quote]But, that shouldn’t happen regardless. There should have been at least three points of saftey - The charger should have blown, the extension cord should have blown, and even if both of those didn’t go, the RCD on that house circuit should have tripped. She would have gotten a boot, but she shouldn’t have had any current flowing within a fraction of a second - even shitty old houses with old wiring will often have RCDs retrofitted, they’re required by law in a lot of places.
The charger or an RCD/GF©I should have stopped it, but I wouldn’t expect the cable to. For current, lightning cables need to support iPads at 2.1 A, which is an order of magnitude more than enough to kill someone. Even with excess current it’ll take some time to severely overheat enough to break it. As for voltage, US outlets peak at 170 V instantaneous, which is easy enough to insulate against (especially considering the voltage is spread across two layers of insulation: the one on the power wire and the one on ground).
[quote=“Ikatono, post:246, topic:210”]
The charger or an RCD/GF©I should have stopped it, but I wouldn’t expect the cable to.
[/quote]Do you not have extension boards with safety switches, or are y’all still using the real old style boards without them?