• upstream@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Not really.

        While, obviously there’s a chance that the power washer draws too much energy and could start a fire, the most likely scenario is that it draws too much starting power for a “quick” fuse and the fuse trips when you start it but sustained load is fine.

        A simple replacement of the fuse in question would have alleviated the problem.

        Forcing it to stay on is all kinds of wrong, but the power washer is unlikely to burn the house down.

        Any other electrical fault on the other hand, could easily do it.

        Electricity is the one place where Dunning-Kruger hits hard, the other is plumbing.

        My sister and BIL bought an apartment some years back. The first thing I see when I enter the kitchen is code violation.

        There’s a plug in a socket in the middle of the wall with a wire going behind the kitchen cabinets.

        We took the fridge out and found it went into an extension cord and then there was a plug going to a … fuck it … here’s the picture:

        But wait! It gets worse:

        (Look at the top)

        My BIL decided to go full Dunning-Kruger and did nothing with the death trap until an electrical inspection six years later.

    • zurohki@aussie.zone
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      1 year ago

      IIRC holding breakers doesn’t even prevent them from tripping, they still trip internally if the switch can’t move.

      • vithigar@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        If you physically hold the breaker switch, sure. If you just short them with copper wire not so much.

        • zurohki@aussie.zone
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          1 year ago

          Parent said the breakers were 'forced open with copper wire", which sounds like wire was wrapped around the switch to hold it in position. If you’re bridging the terminals with wire, sure. That takes the breaker out of the circuit entirely.