Electric water heaters, as a common household appliance, sometimes experience leakage accidents. To understand the reasons, we can see that there are two main issues: some users have misconceptions about safety, and some manufacturers' promotional materials are misleading. To ensure the safety of using electric water heaters, it is essential to avoid these two misunderstandings. Misconception 1: The standard for a qualified electric water heater is to adopt the European IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) standard, which requires that the grounding wire in the user's home must be in good condition. However, due to historical reasons, many buildings in our country have poor or even non-existent grounding systems. For instance, incorrect wiring during decoration, aging wiring, unauthorized wiring, using poor-quality switches and sockets, using water pipes as grounding wires, etc., all these can cause the ground wire to become electrified, thereby triggering electric shock accidents. Under such usage conditions, even if a water heater that passes the IEC inspection is qualified, it still cannot guarantee the safety of bathing.
Misconception 2: Using an electric leakage protector can completely ensure bath safety. To explain this misconception, we need to first understand the working principle of the electric leakage protector: The live wire and neutral wire in the power line pass through the electric leakage protector and enter the water heater. During the operation of the water heater, if there is an electric leakage, the electric leakage protector will immediately cut off the power supply.
A certain component of the device experienced leakage, resulting in residual operating current. The leakage protection plug can cut off the power supply within 0.1 seconds, preventing the current from continuing to enter the water heater. However, the power line of the water heater also contains a ground wire. Theoretically, the ground wire is set to ensure electrical safety. But if there are situations such as unreliable grounding, reversing the live wire and ground wire during renovation, or aging of the lines, since the leakage protection plug cannot cut off the ground wire, at this time, the current may pass through the ground wire directly into the water heater, and the electric shock accident is still inevitable. Therefore, a good electrical environment and good grounding of the ground wire are the prerequisite guarantees for using an electric water heater. And if one wants to use the electric water heater scientifically, the following issues should also be taken into consideration:
When installing an electric water heater, it is not sufficient to rely solely on two expansion bolts to bear the weight of the water heater. A square steel pipe should also be installed beneath the water heater to ensure that it does not fall off the wall. Pay special attention to matching the leakage protection plug and socket, and ensure a tight connection between them. If the connection between the leakage protection plug and socket is loose, the plug will heat up, which may cause a circuit short circuit. Before use, it is necessary to fill the water tank completely and then turn on the power. The water in the tank should be replaced regularly, as over time, the water may deteriorate. Although the circuit components in the electric water heater are insulated, if they remain in a humid state for a long time, they are also prone to leakage and other faults.
Therefore, when the electric water heater is not in use, users should pay attention to ventilation and keep the water heater dry.