SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20171004-58A1C-2147397003. Severity: Injury, No First Aid or Medical Attention Received. Product: Whirlpool WFW9400SW02 (Whirlpool Washing Machine from around 2012.). Incident: Last week I was filling a bucket of water with the shower head and when I went to test the temperature of the water by dipping my finger in I got a mild electrical shock. Initially I thought maybe it was static so i touched it again and it was definitely AC electric (a feeling that I am relatively familiar with. Immediately I went and shut off the power to the house and then the water (since I didn't want to risk touching the tap again). Then using a non-contact voltage detector I checked for live current on the shower head. With power to the house off there was no live current. I flipped the breaker for the washing machine off and then turned on the master breaker again. Still no live current on the shower head, valve, or bucket of water. When I flipped the washing machine breaker back on there was initially no current. Then when I turned the washing machine on (using the soak cycle + a little bit of bleach and soap) both of my non-contact voltage detectors were triggered when checking the shower handle (a metal part). At this point I was fairly certain that the issue was related to the machine machine so I started to try different things. I used an alligator clip to connect the live (red) lead of my multimeter to the drain of the washer (before the airgap) and connected the neutral (black) lead to ground. When the cycle began there was initially no current for a few seconds then when a solenoid inside (I assume it was a solenoid, it wasn't the lock) clicked, the multimeter detected 100 VAC (likely not 120 because of resistance) on the drain. I have not yet tested for volt