SaferProducts incident

Failure type

Electrical shock / short

Incident narrative

SaferProducts.gov consumer incident report 20230817-1057F-2147345768. Severity: Injury, Level of care not known. Product: Shellback 1/8HP Laundry Tray effluent pump 3-12-19 (Shellback laundry tub pump). Incident: I received an electrical shock while attempting to service a Shellback laundry tub pump, Model 3-12-19. The Shellback pump is installed under a laundry tub, in situations where the drain pipe is above the tub, and washing machine water needs to be pumped up to the drain. The pump is installed directly under the laundry tub. This particular pump was installed in a rental home according to the manufacturers installation instructions, for its intended use as a laundry tub pump. The plumbing was originally installed by a licensed plumbing company, with permits and city inspections. The pump started to exhibit erratic behavior after approximately 14 months in service. On July 24, 2023 I noticed the pump wasn�t working properly. I contacted the company and talked to one of their technicians, [REDACTED]. [REDACTED] instructed me to try and tune the pump by turning an adjustment nut. When I touched the nut with a crescent wrench, I received a shock. [REDACTED] instructed me to bring the pump to their company, about an hour away. On July 27, I took the pump to the company. Their technician disassembled it on the spot, and diagnosed that the micro switch inside the pressure diaphragm housing was wet, and that was the cause of the shock. They were willing to fix the unit at a cost. I refused. They returned the pump but kept the failed switch. As an electrical engineer with 30 yrs experience in automotive electronics and packaging, I was able to determine that the root cause of the shock was a lack of case grounding of the assembly which housed the micro switch. Water intrusion into th