Annz

Thanks for the info. I do unplug my machine but didn't know about the touching.

Dee

Thanks for all the good info. I didn't know all this at all.

seasaw2mch

ok this doesn't have anything to do with sewing machines but the thought that came to mine after reading this.
Several years ago I remember a man sitting at his kitchen table during a t-storm and lighting hit his house. The power surged through all his outlets and a bolt of electricity came through one of the unused outlets and burnt a hole in his back. With that in mind, I would think that this is what sort of danger that could happen with unplugging at the machine and leaving the cord on the machine. Electricity jumps from one source to another and can do damage.

Boscobd

Thanks for all the good info. I've begun to unplug my machine from the wall every evening now during the monsoon season in SE Arizona. We get some spectacular thunderstorms and I don't want to be at work during the day wondering if my machine at home has gotten fried!

kjym

This might be a little off the subject but we had a tree twig go across the high power line and hit the transformer can on the pole and it followed the cable line from the pole into the house. We woke up to a big flash,boom and the house full of smoke. the TV was fried the cable box melted the vcr fried,the stereo was fried and all the plugs on the front end of the house had black around the plugs on the walls and they were all fried.
So make sure that your cable line is grounded. When the cable guy put in cable line didn't ground it. and no one would cover the cost of replacements because it was a act of "GOD" .
So be careful in rain storms and lightning .
You have to many expensive " goodies" to replace.
kjym Kathy

MillieH

I think I know why you don't leave a plugged-in cord near the machine--and it's to do with lightening storms, not just power surges. Ever have a lightening strike travel down an electrical wire? I thought the grounding they do to house systems protected against that, but I had this happen in my kitchen once--blew out a plug-in outlet and sent sparks all over, and scorched the area around the plug. Scared me to death, of course, as I was standing nearby at the time.

MillieH

Oh--I should have read more pages of this thread. Looks like several of us know of or have experienced problems with lightening.

Lady Diana

We had lighting strike our home. It took our every appliance in the house and almost my husband. He was standing at the window when the lightning truck the electic pole outside, it traveled down the wire to the house. He said he made every hair stand up on his body as it whizzed into the house. Clothes Dryer, Dish Washer, Sewing Machine and refrigerator. The lightning exited through the copper water line on the back of the frig and welded it to the refrigerator leaving a hole...so we had water damage too, since we left for a trip....what a lesson learned. Buy the way, our contractor had NEVER grounded our house...of course he was long gone.
D in TX

westom

That has everything to do with protecting a sewing machine.

Protection is *always* about where energy dissipates. His back was burned because energy was permitting inside the building. Had it not harmed his back, energy would have harmed something else. Protection is always about energy not inside a building. Nothing inside a building will effectively protect from surges.

The guy's back was burned for the same reason anything else would be surge damaged. His house obviously did not have an earthed 'whole house' projector. He could have installed 1000 plug-in protectors - and still had a burned back.

Either energy is harmlessly earthed - ie one 'whole house' protector. Or his back, sewing machine, TV, furnace, GFCIs so essential to human safety, dishwasher, refrigerator, smoke detectors, etc have no effective protection.

The man was unplugged. So why was his back burned when unplugging does protection?

sandpat

OK...I'm sold and I was discussing it with my DH....he asked "isn't the whole house grounded when its built"??