Modern automatic washing machines belong to the class of household appliances with an increased level of energy consumption. The maximum power consumption occurs during water heating, and ranges from 2 to 3.5 kilowatts. Electrical wiring in many residential neighborhoods, especially early buildings, were not designed for this amount of energy consumption. Today, almost every apartment has a washing machine. Overloads of power grids, power surges and other network failures can lead to fire or damage to an expensive part of the washing machine. To protect household appliances, it is necessary to take responsibility for the correct installation and connection of the appliance. It is cheaper to install a special circuit breaker in advance than to repair or buy a new washing machine.
Does the washing machine need a separate RCD?
The machine is designed to protect the wiring and electrical filling of the household appliance. The automatic washing machine is a large consumer of electricity, which puts a high load on the wiring. In addition, this electrical device operates in a humid environment, therefore, it is at increased risk and requires additional protection. Therefore, experienced craftsmen recommend installing a separate RCD for the washing machine, it will not only preserve the operability of the device, but also protect people from electrical injuries, and property from fire. (See also: How to choose a stabilizer for a washing machine?)
How does an RCD work and what is a difavtomat?
Before you start using expensive household appliances, you need to decide which way to protect it will be the most effective.
A standard residual current device consists of:
- plastic case;
- current transformer;
- electromagnetic relay;
- current release;
- self-testing mechanism;
- new devices additionally have electromagnetic cutoffs.
Under the normal state of the network, the relay does not work, but if there is an increased load on the wiring, the installed machine forcibly de-energizes the circuit, breaking it.
Such a situation can arise when a voltage surge occurred in the network, a person touched a bare wire, water gets on the wiring. In the event that the circuit breaker is triggered, there is no need to replace it. Unlike fuses, this device is designed for multiple use.
Maximum protection of the washing machine will be provided by a modern device - a difavtomat, which combines a standard ouzo and an automatic machine.In addition to the fact that this device provides the entire range of necessary protections, it also saves space in the switchboard.
See also - How to choose a stabilizer for a washing machine?
How to choose an automatic washing machine?
As it turned out, a conventional RCD for a washing machine is not able to protect against all risks. It is better to install a difavtomat - a device that can handle this task. What protection device should be installed and how to choose it correctly? After all, this is a fairly new device on the electrical appliance market. In order to correctly select and deliver a suitable difavtomat, you need to know and take into account several mandatory characteristics:
- Power. As with the purchase of any protection device, the difavtomat is selected in accordance with the power of the network (single-phase and three-phase);
- Rated voltage. A characteristic showing the operating voltage range of the network. In a single-phase network, it is 220 V, in a three-phase network - 380 V;
- The rating of the machine and the features of the releases. For household electrical networks, experts recommend choosing an automatic machine with a characteristic denoting the Latin letter "C". As for the digital designation, for the outlet network, as a rule, they choose a C16 difavtomat, less often C25;
- Features of the built-in RCD. The most effective difavtomat with a built-in RCD for a washing machine is considered class A. Simplified, class AC, for such a consumer is not always suitable.
- Additional protection. If the difavtomat is not equipped with special protection against a break in the neutral conductor, then if one of the conductors fails, the RCD often does not respond to current leakage.
- Rated current. Experienced experts advise setting the protection to 0.03 Amperes. Of course, a device designed for 0.01 Amperes is more reliable, but its price category is also higher. For domestic networks, in fact, such protection is not required.
Why does the RCD work when the washing machine is turned on?
There are situations when, when the washing machine is turned on, protection is triggered, which leads to the shutdown of all electrical appliances in the house. There may be several reasons for this: (See also: What to do if the machine knocks out when you turn on the washing machine)
- When turned on, a voltage jump or current leak really occurred in the wiring;
- Incorrect installation of the protective device;
- A difavtomat not suitable for the parameters of the electrical network has been installed, therefore, when turned on, a false operation of the protection occurs;
- The network wire of the washing machine is shorted;
- The control unit, heating element or the engine of the washing machine is out of order;
- Failure of the protective device itself.
A competent choice and correct installation of an RCD or a difavtomat for a washing machine will help keep the washing machine working, protect it from voltage surges and current leakage, but also protect the house from fires, and family members from electric shock. It is better to take care of the protection in advance than to eliminate the consequences of power failures later.
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