Thoughts?

[flyingsparks]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/17/man-died-charging-iphone-bath/

 

[bernardgreen]

First thought is to ask what exactly fell into the bath ? Was it just the phone or the charger or the 13 amp socket on the extension lead ?

It is unlikely the report in the newspaper is accurate

If the charger unit did not have a earth pin then the isolated 5 volt DC supply it produced would be somewhere between Neutral and Live potential relative to Earth ( capacitive coupled potential across the isolation barrier inside the charger unit ). That said the amount of stray capacitive coupling across the isolation barrier inside a properly designed charger should be small enough to limit the current from 5 volt to bath water to a non fatal current.

Some non approved chargers may not produce an isolated 5 volts and one side of the 5 volt output could be connected directly to one side of the mains

 

[DaveHerns]

Would many people be this stupid?

 

[securespark]

"We found an iPhone plugged into the extension cable and then the charger element in the bath," he explained.

What does this mean?

 

[bernardgreen]

What does this mean?

Probably means an in-line charger such as one of these

http://www.dhgate.com/online-shopping/phone-line-power-adapter-online.html for the USA but no doubt similar types exist with UK plugs ( or adaptors )

in which case it would be mains into the water and with no Earth to the charger an RCD would not trip unless 30 mA could flow to Ground via the bath and the person in the bath.

 

[Taylortwocities]

Would many people be this stupid?

 

[bernardgreen]

http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/mythbusters/videos/appliances-in-the-bath-minimyth/ ( not sure the results are not affected by dramatic effect and biased to dissuade people from bathing with electrics. )

http://library.ul.com/wp-content/up.../10314-CounterfeitiPhone-WP-HighRes_FINAL.pdf

 

[ericmark]

"We found an iPhone plugged into the extension cable and then the charger element in the bath," he explained.

That is also some thing I would like explained, what actually fell into the bath?

Mr Bull is believed to have plugged his charger into an extension cord from the hallway and rested it on his chest while using the phone, the Sun reports.

was what it said on the BBC web site but it says "Sun Reports" and this report from the Guardian seems to say the phone and charger lead only were in the water.

It seem odd that they would want to contact Iphone if the extension lead was on his chest, it would not be just the Iphone in water but whole extension lead and it is only to be expected if that falls in the bath you should expect death. So it seems more likely it is actually just the charging lead, however how one would get extensive burns I really don't know.

Forgive me if I don't test it out, but I would have expected the RCD would have tripped before extensive burns, it may have killed him, but one would not expect extensive burns. Most switch mode power supplies actually have inside then a small transformer although high frequency which would stop a RCD from working, but one would expect the output to be such a low voltage as to cause no harm.

So I am trying to work out how you could get enough power to cause extensive burns, now LED lamps often use capacitors to drop the voltage, if that method is used the phone once wet could draw excessive current and damage the capacitor which could become short circuit, once this has happened then you could get low voltage across the water, due to soaps the water would be more conductive so could cause burns. However this would mean no RCD protection.

I remember looking at an IPhone charger and thinking to myself I am sure the area covered by the plug is not enough, I though the charger was too small to comply, however compared with Nokia where the pins hinge it was better, but I do wonder what is inside them. Since I have USB outlets on the 13A sockets I have no need for plug in chargers, but one assumes the USB is isolated that is what the markings say, but I have never tested.

So big question for us electricians with Class III items should we actually test isolation and how can we test without damaging the power supply/charger. I had arguments about desk top computers, where they were built up in small workshops but the sticker normally supplied with the power supply was no fixed the the desk top case, you can't actually read if the supply is isolating and also even when you can read a label how do you know that label refers to power supply now inside the case, without removing panels? I have just picked up a USB/Phone battery charger and although it says with double square it is Class II but nothing to say it isolates.

 

[flameport]

The likely situation was the charger and extension lead in the bath, no RCD on the circuit and the phone was unrelated.

Would many people be this stupid?

Only until they are eliminated by their own stupidity.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Would many people be this stupid?

Would many people be so sad as to not be able to do without their phone for the duration of a bath?

Or.....

"... thought her husband had been attacked because his burns were so severe ..."​

Maybe he was attacked.

By her when she came in and saw what he was looking at on his phone and disbelieved his claim that he was washing himself.

 

[boringoldcodger]

Anyone going to nominate this for a Darwin Award ?

http://www.darwinawards.com/rules/

 

[John D v2.0]

To be honest the bath might have been entirely coincidental, just because they found it in the bath doesn't mean dropping it killed him., if they found him on the sofa with the same burns would they be telling people not to charge their phones on the sofa?
Maybe it was a fake charger and went faulty while he was using it, giving him a shock, and then he dropped it after he was already dead?

 

[Echo the husky]

If only he had plugged the extension lead in via an isolation transformer.

Thoughts?

I didn't think much of it. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.

 

[endecotp]

To be honest the bath might have been entirely coincidental, just because they found it in the bath doesn't mean dropping it killed him., if they found him on the sofa with the same burns would they be telling people not to charge their phones on the sofa?
Maybe it was a fake charger and went faulty while he was using it, giving him a shock, and then he dropped it after he was already dead?

I can't work out if this post is meant seriously or not.

 

[John D v2.0]

It is, there are loads of report online of people being electrocuted by chargers with insufficient isolation where mains voltage appears on the 5v output.
I just don't see how people are jumping to the conclusion that the bath had anything to do with it, especially when reports are so unclear about what fell in the bath.