STAIRLIFTS - Curved Straight ... these ones in Stoke on Trent are indestuctible!

Stoke on Trent and Newcastle under Lyme's only STAIRLIFT show house at Wolstanton village, was the scene of a major drama yesterday. It went up in flames! The little house next to Castle Comfort's main showroom has for years been a private home of Stairlifts expert and owner of the CCC Group - Keith Simpson. Clients wanting to do a 'try before they buy' always find a ride on a real stairlift much better then DVDs or brochure to help make an important decision.

A fire that started in the kitchen washing machine gutted the house within minutes. Only due to Castle Comfort staff discovering the disaster early and the response within minutes of Stafford shire fire services, the house and possibly adjoining ones in the street were not completely destroyed.

Remarkably, despite the total internal damage - the working display Acorn/Brooks stairlift and a reconditioned Stannah curved lift, remained in full working use - and after a wipe down this popular Midlands chair lift company is still operating as normal.

We'll present shortly, a few alarming facts about the fire risk involved with washing machines and other appliances in the home upon which we all depend. But first - the two hours spent by twenty emergency services staff yesterday, was concluded by the hilarious tale of the first firefighter who charged into the house with his mask, headgear and hosepipe look for the source of ignition. He announced, after the drama subsided, to the roars of laughter of all present, that he could see little through the thick black smoke engulfing the lounge, other than the stairs situated just inside the front door as he entered. So ran up them. However, he quickly realised after taking about eight steps he would have gone nowhere, other than to the ceiling of the lounge ... he was going up the steps built for curved stair lift model!! So he came back down and went into the kitchen to put the fire out.

Now to less amusing facts. Is it safe to leave the washing machine on while out or in bed?
Many washing machines now come with delayed start features. This shows the manufacturers are happy for the washing machine to be used totally unattended. However, cases of washing machines (and other white goods such as dishwashers and tumble dryers) catching fire still occur. Government fire safety advice is to not to leave white goods unattended - CHECK YOUR HOME: Before Bed Routine (Government fire safety site)
Always at least have a smoke alarm fitted near to the washing machine (or other white goods appliance) if it is left on and unattended. However, this could be impractical if they are in a kitchen due to the nuisance alarms from cooking
The Trading Standards site has an excellent list of safety related product recalls which covers virtually all appliances in the home. It's well worth book-marking and checking regularly as it covers all safety issues on all consumer goods - even food mixers.






Some old washing machines (at least over 10 years) have no protection against overheating. If the timer or thermostat fails, it can boil the water inside. Your clothes could be reduced to pulp and the wallpaper in the kitchen could peel off. The other main risk is flooding. Most washing machines have a third level on the pressure switch (the pressure switch controls the water levels in the machine) This third level switch is supposed to protect against overfilling by energizing the water pump if the water level rises dangerously above normal. This will work fine if the cause of an overfilling machine is a fill valve that has failed to turn off. However, the majority of overfilling machines are caused by a blockage in the pressure system. This safety feature will not work if a blockage stops air entering the pressure tubing. This amounts to having no real overfilling protection at all. Finally flooding could occur through a leak.
Many people like to set their washing machine to come on during the night to use off-peak electricity through economy 7 ( further comment and information on my blog - Economy 7 and white goods ) If you are prepared to risk doing this then make sure you set it to come on as late as possible so that you will be up not long after the machine has finished. UPDATE: Most modern washing machines are now controlled totally electronically by software built into the main PCB. Such a machine will typically have selector buttons and LCD or LED displays. Some of them may still have control knob selectors, but unlike the old ones, when you turn them they don't click round (no cogs inside) and don't have the same resistance to turn that they used to. Instead they electronically send instructions to the main PCB power module. These washing machines have much better safety protection and will normally abort if they detect over heating for example. The computer style programs they use will time out (causing an abort of the programme and an error code to display or be indicated by flashing lights) if it takes too long to fill, empty or heat the water. They can even abort the programme if the load is unbalanced.
These washing machines are much safer than the old ones, but clearly none are infallible and electrical short circuits or overheating connections could still cause a fire! Fire risks in appliances (Whitegoodshelp Blog article)


To conclude - the frightening thing about this event is that the washing machine in the stair lift was not switched on when it caught fire. It was plugged in to a live 13 amp socket - but not in use. So who knows what can happen? For instance, a young man named Lupton - our contact at a Stairlifts company in Yorkshire - was recently woken up by a smoke alarm at home when his
heated and illuminated fish tank ignited !!








Back to the stairlift house.That machine in the house was bought second hand 8 years ago so it was at least 10 years old. However, the mystery with this one is the bloody thing had never been used in eight years and wasn't even switched on when it ignited !!??

The insurance loss adjuster who came from Stafford to Castle Comfort Stairlifts to see the damage was asked if he personally always unplugs washing machines and other devices when not in use and he replied 'without fail'. He has seen too many cases like ours.

To repeat - that machine had never been used and as you can see here - it never will be.





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