Dishwasher Grounding

To protect your health and property, you should ground the dishwasher before its first use. Such a step will prevent current leakage to the housing and minimize the risk of electric shock. It is only necessary to determine the presence of "earth" in the wiring, check its performance and connect the machine through the ground wire. To do this, you can turn to the services of professional electricians or perform all electrical work on your own. If you decide to act without the help of specialists, then our instructions will help.

Is there a "land"?

Immediately, we note that in the absence of self-confidence and proper knowledge and experience, it is not worth approaching the electrical panel. Nobody cancels safety precautions, and amateur activity and craving for experiments can turn into serious problems. If in doubt, contact the service department.

Now we check whether there is grounding in the house or apartment. Connecting to already established protection is much easier than laying a new line. It is not difficult for experienced electricians to notice the presence of a third wire, it is enough:

• open the dashboard;
• turn off the electricity to the apartment;
• remove the protective cover on the outlet allocated for the dishwasher;
• evaluate the wires failed. If there is no grounding, then only two wires, blue and brown, will be connected to the screw terminals. Earth is marked in yellow-green and connected to a bolt located between the two main phases. So, this outlet is not provided for this at all.

Worse, when there is a jumper between the "zero" and the empty "ground" - this is the grounding, which is fraught with many dangers for the residents of the house.

If in the outlet all the wires are the same color and even letter markings are missing, then you can not do without outside help. You will have to call an electrician, who with special equipment and tools re-marks all the conductors.

Does the "earth" work?

Suppose all three wires are provided, including grounding. Then you need to check whether the "ground" in a specific outlet works fully. You can do this yourself with the help of a multimeter, a "warning lamp" or an indicator screwdriver. In the first case, we act like this.

1. Turn on the power supply through the shield.
2. We put the tester into voltage measurement mode.
3. We insert one probe of the multimeter into the proposed phase, and the second into zero. Record the result.
4. We rearrange the second probe from zero to ground and conduct a similar measurement.

If the last measurement shows a figure that is almost identical to the first, then the grounding in the apartment is present and fully operational. A blank display indicates the opposite - the ground wire is either missing or damaged.

In the absence of a multimeter at hand, you can “ring” the grounding with the help of the so-called pilot lamp. It is assembled from improvised materials: the usual “Ilyich’s bulb” is taken, and two wires with end-responsive currents are connected to its cartridge. It is not worth focusing only on the color of insulation - it is highly likely that the electrician neglected the marking or mixed up the shades. Then we act like this:

• we touch one end of the phase, and the second we direct to zero;
• remember how much the lamp burns;
• move the tip from zero to ground.

Compare the received light from the lamp with the first case. If it also lights up - the grounding works in the normal mode, if there is no ignition or it is many times weaker - there are problems with the grounding wire.

If an RCD trips during this test, then everything is okay with grounding.

Similarly with the lamp, the “earth” is also checked through the indicator screwdriver. Do not forget about indirect evidence that the house is "junking" or there is no grounding.For example, a water heater or a washing machine will periodically be shocked, and when listening to music in speakers, extraneous noise will occur.

Grounding cars in an apartment building

Often, grounding in old-style apartment buildings, called "Khrushchev", is not provided. But put up with the lack of full protection is not worth it - you can ground the dishwasher in a ready-made outlet. The main thing is to adhere to the following actions.

1. Find a suitable wire. A copper three-wire conductor of sufficient length and a cross section of at least 3 * 1.5 square meters is suitable. mm or aluminum section with an area of ​​one core more than 3 * 4.5 square meters. mm
2. Route the new wiring to the apartment-wide electrical panel.
3. Fix the wire on the corresponding walls in the house along the entire length.
4. Strip the ends of each core by 2-3 cm.
5. Using bolts and screws, connect the conductor to the frame of the electrical panel. More precisely, to grounding - the place where most of the wires are connected.
6. Move the dishwasher and find a place on the rear panel to connect the ground.

To properly connect the "earth" to the typewriter, you must find a special sign on its body. We are talking about a black and yellow triangle or circle with the image of three horizontal stripes below and one vertical perpendicular to them. It is next to it that it is allowed to cling to the second end of the ground wire.

Ground the machine in a private house

Grounding a dishwasher with your own hands in a private house is a little more difficult. The difficulty is that there is no common house grounding, so it is necessary to make a grounding circuit and correctly bury it in the ground. But this can also be done if you adhere to the following instructions:

1. At least 1 meter back from the outer wall of the house and determine the place for the future contour.
2. With a shovel we dig a ditch 0.5-1 m deep. In the form of a triangle with equal sides of 2 m.
3. At each vertex of the resulting triangle we insert a metal pin - an earthing switch. Any metal length of at least 3 m is suitable.
4. We put on protective seals and glasses and with the help of a welding machine we connect all the “peaks” with a metal strip.
5. We fix the terminal on one of the vertices and hook on a copper wire with a cross section of 3 * 1.5 sq. mm or aluminum 3 * 4.5 sq. mm
6. We stretch the wire to the common house shield.
7. We dig the structure with earth and trample it.

You can place parts of the contour with a rectangle or one line - their location does not play a special role.

Next, we act similarly with apartment grounding. We take another piece of suitable wiring and connect the grounded shield and the dishwasher to each other. We also focus on the special sign located on the back cover of the machine.

Some useful tips

In addition to the basic instructions, it is better to know a few more secrets and rules for organizing the grounding and operation of the dishwasher itself. If you keep them in mind, then the machine will last a long and trouble-free. So, you should remember:

• Do not use an extension cord for a dishwasher.
• Do not connect copper and aluminum together.
• Do not cut the grounding pin out of the three-wire cable.
• The machine is connected only to a suitable power source.
• If the cord plug from the dishwasher does not fit the grooves of the outlet, then the latter must be replaced with a new one.
• The use of intermediate conductors and all kinds of "tees", adapters is prohibited.
• Once every six months, it is necessary to tighten the terminal on the ground in the shield, and once a year - directly on the circuit.

The dishwasher is powered by the mains and interacts with water, so each owner of the machine needs to be grounded. Do it yourself or turn to professionals - everyone decides for himself, but definitely not worth neglecting safety and protection against current. The main thing is not to leave this business unfinished.