[govigov]

Originally Posted by govigov

All,

Any recommendations for a wet and dry vac, general-purpose, like a shop-vac? I just want to mop up spills and clean around the house. Preferably, should not have subscription-like renewables like bags and filters (or can run fine without them)

Originally Posted by drsingh

Go to your nearest tool market and get the polycarbonate models that car wash people use. Rugged and does the job in harsh conditions.

Thanks drsingh. That is precisely what I did and some of the vac-cleans were good, though pricey. Some were pricier than karcher. I had an eye of a karcher wd3 for quite some time. Ended up buying the WD-3 steel bucket.

[condor]

Guys, need suggestions for a compact RO filter. The space that is provided in our kitchen is small :( .. so the smaller the better.

[Sebring]

Whats the WD3 steel bucket? We have a WD3 in the house, by the way.
Condor, for water purifiers - look up the Mi range, best part is (besides being connected) you can replace the filters yourself

Originally Posted by govigov

Thanks drsingh. That is precisely what I did and some of the vac-cleans were good, though pricey. Some were pricier than karcher. I had an eye of a karcher wd3 for quite some time. Ended up buying the WD-3 steel bucket.

[carboy]

I have an IFB Dryer. Since the location I have placed is about a feet too far from the plug point, I have to use an extender. The plug point on the wall has a switch on which 16A is written. The extender is a heavy duty 16A extender. Every few months, the extender fuse burns off - burns off as in I can actually see black smoke & the fuse cover gets burnt. Since that part itself is burnt, it's not repairable & I have to buy a new extender which costs 500-600 Rs. In about 4 years, 3 extenders have been burnt. The first extender lasted for around 2+ years. The second one for a couple of months & the 3rd one for around 6-8 months. The dryer manual technical specs say the heater rating is 1.8 kw and that the energy consumption is 1 kwh to 4.8 kwh. It says I should use a properly earthed socket of 15 Amp with a 12 Amp fuse.

So what exactly is happening here & what can I do about it?

[KPR]

Originally Posted by BaCkSeAtDrIVeR

What exactly were the problems with the refrigerator?

Last year we did gas filling. Two days back there was less cooling effect. Doors got opened during night as the sides got hot. All the milk packets got spoiled over night.

Originally Posted by condor

The problem was - we had packed the keep-fresh section to such an extent that the cool air duct from the freezer had got blocked with ice. Once the defrosting was done, we ensured lesser items in that part, all was back to normal.

I did the same that came to my mind. Defrosted and removed packed shelves. I've now created more open space. Now it's running fine.

But my home minister has already decided for on upgrade . This single door one will be utilized as secondary and the new Bosch one will become primary refrigerator. We have selected 340L Bosch vario-inverter model. A bit more research we are planning to do at local appliances store to have a feel of various brands. However, the purchase will be made online for the extra 3-4k saving that I get.

[nirmaljusdoit]

Originally Posted by KPR

But my home minister has already decided for on upgrade . This single door one will be utilized as secondary and the new Bosch one will become primary refrigerator. We have selected 340L Bosch vario-inverter model. A bit more research we are planning to do at local appliances store to have a feel of various brands. However, the purchase will be made online for the extra 3-4k saving that I get.

Bosch is a problematic refrigerator and service is absolutely terrible. They tried multiple times to diagnose the problem with our brand new refrigerator and finally agreed to refund the amount. The refund cheque took 3 months to arrive.

We bought a Samsung and its working like a charm.

[drsingh]

Originally Posted by carboy

I have an IFB Dryer. Since the location I have placed is about a feet too far from the plug point, I have to use an extender. The plug point on the wall has a switch on which 16A is written. The extender is a heavy duty 16A extender. Every few months, the extender fuse burns off - burns off as in I can actually see black smoke & the fuse cover gets burnt. Since that part itself is burnt, it's not repairable & I have to buy a new extender which costs 500-600 Rs. In about 4 years, 3 extenders have been burnt. The first extender lasted for around 2+ years. The second one for a couple of months & the 3rd one for around 6-8 months. The dryer manual technical specs say the heater rating is 1.8 kw and that the energy consumption is 1 kwh to 4.8 kwh. It says I should use a properly earthed socket of 15 Amp with a 12 Amp fuse.

So what exactly is happening here & what can I do about it?

The extender is not handling the current flow being demanded by the dryer. Get an electrician to install a separate AC box type isolator with 16 amp MCB .It is available as an integrated unit. And buy required length of 'Submersible' 3 core cable of 2.5 sq mm area conductor size. A high quality 16 amp plug to plug it in your existing 16 amp socket. Use proper copper terminals and don't leave any loose wire connection in the circuit.

MCB is available in 10 amp and 16 amp in the market.Ask around in your market for a 12 amp MCB.

Fuse quality is variable, MCB is the way to go.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by drsingh

The extender is not handling the current flow being demanded by the dryer.

What does that mean? How is current flow measured (what units, I mean)?

A 16 A extender would atleast have a 16A fuse, right? So if that is getting burnt, then wouldn't a 12 Amp MCB trip all the time?


Not questioning your statements, but just trying to understand the problem. I have very little knowledge of electrical stuff.

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by carboy

The dryer manual technical specs say the heater rating is 1.8 kw and that the energy consumption is 1 kwh to 4.8 kwh. It says I should use a properly earthed socket of 15 Amp with a 12 Amp fuse.

Originally Posted by drsingh

The extender is not handling the current flow being demanded by the dryer....MCB is available in 10 amp and 16 amp in the market.Ask around in your market for a 12 amp MCB.

Originally Posted by carboy

What does that mean? How is current flow measured (what units, I mean)?

A 16 A extender would atleast have a 16A fuse, right? So if that is getting burnt, then wouldn't a 12 Amp MCB trip all the time?


Not questioning your statements, but just trying to understand the problem. I have very little knowledge of electrical stuff.

16A wall socket means that it is the "rating" of that socket. It does not mean that the socket would automatically provide 16A at all time irrespective of the appliance connected to it. The current drawn by an appliance is load dependent. A simple calculation, the dryer has a 1.8KW rating which means that at standard 230V , it consumes 1800/230 = approx 7.8A. Fuse rating is usually fixed at 15-25% higher than the normal rating. I.e for this dryer if the normal duty current is 7.8 A, min fuse rating should be 7.8 x 1.15 = approx 9A. So the logic of providing a 12A fuse is quite ok.

Now i am assuming that the power factor is 1 which is ideal case however in normal circumstances, the power factor would be between 0.8 - 0.9 which would increase the load and hence fuse rating.

One thing to understand is that Fuse provide protection only against shorts, the same is also true of MCB. In this case if the contineous load current is considerably high then there may be other causes for the problem. I would also check if there is any current through the neutral which would suggest a connected load imbalance.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by srini1785

One thing to understand is that Fuse provide protection only against shorts, the same is also true of MCB. In this case if the contineous load current is considerably high then there may be other causes for the problem. I would also check if there is any current through the neutral which would suggest a connected load imbalance.

So what should I do now?

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by carboy

I have an IFB Dryer. Since the location I have placed is about a feet too far from the plug point, I have to use an extender. The plug point on the wall has a switch on which 16A is written. The extender is a heavy duty 16A extender. Every few months, the extender fuse burns off - burns off as in I can actually see black smoke & the fuse cover gets burnt. Since that part itself is burnt, it's not repairable & I have to buy a new extender which costs 500-600 Rs. In about 4 years, 3 extenders have been burnt. The first extender lasted for around 2+ years. The second one for a couple of months & the 3rd one for around 6-8 months. The dryer manual technical specs say the heater rating is 1.8 kw and that the energy consumption is 1 kwh to 4.8 kwh. It says I should use a properly earthed socket of 15 Amp with a 12 Amp fuse.

So what exactly is happening here & what can I do about it?

What I understand is that
1) you have a 16A socket (which is presumably coming in via a circuit breaker - since each power socket usually has a separate MCB).
2) you are plugging in an extension cord that snakes across to your equipment, the extension board/cord itself comes with a 16A fuse
3) the equipment is supposed to be consuming less than 16A but still you end up with blown fuse every now and then


My questions to you:
1) has the MCB for 16A socket ever tripped?
2) have you tried moving the dryer close to the socket and plug directly, and observed if the MCB trips?

My hunch is that your equipment needs to be checked internally.

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by carboy

So what should I do now?

I suggest that you get an electrician to check the unit. What i explained was only the theory. The actual problem should be checked at site only. One factor to be checked is the current through the neutral which would mean load imbalance. In that case you need to re arrange your appliances in your home so that load is more or less balanced. Good luck.

[carboy]

Originally Posted by alpha1

What I understand is that
1) you have a 16A socket (which is presumably coming in via a circuit breaker - since each power socket usually has a separate MCB).

No idea if it's coming through a circuit breaker. How do I figure it out?

Originally Posted by alpha1

My questions to you:
1) has the MCB for 16A socket ever tripped?

I can see only one MCB in the house. Which is in the home MCB board. It has not tripped anytime recently. Around 3 years back, I had to replace it because it stopped working. Likewise, in the building's central power board, my home's breaker had to be replaced around a year back, but it went bad.

Originally Posted by alpha1

2) have you tried moving the dryer close to the socket and plug directly, and observed if the MCB trips?

I used to run it connected directly 3-4 years back & now also have done it a few times (in the times when the extender burns & I have not yet bought a new one). There is a safety reset in the dryer itself. In the early times, that used to trip occasionally & I have had to reset it. That hasn't happened recently

Originally Posted by alpha1

My hunch is that your equipment needs to be checked internally.

Originally Posted by srini1785

I suggest that you get an electrician to check the unit.

By equipment/unit, do you guys mean the dryer or plug point?

Originally Posted by srini1785

One factor to be checked is the current through the neutral which would mean load imbalance.

Is that the neutral at the plug point to which the dryer is connected? How would one check this?

Originally Posted by srini1785

In that case you need to re arrange your appliances in your home so that load is more or less balanced. Good luck.

What do you mean by "Rearrange" - do you mean I should move stuff around to different location/plugpoint in the home? Not sure if that will be possible.

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by carboy

No idea if it's coming through a circuit breaker. How do I figure it out?

You mean you don't have something similar to the below at your home?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/E6qkOh7BeZ8/hqdefault.jpg
https://usercontent1.hubstatic.com/2447892_f1024.jpg
https://3.imimg.com/data3/LB/FR/MY-4.../1-500x500.jpg

If you do, please switch off each of the "switches" individually one by one to determine which controls which socket at your house.

I can see only one MCB in the house. Which is in the home MCB board. It has not tripped anytime recently. Around 3 years back, I had to replace it because it stopped working. Likewise, in the building's central power board, my home's breaker had to be replaced around a year back, but it went bad.

I am inclined to believe that you do have a central MCB with a dedicated circuit breaker for the 16A socket that has never tripped.
If this is the case, please use an extension chord/board without any fuse.

You have the MCB to protect you and your equipment, you don't need an extra fuse in between.

[srini1785]

Originally Posted by carboy

By equipment/unit, do you guys mean the dryer or plug point?

The dryer.

Originally Posted by carboy

Is that the neutral at the plug point to which the dryer is connected? How would one check this?

An electrician would know how to do this and i suggest that you don't do it yourself.

Originally Posted by carboy

What do you mean by "Rearrange" - do you mean I should move stuff around to different location/plugpoint in the home? Not sure if that will be possible.

Let me explain the theory/Practice: The main incoming phase is divided into 5/6 internal circuits. Each circuit has a MCB. Thats why you would find a main ON/OFF switch followed by a series of MCB's. You can check the load distribution by switching off one MCB and see what appliances get disconnected. Generally one room for each MCB. Electricians normally connect 1 fan , 1 light and 2/3 normal sockets for each MCB. Now for heavier loads like microwave , fridge or geyser, they generally don't connect any other devices to the circuit. So how it is wired in your house , you need to check.