Washing machine in a shower room, is this legal?

Discussion in 'Electricians' Talk' started by Baron88, Jan 29, 2021.

  1. The Happy Builder

    The Happy Builder Screwfix Select

    Agreed and installing a wall mounted fan heater could resolve that issue as well.

    Landlords are required to install safe heating systems in their tenanted properties.

    Technically though, there’s no difference between running an extension lead into to bathroom from a bedroom or an airing cupboard within a bathroom.

    There are times electricians see things which are obviously dangerous or just inappropriate when doing EICRs or just doing other work that you cannot say is actually a non-compliance with the Wiring Regulations, but that doesn’t make it acceptable.
     
  2. Nomenklatura

    Nomenklatura Active Member

    What Happy said.

    You can't code on the basis of misuse, or potential misuse. If you'd found that an occupant had wedged the shutters open and stuffed bare wires into a socket, would you say that the socket had to be removed?
     
  3. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    I have tried to find the definition of a room. Where a shower enclosure has doors on it, at what point is that enclosure considered as a wet room and all outside it is therefore not part of the bathroom?

    I looked in building regulations and failed to find a comprehensibly definition. Personally if the shower enclosure reaches the ceiling I would say it forms a room, but as said I can't find a definition of a room.

    So temp.jpg
    if that partition is fitted, is the washing machine and tumble drier actually in the bathroom? I am not suggesting this is how it should be done, what I am doing is asking what makes a room a room? Not really an electrical question, but if the partition I show makes it into two rooms, does the door on the shower cubical also make it into two rooms.

    So it is down to defining a room. With a bath clearly you need an area at the side of the bath to transfer to, but my daughter's flat in Turkey had a wet room but the wet room did not have a shower head, or bath, it simply had a builders trug and a jug, and a tap. You simply poured water over ones self, so since not bath or shower this wet room with British regs was not classed as a bathroom, it clearly was, and in the hair dressers I have seem shower heads and sinks for washing hair, with the socket within a foot of the extent to where the shower head would reach, are you saying a hair dressing salon is a bath room? Is the hair dressing salon a room containing a bath or shower?

    Sorry no answer, just a question, which does not really affect me, the upper washing machine is in my utility room off the front kitchen and the lower washing machine and tumble drier is in the back kitchen. Clearly a house with two kitchens not really short of room. But the question of fitting washing machines in bathrooms comes up many times.
     
  4. The Happy Builder

    The Happy Builder Screwfix Select

    The regulations apply to a location, not a room.

    When trying to determine what is a room and a location things can get interesting. I worked in a flat where the Building Inspector insisted the bedroom door had to be taken off to comply with the Building Regulations, because if there is a fire the travel distance along the escape route from the bedroom door to the front door of the flat through the lounge was too far to escape safely, but without a door the lounge and bedroom became one room, so there was no longer an issue.
     
  5. Bob Rathbone

    Bob Rathbone Screwfix Select

    It seems that this is a grey area and not well defined. Personally I think it is a terrible idea to install white goods or a central heating boiler in a bathroom. Any piece of electrical equipment in a bathroom, permitted or not, presents a risk of shock irrespective of any regulation being followed. We should keep electrical equipment in a bathroom to the absolute minimum.
     
  6. baldelectrician.com

    baldelectrician.com Well-Known Member

    We do EICR's for a living and came across a washing machine in a bathroom (the install failed due to lots of other things).

    I called Beko and they informed me their machines are suitable for bathroom (correct IP rating). This was dependent on the wiring regs being met as well

    The manufacturer instructions over rule the wiring regulations

    https://www.beko.co.uk/support/buying-guides/washing-machine
     
  7. Nomenklatura

    Nomenklatura Active Member

    Why does it?

    Or why does it so such an extent that it should be avoided at all costs?

    Sometimes I think that attitudes to bathrooms can verge on the superstitious.
     
  8. MGW

    MGW Screwfix Select

    I lived in an open plan house, there was an arch between living room and dinning room, I installed folding doors mainly so we could watch two independent TV programs, but most of the time the doors were open.

    But even before the doors they were always thought of as two independent rooms. Same years ago my aunty had a dinning room and kitchen with no door, just some dangling bits of plastic between the two rooms.

    We see phrases like "taking account of relevant external influences" and even without looking at special bathroom rules putting any device where the conditions are not suited to its use is normally against the regulations. But whole of life is filled with compromises. If some one invented to gas cooker today do you think it would be allowed?

    I remember my grandmother on washing day, the twin tub was dragged into the centre of the kitchen floor and plugged into the light socket, and water boiled on the Aga and there was water everywhere on the quarry tiled floor, which would be mopped once all cloths on the line. Washing has always involved water, and in real terms why is a kitchen any better than a bathroom, the question is does one bathe and do washing or cook a meal at the same time?

    I personally can't see how dirty washing and food mix, so be a room a kitchen/utility, or bathroom/utility neither is ideal. And to get to the socket for many washing machines would require a lot of effort, who would drag a washing machine out so he can touch the socket while wet an naked straight from the shower. And unless on wheels it would not be classed as portable, so harder to access the socket behind a washing machine than underneath the bath, and as long as bath panel is only removable with a tool, you can have a socket under the bath.

    upload_2021-1-31_17-48-37.jpeg So be it a socket or a FCU if a splash guard is fitted and held closed with a cable tie the it needs a tool to gain assess so likely complies.

    The main point is do you want an argument every time an EICR is done, I would not fit to a rented house as want an easy life, but in my own house, I can't see a problem.
     
  9. The Happy Builder

    The Happy Builder Screwfix Select

    Regards the hairdressers, do you get completely naked and wet when the hairdresser washes your hair? if they do I might change hairdressers ;)
     
  10. Nomenklatura

    Nomenklatura Active Member

    So would I if mine did.
     
  11. Banallsheds

    Banallsheds Well-Known Member

    Rubbish. The manufacturers instructions (often wrong, see example below) are guidance only and do NOT have to be followed especially when they are wrong.
     

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