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This morning when my wife opened the dishwasher there was a pop and she thought she saw a flash near the bracket arm that swings the door down. I also smelt some slight burning.

What bothers me is the RCD did not trip and the fuse box in the plug is OK and the dishwasher was still powered. If this had been an electrical fault it should have blown something.

Is there normally electrics in the side panels of dishwashers?

How can I be sure if the dishwasher is safe?

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  • Not all electrical faults will pop a breaker or RCD... that said, they are likely to. Especially if you see a spark. In the unlikely event that a spark doesn't trip a breaker, it probably will next time it happens! But it's also not guaranteed... my mother claims she had an extension cord short and catch fire and nothing tripped.
    – user253751
    Feb 2, 2021 at 10:01
  • For safety would check the wires inside by taking it apart, might just need to check from underneath. Fuses and circuit breakers are safety devices that should work, but only if they are perfect. Can usually find how to take apart something from google.
    – crip659
    Feb 2, 2021 at 19:37

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Are there buttons in the door panel? If so, then there are connections ie wires going through to the panel.

It may be that ine wire is broken and re-made contact with itself causing the spark that was seen. If so, this would not be detected as a fault because there was no fault.

If the broken wire touched the frame to cause a spark then that would and should have triggered a fault.

If the wires are starting to degrade / break then while it may work now it will only get worse. Start saving for a repair bill or replacement.

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  • As long as the controls are low power and isolated from the AC supply, they can arc all day (series or to ground) without causing a ground fault (as far as a GFCI on the AC supply side can tell).
    – nobody
    Feb 2, 2021 at 14:42
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It's not uncommon for that to happen the wires go through that area to get to the timer and the repeated flexing of the copper work hardens it eventually leading to cracks. I've repaired a former dishwasher a few times by splicing in new wire.

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