The article author got lucky this time - when electronics die from water contact, it's usually the minerals bridging connections and creating shorts. Letting the device dry does not remove those shorts. Some places have such hard water (lots of minerals) that evaporated water leaves calcium, limestone and other deposits on the surface of everything it's touched.

Does that mean doing it once will always cause an issue? Of course not... but repeatedly doing this, and/or becoming used to washing electronics in the dishwasher is a recipe to ruin them in the long term.

I would not personally want to play games with a toaster that can be replaced for $20 at your local Walmart...

They would probably represent nothing more than minor stray resistance/capacitance.

Assuming it was conductive enough, a scales bridge between higher voltage parts would just represent a path of material a few microns thick that would vaporize as soon as the toaster would be plugged in.

For other electronic devices, any component with a hole, like a microphone, barometric, humidity sensor, or mechanical (HDD), is more likely to suffer a more permanent fate. If water gets inside a relay housing, chemicals from the washing liquid may damage or gunk the contacts and reduce their life. LCD screens, glued parts and thin plastics don't fare well in dishwashers either...

A good proportion of water-damaged cellphones can be revived just by washing the logic board thoroughly in isopropyl alcohol. It's possible that this is due to small amounts of water trapped in crevices, but I've seen it work on boards that looked bone-dry under the microscope.

> They would probably represent nothing more than minor stray resistance/capacitance.

Spoken like someone who has never maintained any electronic devices. Skepticism should err on the side of risk management.

(edit: i said 'calcium chloride' which is of course both wrong and irrelevant)

i think the bigger issue with electronics is overheating their electrolytic capacitors

things that are really good conductors like the copper wires in the toaster don't heat up (much) because they don't drop much voltage, and things that are really bad conductors, like the panels that support the nichrome wires and like calcium carbonate, don't heat up at all, because they don't carry any current. it's the things that are in between that cause fires: they can carry enough current to be a problem, while also dropping enough voltage to be a problem

this has been introductory electrical engineering 101. i'll be here all week, don't forget to tip your server, and read chapters 1 of horowitz & hill by monday

yes, there are places that don't heat up because the current doesn't go through them, but only because they have easier paths. if the electricity wanted to go through them, they would heat up hotter than anything else.

the point is, things can corrode, electricity goes in places it wasn't intended or through resistances it wasn't intended, and becomes a fire hazard.

Also, many dishwashers have a garbage disposal which isn’t inside the water and may fail if the cord gets into it. Not likely to happen, but enough people try it and someone may directly get an electrical fire while the dishwasher is running.

Once electronics gets wet (like stuff you plug into a wall), it usually should be discarded for safety's sake.

edit: its not just that, the water causes the copper to oxidise and swell, touching places it shouldnt

I would think going through dishwasher would significantly reduce the fire risk.

Except now the toaster may or may not be compromised in some way. There’s no amount of benefit here worth even a minuscule risk of a house fire.

I'm a statistic of one, though. I don't know if I just got lucky.

Someone having incorrect reasoning doesn't mean they are wrong, just that they do not know (in the sense of knowing something for the right reasons)

Case in point: OP decided to wash the toaster in the dishwasher. Their story about walking through water assuming that their hair dryer experiment validated them walking through water with a bunch of sockets.... they are applying super hand-wavy reasoning in the same way as the critics are!

The funny thing about the whole piece is that while "an unplugged toaster through the washing machine is probably fine" is not a huge leap, so much in the PS is indicative of how I would not really trust this person much for their decision making

That escalated fast.

If he is this reckless with toasters - imagine the dangers he poses to his students!

OTOH I find few people trustworthy in decision making of any kind.

Yes, electricians often have plenty of experience with getting shocked. But all it takes is one dumb mistake and you quickly die a horrible death, with muscles locked up unable to self-rescue in a location where immediate bystanders will risk their own lives to rescue.

What kind of dumbass proudly tells about wading into electrified flooding in front of colleagues when there wasn’t even any urgent reason to do so? What would it have cost to simply wait and cut the power first, calling the power company if necessary if a breaker box could not be safely reached for some reason (unlikely)?

And many/most circuits outside code-compliant kitchens and baths aren’t GFCI, and GFCI doesn’t protect against all electrocutions (you can be electrocuted in a short without a ground fault). Now consider electrical fires from getting sloppy with damaged wiring and electrical devices, which are a leading cause of deaths from fire.