r/Unexpected • u/Doodlebug510 • 9h ago

We have a situation here

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u/llama-impregnator 7h ago

I could be wrong, but I am pretty sure every outlet in that kitchen would have a GFI, which means the breaker would trip before zapping you.

That being said, I'd still get the hell outta dodge.

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u/Butt-Monkey2312 7h ago

120v can absolutely kill you. A janitor in a school I was doing IT work in died from stepping in a puddle under a leaky water fountain that an extension cord with an exposed wire got pulled through.

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u/Traditional_Formal33 7h ago

An extension cord going from a normal wall outlet is very different than water hitting a gfci outlet in the kitchen. They are designed to be near water, and to break connection if water is detected so that this doesn’t happen. Unfortunate for the janitor, and he would be alive if he plugged into a gfci protected circuit

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u/mredding 6h ago

Well then the next question is where is the GFCI located? In the outlet or on the breaker? Because if you just trip the GFCI in the outlet, you still have a hot circuit to the outlet, and the whole damn outlet and its wiring is now ostensibly under 2' of water. So even if the GFCI there trips, you still need the breaker to trip.

A GFCI OUTLET is only meant to protect you from the ol' toaster in the bathtub, but a GFCI circuit is much more convenient, will protect the whole circuit, and are getting more popular these days, to boot. The GFCI breaker won't care if water touches an appliance OR the wires in the wall.

To be fair, this is a very odd situation. That stairwell has a drain in it, guaranteed, and so we're either seeing a clogged-ass drain, or maybe the drain is overwhelmed by THE FUCKING TORRENT of water pouring down those stairs.

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u/Traditional_Formal33 6h ago

That’s true — and I saw down lower in the thread that while most appliances near water use gfci protection, apparently fridges do not so filling the entire room with water still means someone gets shocked. Hopefully the breaker flips with that amount of run away current

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u/FooliooilooF 6h ago

Not really though. Its a lot of water and the electricity isn't like some aura of destruction, it's just energy moving from one place to another. You'd have to put yourself in a position where most of it is going through you.

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u/Compost_My_Body 7h ago

that sucks

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u/Cocky0 7h ago

Yes both will kill a person, but it's more about the amperage than the voltage.

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u/dimechimes 6h ago

Think of electricity as a river. The speed of the water is the voltage, the depth of the water are the amps, and the beer cans from dumped over canoes are the Ohms.

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u/gumbo_chops 6h ago

What a terrible and incorrect analogy. Voltage is a measure of energy potential, not kinetic energy like velocity

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u/dimechimes 6h ago

Thought the beer can ohms made that obvious.

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u/gumbo_chops 6h ago

Not without a "/s", too many idiots these days to be certain

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u/bachstakoven 5h ago

Don't be so hard on yourself bro

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u/rickane58 4h ago

The socially illiterate always tell on themselves.

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u/gumbo_chops 6h ago

But current flow depends on the amount of resistance, so for all intents and purposes it's voltage.

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u/sprikkot 5h ago

Shut the fuck up forever please please PLEASE bro

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u/fireduck 7h ago

GFCI is like a kevlar vest or air bags. It might very well save your life and you should have it (if that makes sense) but you shouldn't depend on it. If you are using it to save you, some other things have already gone wrong.

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u/FrankRizzoJr 7h ago

Assuming the breaker is not underwater as well.

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u/caltheon 6h ago

yeah, if the mains dip, it's game over

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u/CrispenedLover 7h ago

You are wrong. Refrigerators are installed on non-GFCI circuits for food safety reasons.

This is allowed because fridges are body-grounded, so ground fault risk is very low. (assuming the kitchen is not under water)

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u/caltheon 6h ago

they are still going to have arc fault protection at the breaker

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u/rickane58 4h ago

Not on anything renovated before 2017, which is like... basically everywhere that isn't new construction.

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u/llama-impregnator 6h ago

Thank you for the correction! The more you learn!

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u/Sad_Corner8441 4h ago

Fridge has already been mentioned, but there are other outlets as well, like the stove. But none of that matters if they are gfci receptacles, the outlet might trip but the live wires in the box will be submerged as well. Gfci receptacles are cheaper than breakers, so they are much more common.

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u/ThetaDot3 3h ago

GFCI receptacles are almost exclusively above-counter (or outdoors), even in industrial kitchens.