So I feel like I’ve been rather obsessed with a electrical safety lately. I’ve just received a fridge and a washing machine and even though my kitchen power points have the three prong plug for the Earth wire, the fridge and washing machine only have the two prong plug. Which means even though it’s in a metal case, it does not have the grounding wire.
This seems pretty unsafe – is this normal in Japan have you ever heard of people getting any shocks?
8 comments
It’s normal.
You would have found your answer in less time by putting “Japan appliances grounding” into Google.
All Japanese homes since some time in the 90’s have mandatory whole-home RCD/GFCI devices in the electrical box (look for the thing marked 漏電遮断器), that mitigates the hazards that grounding solves.
As soon as there is a 30 mA discrepancy between hot and neutral it trips (vs grounding where you need tens of amps for the breaker to trip).
In most EU countries these are becoming required on new construction since some time in the 2000’s, in most US electrical codes these are still usually only required in wet areas (bathrooms etc)
If you dig through any Japan related subreddit you’ll find tons of people asking about this. 6 years ago I did too lol.
Don’t worry, it’s totally safe.
The only place I’d be concerned about having a three pronged plug or a grounding wire is if you get one of those toilets/toilet seats that plugs into the wall.
I was once told the grounder was ‘for storms’ when I purchased a fridge from Bic Camera.
The common idea is, you have to be careful with appliance use when there is bad weather out there.
Some people on the Japan forum have complained about bad quality wiring/circuitry because their houses are very old >1975, and they lived out in the country, so they thought that grounding would help the noise in their electrical current.
In theory, it would. But, if you have done any DIY in the house you are living, you will notice the brittle rubber shielding falling off the copper wiring, and under the shielding you will find foggy copper wiring, to the point where the rubber is melting (melding?) on the copper wiring, and becoming a different element which intercepts the electrical current, and results in garbage quality electricity.
My old fridge had a ground wire, but my new one doesn’t. It’s the same brand. I assumed that the new models must have been redesigned to be double insulated and grounding is unnecessary.
Another possibility is that there is a ground wire and screws in the box somewhere and you haven’t located it yet. Whatever the situation, just check the manual. That will tell you if you need to earth it or not.
Some of the sockets in the bathroom likely have a little screw terminal below the two-prong outlet. If the washing machine has a two-prong plug plus a strand of green cable with spade terminal, connect that to the screw terminal to ground the washing machine.
Did you just get here yesterday??