I used to do that, but not any longer. I had a washing machine that emptied into a laundry tub instead of directly into a drain. Once a hand towel had fallen into the tub, blocking the drain. I heard the cascade start -- sudsy water flowing over the rim of the tub onto my utility room floor. It wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was a warning.

I've also heard of instances where a washer fill or drain hose ruptures, or an animal tries to make a nest, blocking the dryer vent.

I almost had a flood in June. Got out of the bathtub; turned on the hot water; diverted the hot water flow to the sprayer; rinsed out the tub; diverted back to the hot water faucet. But the hot water faucet wouldn't turn off! (We have VERY good water pressure. Even with the drain open the tub was slowly filling!) Took my nice clean self down to the basement in search of a shut-off valve in the webby crawlspace under the tub. (Niagra thundering above me.) Hah! No valve. I had to turn off the supply to the water heaters. Of course it was a *Sunday*, but I got through to the plumber and he said I'd done the right thing. We still had cold water until he could come on Monday. Fortunately I had a spare faucet cartridge.

(Later that day DH tipped over the back of a rocker-recliner and broke his collarbone.)

People need to realize that dryer cause a lot of fires every year and most every one of them is prompted by negligence of the owner. With the buildup of lint comes a fire danger. You need to clean it regularly. If you've never cleaned your dryer, then consider yourself a fire waiting to happen.

My laundry tub will hold a full washer worth of water. However I was down there a couple years ago, started the washer and turned to sort some clothes and my feet got wet. I thought it was a washer hose. Well, it WAS, but not the connecting hose. It was a little 4" hose inside the washer and the clamps on it lost their tension. 25¢ part fixed it but could have pumped a lot of water all over if I hadn't been there. There are sensors out there that will shut off the water if it senses water, but I don't have one.

Speaking of washer hoses, when is the last time you changed your washer hoses? They should be changed about every 5 years. Some friends had their house flooded by a burst washer hose. So I check mine regularly and replace when I'm not comfortable with them. Plus you should shut off the water, but few people do that.

But there's a lot of fire dangers in our homes. Leaving wallwarts plugged in continually is begging for flames. And so many more things. Like candles all over or taking a dried out pine tree and loading it down with hot lights....

I've known too many people who have had fires because of mal-functioning appliances. I never leave appliances running when I'm not in the house, or when we're going to bed. Not worth taking the chance, IMO

Leaving wallwarts plugged in continually is begging for flames.

Cynic, what are wallwarts? Is that your name for air freshener plug-ins? LOLOL. I just got it as I was writing this!

Like cynic says, check your washing machine hoses. When you're going out of town shut off the water supply to the washing machine. Clients of mine went out of town for 3 weeks and I was watering plants in the yard. I could here water running in the basement. I went to two neighbors, neither one had a key to the house. I went home (4 miles) and got my water key to shut it off at the curb. 3 phone calls later I found someone with a key and we found a foot of water in the basement from a burst washing machine hose. What a mess.

Ron

Not since my clothes dryer caught fire. I could smell and electrical burning odour and, sure enough, when I took the clothes out of the dryer and looked in, I could see flames flickering in behind the drum. I pulled the plug and blew out the flames with the hair dryer (to get enough "wind"). Then we got that thing out of the house ASAP.

I don't run appliances when we are going to bed either.

About 5 years ago (before retirement) I was cleaning the guest bath when I heard a crackling noise. This BR shared a wall with the hvac closet and both opened into the hall. I walked into the hall and heard the noise coming from the hvac closet, opened the door and found the electric wires sparking and crackling. Not yet flaming, thank goodness. I made a beeline to the electric panel and flipped the breaker to cut the power. If this had been during the work week, I'm sure the house would have burned down. After that I turned the unit off when I left for work each day. Of course, living 20 miles from the nearest volunteer fire dept makes a lot of my choices for me. No candles usually, and if I do decide to light one. it's never left unattended and only the water heater, fridge and freezer are left running when not there.

A wallwart is an AC adapter.

I donÂt run my dryer when not at home however I do set the dishwasher timer to run at 3 AM while weÂre asleep.

You mean my washer & dishwasher are at risk?

Didn't have a fire,but several years ago as i was getting ready for bed,i heard water running.After checking the faucets in the house i opened the door going into the garage,and was met by this big plume of hot steam.I yelled for DH who was already asleep.He got up,but we couldn't get into the garage because of the steam,,so we went outside and opened the big garage door,(no we don't have a garage door opener),and steam came pouring out.What had happened,was the hose from the washer had worn out and split wide open,and all this hot water was running all over the place.DH got it turned off and the next day he went and bought new hoses.So keep a check on those hoses,and replace them every so often.

Luckily there was no damage to speak of as the water just ran out the garage and down the driveway.Thank Goodness.
Kathi

Never....If anything is running and we have to leave...I shut it off and I do the washer shut off thing too when we go away, even for the weekend. If we go off for an extended time., I'll even turn off the water connections to sinks and commodes. Better safe than sorry and it takes just a few minutes to do it.

never do any of these things except clean the lint from dryer hose. Always run the DW on timer while we are sleeping.

No, not when I leave, and not when I will be sleeping.
I do let the AC stay on, though.

No, I used to, not anymore. I usually run the dishwasher late in the evenings.

I don't when we're sleeping, but I have to admit to letting stuff run when I'm gone. I have this discussion with my mom all the time. I don't have a good nose and I have kids in the the house with me. If there's gonna to be a fire in my house, I would probably rather be gone. I mean I guess 9 out of 10 times I could fight the fire and win, but I'm just not sure it's worth the 1 out of 10 times that I may not win and someone could get hurt. If there's going to be a fire or short or something, I would rather it happen when the kids and I were gone.

Never ever. I am the person who unplugs everything before I leave the house or when it storms out.

I did once leave the washing machine on when I went to the store. Big mistake because I didn't check on it when I got home and the next day I could hear a funny buzzing noise and when I went down the basement I found that the machine dial had stuck in between cycles and it was still running but in between cycles. I could have easily had a fire.

Anne

Wallwart (not to be confused with Malwart, which is often their source of supply) is simply the power cord for cheap appliances or items that are so tiny they can't hold the transformer electronics to convert the AC power to DC used in the item. Looking around, my cordless phone, answering machine, cell phone, a printer, notebook computers, DSL modem just as examples use those power guzzling little watt-vampires. For most uses I think they should be outlawed.

I hate to burst some bubbles but I doubt anyone truly will shut off and especially unplug everything before leaving. Ideally you should then shut off the power at the breaker/fuse box in that case to eliminate the potential of an in-wall fire. The other thing to keep in mind is that you may turn off your appliances, but many are still "running". If it has a remote control in it, or for that matter a clock, it's powered up and hence operating which means it can be a fire hazard. Most new washing machines, dryers, TVs, cable/satellite/converter boxes, etc are all running appliances. I'll bet you don't turn off your refrigerator, freezer, garage door opener, cordless phones, microwave, etc. ;) I leave my furnace going all the time (and that's blasting out flames!) in the winter when I'm gone and my air condtioner runs a lot when I'm gone in hot, humid weather.

Any appliance is a fire risk. But many need maintenance. And when push comes to shove, I think I'd rather the place burns down when I'm GONE rather than when I'm in it.

The point is to use common sense and not get paranoid.

Years ago, friend's ice maker water ran for most of the night. Ruined most of the upstairs carpet and on down into the cellar.

Another friend's dishwasher hose went just after she left her condo for 6 hours. It took several months of upheaval by the time the drywall was drilled, many fans on to dry out walls and repaint, replace floors, furniture repaired, etc. Condo is on a slab - no cellar for water to run into.

Yet another friend's DW caught fire because a mouse had chewed into the wire. Fortunately, she was home at the time!

During a party at friends', their refrigerator kept cycling on/off. It finally started smoking. Since we were all there, it was noticed and unplugged right away.

NEVER, NEVER leave an appliance running if you aren't there (and awake) to check on it.

I know 2 people who had house fires, one with their home burning to the ground, from computers that were left in stand-by mode when they went out.

NO...one Sunday morning I put a load in the dryer and the kids and I left for church. Denny had to work the night before and was sleeping.

When I got home he was up and the house was filled with smoke. All the clothes in the dryer were trash...and so was the dryer. There was lint building up inside/underneath the dryer. It caught on fire...

We were lucky, nothing else was damaged. The house could have burned and much worse, Denny could have died from smoke inhalation.

I don't unplug things like big appliances but all my small ones like televisions and radios and microwave are unplugged until I use them and unplugged when I leave the house. I don't trust the wiring in this house. After my kitchen reno my neighbour the electrician found a few hot wires in the walls that were not capped by the last electrician who updated the wiring. I sometimes even go to the extent of shutting the breakers off if I will be gone for most of the day and evening. Most of the time though there is someone here to take care of my animals if I am gone for any length of time.

Anne

I live in Toronto, Canada. Unfortunately, we are one of the 10,000 residents selected to "test" the new "smart meter" - which means we are billed at different rates than the next door neighbours for using electricity at the same time of day or night. They have divided the 24 hours in the day into periods of low, medium and high energy use - and based the charges for those with smart meters on a sliding scale. So basically if I run my dishwasher and dryer from midnight to 7:00 a.m. I will be charged much less than say if I run it at noon. Yet our neighbours - with 6 people in the house - as opposed to the 2 of us plus dog - and no smart meter - can run their appliances at noon and be charged far less than we are. There is something wrong with this scenario. I have spoken with Hydro and the person I spoke with agreed, no way would he go to bed - or leave the house - with appliances such as these running. The ONLY good thing going for me at the moment is that I am on a fixed electricity rate for 5 years - which while sadly costs more per kw hour than the rate the NON smart meter people are using - I can run my appliances when I want and it will cost me less than adhering to the new rules imposed on me. But, when my term ends I don't know if I will be allowed to renew. The local firemen buy their firehouse food supplies where I shop and I asked for their opinions and they agree with me - and so did the dishwasher and dryer repairman who was here last week. What really scares me about the dryer is the lint/dust/hair you name it build-up in the drum. We needed new bearings and while I keep the lint trap and hose as clean as possible. I can't remove the drum since I can't re-balance it - the repair man confirmed that the average Joe can't do this - but he sure cleans his a lot at home. I cleaned it as fast as I could while he was working on fitting in parts - otherwise he would have had to stick in back in as is. When we are away I unplug everything I can - not the fridge though - but I think I will start turning off the washer hoses. Our insurance INSISTS that our outside water tap be turned off when we are away - too many instances of vandals breaking windows, tossing hoses inside and turning them on. Should this happen we would not be covered - not a risk I am about to take. When I call to tell them we will be away (a requirement) the first thing they say is to remember to turn off the outside hose - and forget timers. It is hard without family - and we don't have a trusted neighbour. But of course there are those who do have trusted neighbours, who unfortunately have "trusted" kids, with "trusted friends" and in the end a whole slew of people know your alarm code, things go missing, parties are held with underage teens etc. etc. I envy those with the true trusted neighbour! I missed the finale of Boston Legal because I wouldn't leave the VCR plugged in and set. Annoying.

They have told you not to run them while away as anything can happen, leaking water everywhere, fires.

I have left the house with either the dryer or the dishwasher running, but I rarely do that.

There are a lot of things in my house that stay plugged in all the time. I'd rather be here than away if my house did catch fire... I'd like an opportunity to try and save my animals (darn cats would probably go and hide though).

It's a good idea to turn off taps at end of metal lines just before hoses leading to (especially an older) washer when washing's done ... and I've told myself that I should, but seldom do.

Since lint build-up has justifiably developed a reputation for causing fires unless the exhaust piping is cleaned regularly ...

... may I reiterate a suggestion to dry one's washing on a line (outside, or even in basement) ...

... as about the worst that can happen is that a bird drops by to leave a calling card?

Which has never yet, to my knowledge, ever been accused of causing a house fire!

Try to arrange to get into hot water only when you so choose, O.K.?

ole joyful

I use to just leave the house many years ago, no matter what was running or turned on. Then I became a firefighter and learned real quickly what can go wrong when things are left on and unattended. Now and for many years, not even a ceiling fan is left on when I'm not at home.
So many homes have burned because a table lamp was left on and a kitten tipped it over and the bulb caught cloth on fire, or a dryer malfunctioned, or a ceiling fan, etc.
Better to be safe than sorry.

Well, you all can panic as much as you wish. I work in my detached garage, and I leave the washer running, the dryer running and the dishwasher running, whenever they need to. And my Roomba runs daily with no supervision, and docks itself when it needs to recharge.

I also clean my dryer vent hose about once a month, and I recently replaced the hoses to the clothes washer. I check my appliances frequently for safety issues, and that's good enough for me.

Hmmm . . . do you think we sound panicky, Mary? I don't think we do. With so many of us who have experienced or heard about actual fires, I think we sound sensible.

Well, I kind of do think that Susan.

I did have a neighbor who had a dryer vent fire once. She had never in the 15 years she lived there cleaned the dryer vent! Like I said, I clean mine monthly, and I don't worry.

Maybe I'm the crazy one, LOL - I pull both the washer and dryer out of their closet once a month to clean behind them (that's where some of those missing socks go), so I see the condition of the water hoses, and I take the dryer vent off and clean it too.

The dishwasher I have no way to inspect, but the chances are it will just leak soapy water. I would certainly pay attention to an appliance that had a recall notice!