A need to make electric water heating rods safe

In the third week of February this year, a 65-year-old resident of Chennai met an unexpected and tragic end

In the third week of February this year, a 65-year-old resident of Chennai met an unexpected and tragic end. To warm up some water for her bath, Jayalakshmi had put an electric immersion water heater in a bucket full of water and switched it on. After 10 minutes, she put her hand in the bucket to check whether the water was warm enough for her bath. And that act ended her life. The cause of death was electrocution from the immersion water heater.

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In January, Mohd Sufiyan met a similar fate in Telangana. His parents had switched on the heating rod while he was playing outside and on his return, the four-year-old went to the bathroom and, unaware of the danger, touched the water.

A month prior to that, a 30-year-old pregnant woman got electrocuted in Noida, again from an immersion rod. Seven-year-old Siddhartha Mondal’s case is equally tragic. A resident of Kolkata, he went to the bathroom to brush his teeth and the toothpaste accidentally fell into the bucket in which water was being heated, using an immersion rod. He put his hand into the water to pick up the tube and got electrocuted.

In many homes, this ubiquitous heating element has been responsible for killing not just one, but several members of a family. In December 2020, 30-year-old Sasikala, a resident of Chennai, got a deadly jolt on touching the water being heated with an immersion rod. Her husband Vijayakumar , who went to her rescue, also got killed. In Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district, 35-year-old Kavita and her two young children met a similar fate. In Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, 61-year-old Rehana and her 32-year-old son died under similar circumstances. Such fatal accidents caused by immersion rods are reported at regular intervals from every part of the country.

In order to prevent just such accidents, these household electric immersion heaters are under mandatory third-party safety certification. In other words, they cannot be sold without the ISI mark from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS). And good quality immersion rods do not give you an electric shock or cause electrocution, even if you put your hand in the water when the heater is switched on.

So what is causing so many fatal accidents? While one possibility could be that unsafe, uncertified immersion rods are being sold in gross violation of the Quality Control Order, the other could be the poor quality of electrical wiring in the building and absence of earthing.

An immersion rod basically consists of a heating element enclosed in a water tight metal casing. An insulation material placed between the casing and the heating element prevents direct contact between the element and the casing. As the heater ages, the metal tube or casing may corrode, resulting in a puncture that will allow the water in the bucket to make contact with the copper wire or the heating element through a crack in the insulation material. Since water conducts electricity, the water in the bucket gets charged when you switch on the immersion rod and touching it would be fatal.

Similarly, the heaters are supposed to be switched off in about 15 minutes or so, but consumers may well forget to do so, resulting in the water level in the bucket going down due to evaporation, damaging the metal casing . This could again render the heater highly hazardous.

Prevention of such fatal accidents requires manufacturers to determine the life of their products. Heaters well past their life should be discarded or used only after proper checks and servicing. Similarly, introducing an automatic cut off mechanism once the water reaches a certain temperature can add to the safety. This requires BIS to incorporate this feature in its mandatory standard. Stringent enforcement of the Quality Control Order is also absolutely essential.

Lastly, whatever may be the level of safety of these immersion rods, consumers should never touch the water kept for heating, without switching off the power supply and removing the plug from the socket. And children should always be kept away from these heaters. Besides specifying these precautions prominently on the package, manufacturers must use advertisements to educate consumers.

For those who cannot afford to buy geysers and for those who live in hostels and rented accommodations where geysers are not provided, this portable heating device offers an alternative. But consumers must remember the hazards associated with their use and exercise utmost caution.