Why/how did metal bathroom fixtures "sting" me?

May 28, 2007 5:02 PM

Why/how did metal bathroom fixtures "sting" me?

Two years ago, I spent some time doing fieldwork in Poland with some other volunteers. We all shared a local house and one bathroom -- a few weeks into our stay some of us began to notice that the bathroom fixtures would “sting” when touched.

The nature of the fieldwork was such that as time went on, our hands got more and more scratched and beat-up, which I think may have had something to do with it. Essentially, when I (and others) would touch the running faucets, it felt like they were vibrating really, really fast and there was a sharp sensation similar to being pricked by pins. It was actually pretty painful. It got worse when my hands were kind of scratched up, and that seems to be everyone else’s experience, as well. We ended up having to put wash-cloths over the knobs so we could turn on the sink and shower. All of the fixtures appeared to be made out of that sort of cheaper, standard metal that basic faucets are frequently made of (I don’t know what it was -- a quick google search makes it look like polished brass is a pretty common material?).

I’ve never experienced this anywhere else, and I’ve wondered about it ever since. Does anyone know what might have caused it?

posted by drycleanonly to home & garden (12 comments total)

it was probably electrified with a weak current.
posted by thinkingwoman at 5:09 PM on May 28, 2007

Was it kind of like an electric shock?
posted by 517 at 5:10 PM on May 28, 2007

Actually, yeah, it did feel a little like an electric shock now that I think of it! Why would the plumbing have an electric current?
posted by drycleanonly at 5:13 PM on May 28, 2007

The house wasn't grounded, most likely.

This happened to me a couple of months ago - we had to have an electrician come out and re-ground the house. It's really not fun to get zapped in the shower.
posted by cmyk at 5:14 PM on May 28, 2007

What cmyk said or sometime water pipes will be used to ground circuits.
posted by 517 at 5:21 PM on May 28, 2007

When I was a kid, there was a similar deal with part of the stove at the family cottage.

An electrician came out & pulled a partially charred mouse out from the depths of the thing. Any chance something chewed through some nearby wires...?
posted by kmennie at 5:53 PM on May 28, 2007

One of the kids had that in a bad rental house. The ground was loose on a 220 V transformer; it's a wonder they didn't all get electrocuted.
posted by unrepentanthippie at 7:43 PM on May 28, 2007

Agree, poor grounding.
posted by hodyoaten at 8:14 PM on May 28, 2007

A non-grounded bathroom back in the 1970s nearly killed the young humblepigeon and his sister. I can still remember the strange tingling sensation when we got into the bath...

It's pretty serious stuff. Householders often don't understand the importance of grounding because there are no immediate benefits.

I'd even drop a line to the people who own the house where you had the problems and tell them about it. You might be saving somebody's life.
posted by humblepigeon at 1:34 AM on May 29, 2007

I've heard that in some places it's a common practice to actually use the plumbing as the ground for electrical wiring.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:19 AM on May 29, 2007

I've heard that in some places it's a common practice to actually use the plumbing as the ground for electrical wiring.

Yes, that's right. A lot of homes in the UK still use either the natural gas or water pipes as earthing. And this is a good thing because, in the OP case, the live wire that was touching the pipework will have been instantly grounded (ground=negative). The current would have had a quicker route to ground, so the people shouldn't have felt anything. It should also have blown a fuse because effectively a short-circuit was created. But I don't know about Polish electrics. Maybe they didn't have fuse boxes, although now Poland is part of the EU, they have to abide by the same rules as the UK.

Nowadays the law in the UK says that houses must use copper rods for earth. These are usually planted in the garden.
posted by humblepigeon at 10:03 AM on May 29, 2007

Sorry, in addition to the above, I should point out that earthing via copper pipe is a good thing because natural gas and water pipes usually go underground almost as soon as they leave the premises. So they are quite literally earthed.

The use of plastic plumbing in a lot of houses (and the rising price of copper, meaning many plumbers are forced to switch) are one of the many reasons why this kind of earthing isn't adequate.
posted by humblepigeon at 10:07 AM on May 29, 2007