Poltergeist was fiction, dammit!
October 31, 2010 3:03 PM   Subscribe

When we use our Kitchenaid mixer plugged into one socket, the coffee grinder plugged into a different socket starts to grind, sort of. What the hell?

In our kitchen, we have a Kitchenaid stand mixer, plugged into the top socket of one plugin. Six feet away we have a burr coffee grinder plugged into the top socket of another plugin. When the Kitchenaid is turned on, the grinder starts in a halting fashion. It doesn't turn on (i.e., the light on the button is off), but the grinder starts to turn fitfully, in little jerks. The grinder is quite advanced--it won't start if the hopper isn't in place, or the cover isn't on, and it has auto-shutoff. There's no power switch; you just press the button to get one cycle of grinding.

Experimenting a bit, my wife and I started switching around which sockets were in use, and it only happens between those two sockets--specifically, if either appliance is plugged into the bottom socket of the same plugin, it doesn't happen.

I'm guessing there's some sort of leakage of electricity between the wires to those sockets. How do we handle this? Call an electrician? Call a priest? Can we test this ourselves further to get an idea what's going on?
posted by fatbird to Home & Garden (14 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I bet it's a loose wire on that circuit or something similar, but when it comes to things electrical, I call a pro.
posted by lobstah at 3:19 PM on October 31, 2010


What if both are plugged into the bottom socket? What if both are plugged into a regular socket elsewhere in the house?

Many kitchen outlets are wired as splits - that is, the two sockets are on different circuits. Your two top sockets are likely on the same circuit. I don't think that there is anything wrong with your kitchen wiring.

I'm thinking that the kitchen aid mixer is introducing some electrical "noise" into the circuit, which is affecting the electronic control board of the coffee grinder.
posted by davey_darling at 3:47 PM on October 31, 2010


Response by poster: What if both are plugged into the bottom socket? What if both are plugged into a regular socket elsewhere in the house?

If either is plugged into the bottom socket of their respective plugins, it doesn't happen. They both have to be plugged into the top socket of the two plugins in question. We tried other plugins around the kitchen, and it's only the two sockets on which we first noticed the issue that it happens.
posted by fatbird at 3:55 PM on October 31, 2010


Is one of those plugs a GFI (ground fault interrupt).?
posted by JayRwv at 3:56 PM on October 31, 2010


See if it happens if the devices are separated by some distance. The Kitchenaid stand mixers I've seen have pretty honking large motors, I'm wondering if there is some kind of electromagnetic interference going on.

I'd plug the grinder into one of the offending sockets, but through an extension cord. See if it happens when they are at their normal distance, and then see if it continues if you move the grinder far away. If it stops happening when it is far away, that's probably what it is. If it doesn't happen near or far when it is through the ext. cord, same answer. In that case, the cord itself might have been acting like an antenna.

If it does continue to happen even if it is far away and plugged through the extension cord, you do have some kind of electrical badness going on. Could be the wiring, could be either one of the appliances.

Either call an electrician right away, or get one of those plug in outlet testers you can get at the Home Depot places, that has lights that test for hot, neutral and ground. Or get an appropriate voltmeter and see if there is any difference between the ground and neutral when the kitchenaid is running.

Another thought: are the outlets GCFI? Might be a malfunctioning GCFI outlet or breaker.

Third thought: is the grinder of the type that has one of those fairly loud motors, like a vacuum cleaner or hairdryer? See if the same thing happens when one of those devices are plugged in instead of the grinder. Also, when the grinder turns, does it turn in the right direction or backwards?
posted by gjc at 3:58 PM on October 31, 2010 [1 favorite]


Either call an electrician right away, or get one of those plug in outlet testers you can get at the Home Depot places, that has lights that test for hot, neutral and ground. Or get an appropriate voltmeter and see if there is any difference between the ground and neutral when the kitchenaid is running.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receptacle_tester
posted by sebastienbailard at 3:59 PM on October 31, 2010


Response by poster: Is one of those plugs a GFI (ground fault interrupt).?

Neither plugin is GFI.

See if it happens if the devices are separated by some distance.

Tested with an extension cord, there was no apparent difference between 6" and 15 feet away.

Third thought: is the grinder of the type that has one of those fairly loud motors, like a vacuum cleaner or hairdryer?

Yes, but testing with a hairdryer failed to produce anything.

Also, when the grinder turns, does it turn in the right direction or backwards?

Can't tell, because removing the cover to view the burr stops the effect.
posted by fatbird at 4:07 PM on October 31, 2010


You need an electrician.
posted by wandering_not_lost at 4:08 PM on October 31, 2010 [1 favorite]


"Experimenting a bit, my wife and I started switching around which sockets were in use, and it only happens between those two sockets--specifically, if either appliance is plugged into the bottom socket of the same plugin, it doesn't happen."

Either a simple split of sockets or some specific fluke in the way the wires run probably. If you plug both appliances into a receptical you know isn't split, say a living room outlet, do you have the same problem? If not then I'd call an electrician as it's possible you have a serious problem caused by a poor connection.
posted by Mitheral at 4:31 PM on October 31, 2010


Neither plugin is GFI.

Maybe it's Jesus' way of telling you to get GFCIs in your kitchen.
posted by sageleaf at 5:19 PM on October 31, 2010


One of your outlets is wired wrong, either reverse polarity or ground/common fault. Get one of those little circuit testers with the lights on it and plug it in to each outlet. Better yet, call an electrician and have him check these and all of the other outlets in your home (a ten minute task) and properly wire the ones that are wrong.
posted by Old Geezer at 8:10 PM on October 31, 2010


how handy for you to have discovered a potential electrical fire instigator before it burned your place down!

nthing call an electrician.
posted by ChefJoAnna at 10:54 PM on October 31, 2010


Neither plugin is GFI.

The outlets could still be GFI controlled by another outlet; most GFI receptacles are designed to feed other circuits. See if there is another GFI outlet nearby; if so, press the TEST button and see if the outlets in question go out.

This is really strange behavior. Please post a followup if you get it figured out.
posted by Wet Spot at 1:41 PM on November 1, 2010


Response by poster: Update: I bought a circuit tester and used it on the affected sockets. It has three lights on it, two orange and one red. Two orange lights matches the key for "correct"; if the red comes on, it means either hot ground or hot neutral (with the corresponding orange light indicating which).

In all affected sockets, it read "correct", even when we ran the Kitchenaid in the corresponding trouble socket. I then plugged the coffee grinder back in, and it made the same intermittent grinding noise that I mentioned in the OP.

My father is here and I showed him. According to him it's normal to split a circuit between two top sockets and another between two bottom sockets, so that running things plugged into both the top and bottom outlet of one socket pair doesn't overload it. Thus, it makes sense that one top socket is somehow "connected" to another.
posted by fatbird at 8:25 PM on November 20, 2010


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