Leaving the tumble dryer/washing machine on when going out

I wish it had a breakdown of how many houses burnt down due to hair straighteners. That's where my paranoia lies!

YANBU but the washing machine would have been fine.

The tumble dryer however, I would ensure there was someone in the house just in case of incident. I did have a dryer catch fire about 30 years ago and I don't take chances with dryers now.

Really? It all depends where your anxiety lies and thank goodness for home insurance. If something is not covered by home insurance - then you definitely should not be doing it.

I absolutely put the washing/drying on, go out, go to bed.

I keep the oven on when cooking, even if I need to go collect children.

I don't unplug every plug in my home before going out/ going to bed.

But we all place different risks on different activities:

I probably wouldn't have an electric bike or car plugged in anywhere close.

Also:

We have a carbon monoxide monitor in our home.

Our smoke alarms are hard wired into our mains

We've always had an emergency evacuation plan in the event of a fire. (Well the eldest since age 6. Then she was proud to tell the next two.)

The children know to go with a current if you get sucked by a rip tide. (personal experience.)

But we pretty much all have a risk coping strategy depending on how/when we've been threatened or perceived a risk that resonates with us.

I would never leave the tumble dryer on while in bed or out. Washing machine and dishwasher might be on overnight, or while out, but not if the dogs are home alone. Don’t entirely trust them either.

@Dearg i read this as you not trusting your dogs not to catch fire if left unattended!

Cooking equipment is the biggest culprit at 44% of fires with over 10,000 fires.

I leave mine on.

I'm with pp, I wouldn't go out and leave any of those appliances on - particularly not a tumble dryer.

Well, this thread has been massively eye-opening for me. I always thought the point of having a dishwasher, washing machine etc was precisely so you could get out of the house to do more exciting things while they were on! It genuinely never occurred to me that I was supposed to be keeping watch over my appliances.

I’ve never had a tumble dryer though so at least I haven’t been running a risk with that.

I never leave the dishwasher or tumble dryer on when we're either out or in bed asleep. I do, however, put the washing machine on and go out.

Tumble dryers have a bad rep for catching fire. Everybody knows that, I thought. It happened to somebody in my family. A fireman told me that dryers left on unattended are in the top few causes of house fires.

The dishwasher goes on after dinner, is finished before we go to bed and we empty it first thing in the morning.

Washing machine is put on every evening after dinner as well so again is finished before we go to bed then hung out to dry or tumble dried in the morning.

Advice is to never leave a washing machine, dishwasher or tumble dryer on overnight or when you're out of the house.

My dryer set on fire and it was only 2 months old and regularly cleaned. I will never leave my new one unattended. YANBU.

I never do this, but my tumble dryer is in the utility room, where all my (highly flammable....) cleaning products are stored as well. If it goes down in flames with us at home, we will only get enough time to grab pets and run outside and call fire brigade, that's it. So we might as well be out, I guess.

My brother is a firefighter. After some of the stories he's told us there's no way I'd leave a washing machine, dryer or dishwasher on if I was out. Not even for 10 mins

Please never leave your drier on while out.
I have a small drier which I mainly use for socks and underwear.
Well I got such a fright 😱 one day when smoke started coming out of it.
The filter needed to be emptied.

I leave the washing machine on and dishwasher on if I go out so things are done when I get home. Dryer I will only leave on if in the house. Wouldn’t get anything done otherwise. Sometimes I set the washer to come on so it’s done when I get up and can hang washing out before work. Maybe I shouldn’t drive in case I have an accident or leave my mobile phone charging unattended? Risks in all walks of life and I’m willing to take a punt to make life that little bit easier and get shit done.

No, I would call 999. The point is that if I was in the house then the damage would be less.

Yes. My washer dryer takes 7 hours. I’m damned if I am going to sit by it, fire blanket in hand for 7 hours. Those who are ‘attending’ their machine what do you mean by that? It goes up in flames and what are you going to do? Put it out?

I put my dishwasher on every morning just before I leave for work, don't give it a second thought

Wow this is interesting. I don't have a tumble dryer or a dish washer but never met or heard of anyone who has had a related fire.

I was at a talk by the fire brigade last week and they were talking about the risks of chargers - particularly for e bikes and e scooters. Apparently they've seen quite a few fires where people have bought replacement chargers on the internet which have caused fires

Definitely don't leave the tumble dryer on. A friend lost everything when her house caught fire when she popped out for the school run with the dryer on. I don't leave any appliances on now if I'm not around.

I'm probably well in a minority here, but the only time my TV plug is on, is when I'm watching it!

As I said in my earlier post. I grew up in the 70s and there were always warning ads on about unplugging your TV at night and I think it just stuck in my child brain and never left! For me, switching off plugs is just part of my nightly routine, like bolting the front door and checking windows are closed. Likewise if I'm going out.

Fire absolute terrifies me and if I had one and found out it's something I could have avoided, I would struggle with that a lot. For the people who keep mentioning fridges, it's just not practical to turn them on/off all the time and would probably make them more dangerous! So that's not something in my control and therefore I can't do anything about it. Other electricals are.

Well, exactly - and I bet loads of people leave them on while having a BBQ for hours or while they’re in the bath or whatever too.

You referred to smoke alarm singular. Surely multiple ones wouldn't have suffered identical faults, meaning a second / third etc would have gone off?

I have three. Connected to circuit board and with battery back up JIC fire starts by electrical fault which knocks off power.

Got one in lounge, a kitchen one in kitchen and one in hallway