Posted: 2/17/2015 5:16:01 PM EDT
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Hey all!
I have a request for each of you, would you take a couple of minutes and check to see what temperature your water heaters are set to? Unless you have a compelling reason, they really shouldn't be set any higher than 120° F. My parents recently had to have a new water heater installed and for whatever reason the temp was set to 140° F. They didn't know this and neither did I. A couple of weeks ago my Mother had the flu and decided to take a shower. What with a bit of a fever and just being sick and the hot, not scalding water, she began to feel feint. She tried to turn the water off but in her confusion she turned it all the way to hot and was scalded. She was under the HOT water only a few seconds but it takes a surprisingly short time at 140°. Fortunately her face was not burned but she did end up with 3rd degree burns on her left hand and arm, the left side of her chest and abdomen and left thigh. She is having surgery on Thursday to have some skin grafted in some places. I found this chart to give you an idea how fast hot water can result in scalding- 125° F - 1-1/2 to 2 minutes 130° F - About 30 seconds 135° F - About 10 seconds 140° F - Less than 5 seconds 145° F - Less than 3 seconds 150° F - About 1 1/2 seconds 155° F - About 1 second Again, please check your water heaters; check your parent's water heaters. If Mom wasn't in reasonably good health otherwise, this could pretty easily have been fatal, and that goes for small children as well. |
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Quoted:
Hey all! I have a request for each of you, would you take a couple of minutes and check to see what temperature your water heaters are set to? Unless you have a compelling reason, they really shouldn't be set any higher than 120° F. My parents recently had to have a new water heater installed and for whatever reason the temp was set to 140° F. They didn't know this and neither did I. A couple of weeks ago my Mother had the flu and decided to take a shower. What with a bit of a fever and just being sick and the hot, not scalding water, she began to feel feint. She tried to turn the water off but in her confusion she turned it all the way to hot and was scalded. She was under the HOT water only a few seconds but it takes a surprisingly short time at 140°. Fortunately her face was not burned but she did end up with 3rd degree burns on her left hand and arm, the left side of her chest and abdomen and left thigh. She is having surgery on Thursday to have some skin grafted in some places. I found this chart to give you an idea how fast hot water can result in scalding- 125° F - 1-1/2 to 2 minutes 130° F - About 30 seconds 135° F - About 10 seconds 140° F - Less than 5 seconds 145° F - Less than 3 seconds 150° F - About 1 1/2 seconds 155° F - About 1 second Again, please check your water heaters; check your parent's water heaters. If Mom wasn't in reasonably good health otherwise, this could pretty easily have been fatal, and that goes for small children as well. I have turned mine up when I bought my house it was set pretty low and I hated it I could run 100%hot water for my showers so time to crank that baby up yes it's prob 2 hot but I like it like a steam room when I get out!! |
| I checked mine when we had our first kid. I adjusted it so that it would be very uncomfortable at max temperature, but not dangerous for any reasonable timeframe. It was actually lower before, but we have found that all the laundry etc means we need more hot water. I think it's around 125. (edit: measured, 129 max) |
| water heaters are factory set to a temp that won't allow scalding quickly, even on a child. most i've seen have a little 'zone' they want you to be within, so i find it hard to believe it was set too hot from the factory. maybe the person installing it, turned it up.... |
| My grandma used to have her water heater set to damn near the max all the time. Said it was for the laundry/whites. If you slipped up and turned the faucet/shower on past 1/4 hot, you were in for a rude awakening. I always thought she was lucky never to get burned. |
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I guess I always figured you could get really bad burns from liquid, but the first aid training I've had always said a 3rd degree burn was when there was charring of tissue.
Granted, that was more than 20 years ago, now it seems 3rd degree is defined by damaging the full thickness of skin. We we also taught that ANY 3rd degree burn was considered life threatening; get a dime sized burn on a pinkie and you needed to get to the ER immediately. The times they are a changin'. She did well with the surgery. He grafted a couple of places he hadn't planned on and didn't do a couple he thought he would. SamW- I think the water heater that used to be in the armory in Charles City was set to "A degree and a half below Chernobyl". Made scrubbing carbon residue from blanks out of weapons easy, but you had to watch out. |
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Quoted:
I guess I always figured you could get really bad burns from liquid, but the first aid training I've had always said a 3rd degree burn was when there was charring of tissue. . That's what I was always told. Doesn't matter much, anything worse than red skin and I think I'd rather get kicked in the nuts. At least that pain is over within an hour. Burns just keep hurting. |