Old and leaky electric kettle poses danger?

[ugoleaf]

Hello,

I had a good kettle for about 8 years that started leaking slightly recently. Could it be because of its natural wear or because twice or thrice a year I would put one full teaspoon of citric powder to clean it from scale and fill 1/4 of kettle with water?

And is it dangerous to use that kettle?

Thanks

[dewaltdisney]

Dump it, a new one is £8 in Tesco.

DWD

[Scotty001]

As said, time for a new kettle
As for is an appliance that holds boiling 98c water that is leaking dangerous? well.... Depending on where the leak is water and electric don't mix, almost 100c water leaking out could burn someone, the leak is only going to get worse. And would you use a pan that leaks on the stove and have boiling liquid dripping out of it, or would you get another pan? If you had a cup that leaks would you still use it to drink your tea or coffee out of?

[moderator2]

ugoleaf, I have added middle east to your profile so that members will be able to see that you are not in the UK.

[ericmark]

Leaks around where the element enters the water clearly are a danger, however had one weeping around the spout and handles for years without problem.

In UK we tend to have RCD protection and good earthing, so danger is very low, other countries have diffrent systems, and so what may be safe enough in UK may not be safe in Algeria where getting an earth in the Sarhra sand is not easy.

So you need to use common sense, electric bits getting wet is never good, but I remember importing Tesco auto knock off kettles to Turkey as they were very expensive, but other item were reverse, cheaper in Turkey than UK, so if easy to replace then replace, but the protential danger depends where the leak is.