Monsoon checks worth doing on your appliances

Humidity does not break appliances on its own. What it does is expose problems that were already there — weak earthing, a hairline crack in an insulation sleeve, a duct that was never properly sealed. Those turn into faults in July that were invisible in April.

Earthing comes first

This matters most on the geyser, because it is the one appliance combining water, 230 volts and a metal body you touch. If you have ever felt a tingle from a tap or the geyser body, stop using it and have the earthing checked before anything else. That is not a quirk; it is a fault.

The rest of the list

• Geyser socket and MCB — should be dry, firmly seated, and not warm after a heating cycle
• Chimney duct — where it exits the wall, check the seal. A gap lets damp air back into the kitchen and rusts the fan housing
• RO purifier — damp raises the chance of bacterial growth in the tank, so this is a good month for a service and sanitisation
• Gas hose — humidity accelerates rubber perishing, so check for stickiness and cracks
• Anything on an extension board in the kitchen — move it to a proper socket

If an appliance trips the MCB during the rains and works fine once it dries out, that is a genuine insulation fault, not bad luck. It will get worse. Have it looked at rather than resetting the MCB each time.

Where the risk actually is

In most homes we visit it is not the appliance but the socket, the earthing and whatever extension arrangement grew organically around the kitchen counter. Those are cheap to put right and are the difference between a damp season being an inconvenience and being dangerous.