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Laundry a major cause of fires and water damage claims..

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The household clothes dryer remains one of the most common causes of household fires, along with food left cooking on the stove. I was reminded of this due to an article I read on the News.com.au website.

With the dryer, the issue is that lint builds up eventually overheating and catching fire. To greatly reduce the likelihood of this happening it is important to clean out the lint after each and every time you dry a set of clothes. This is not just an issue in homes but also in commercial laundries and dry cleaners.

On the water side, this can be through two causes. The first is leaving the water intake hoses to the washing machine under constant pressure. The hoses do perish over time and if the tap is left on and the person is away from the home, then the home can be inundated by water at full mains pressure. My advice is to turn off the water to the machine at the tap or stop cock so that if the hose does fail while you are away the amount of water is limited to the amount in the hose only. The same applies to your dishwasher. With the metal braded hoses I recommend they be replaced with a quality product every 5 years as a minimum. On claim stats they are failing at a younger age in the past with the move to offshore manufacturing.

The other cause is where the user fails to clean out the filter on the discharge side of the washing machine. This is typically found on the bottom front of the machine under a little door. You lift the flapped door, unscrew the knob and slowly pull out the filter. I do recommend putting a baking tray or some other shallow dish under the machine to catch any water that may drip out.

You can then hose off to clean the filter and pop it back in following the instructions in reverse. Depending on the amount of laundry the machine is subjected to dictates how often this should be done but every six months seems to work fine. Taking these simply risk management steps will hopefully keep you and your home, flat or apartment safe and dry.

Article written by Prof Allan Manning

General Advice Warning: This advice is general and does not take into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. You should consider whether the advice is appropriate for you and your personal circumstances. Before you make any decision about whether to acquire a certain product, you should obtain and read the relevant product disclosure statement.

All information above has been provided by the author.

Adroit Insurance & Risk, ABN 75 078972 700, AFSL 244 348

This article originally appeared on Adroit Insurance & Risk Blog and has been published here with permission.