Originally Posted by Jeffhs
Anyone who would use an AC-DC radio in a bathroom is taking a terrible risk. I did not realize fuses and circuit breakers will not open or trip, respectively, at just 30 milliamps; it would have saved many more lives if they had been designed to open the circuit at this current level. I can understand why fuses cannot blow fast enough to prevent electrocution; however, would it be possible to make a circuit breaker sensitive enough to trip at 30 milliamps or less? Of course, a sure-fire solution would be to get people to stop using AC-DC radios in bathrooms, but some people just don't get it that they are putting their lives at risk doing this. This kind of hazard is probably outdated today as far as AC-DC radios go (most people trashed their AC-DC sets years ago when transistor sets became popular or never owned an AC-DC one), but it is still a risk with appliances. As I mentioned in another post, a baby was killed decades ago when a toaster fell into the kitchen sink where the child was being bathed by its mother, and there are probably countless other accounts of such fatal accidents as well.
This is why today's line-powered radios, televisions, and appliances are now equipped, by federal law, with polarized AC cords, and why, as DavGoodlin mentioned, the National Electrical Code now requires GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) equipped outlets in damp locations such as kitchen sinks, bathrooms, basements, laundry areas and the like.
BTW, the "hot chassis" design did not disappear with the advent of all-solid-state radios and televisions. I have a late-model (1999-2000) RCA 19" color TV which has a hot chassis and, of course, a polarized line cord. One major hazard with this design is if, for any reason, the speaker leads are shorted, to each other or to ground, the television will be seriously and permanently damaged.
I don't know, however, if the same thing can happen with hot-chassis tube-powered radios or televisions if the speaker(s) connections is/are shorted. Tube-powered AC-DC radios may be more forgiving of this type of short, although I would think a solid-state AC operated radio would be destroyed in an instant if the speaker(s) was/were shorted to each other or to ground. The former (speaker leads shorting to each other) seems to me to be more likely to permanently and severely damage the radio, making it instant junk. I also think that if the speaker(s) were somehow shorted directly to ground, there would of course be no sound and the house fuse or circuit breaker might open or trip, respectively; there should not be any permanent damage done to the device in which the speakers are installed and used.
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