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Power outage followed by surge - appliances not working

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al91206

Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Hi all,

Just had a power outage .. then about 3 minutes later power came back on. Afterwards checked things out and all my 220 appliances are now not working:
water heater
2 AC's
stove
washer / dryer

Had a licensed electrician come out and he verified everything was ok with power and that the problem was the appliances. He said I should call my insurance company.

I called & they will be sending an adjuster around, wondering if anyone has experience with this - is it usually covered. I understand this depends on my policy, etc - just curious what the "norm" is? I have USAA renter's insurance - though I own my condo, through Cal-Vet home loan I already had disaster indemnity insurance, so USAA could only offer me a renters policy.

Questions:

1. Is this typically covered under "normal" homeowners and / or renters insurance?
2. What should I expect the adjuster to do - just look around? I've never made a claim before.

Any information is appreciated.

Thanks!

Al in SoCal
 


Ohiogal

Queen Bee
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? California

Hi all,

Just had a power outage .. then about 3 minutes later power came back on. Afterwards checked things out and all my 220 appliances are now not working:
water heater
2 AC's
stove
washer / dryer

Had a licensed electrician come out and he verified everything was ok with power and that the problem was the appliances. He said I should call my insurance company.

I called & they will be sending an adjuster around, wondering if anyone has experience with this - is it usually covered. I understand this depends on my policy, etc - just curious what the "norm" is? I have USAA renter's insurance - though I own my condo, through Cal-Vet home loan I already had disaster indemnity insurance, so USAA could only offer me a renters policy.

Questions:

1. Is this typically covered under "normal" homeowners and / or renters insurance?
2. What should I expect the adjuster to do - just look around? I've never made a claim before.

Any information is appreciated.

Thanks!

Al in SoCal
If you own your home, watch USAA deny your claim because you are NOT a renter. They may consider your insurance fraudulent.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
I would question your electrician's report. There is something amiss for all the 240 volt appliances to be not working yet every 120 v circuit/appliance is working.


water heater
2 AC's
stove
washer / dryer

when you say washer/dryer, does that mean you have a washer dryer unit or the washer and the dryer are non-functional? If the latter, I know of no residential washers that run on 240 volts. I don't know of any dryer that you do not have to "restart" after a power outage so the 240 volt circuitry would not be exposed to a high current flow that would damage the heating element. The control circuits of a dryer are 120 volt so, if all the 120 volt circuits in the house are working, the dryer would run but not heat up.

then, unless all of the appliances mentioned were actually "on" when the power came back on, they would not be exposed to any voltage at all since they were not on. The water heater power passes through a thermostat that, if not "made" (on so as to heat water), there will be no power flow through the water heater heating circuit at all. No power flow, no damage.

AC's; same thing. The thermostat would have had to have been calling for cooling, on both of them, for them to receive power any further than the control circuit

stove; same thing. The heating elements are 240 volt but the clock and control circuits are 120 volt (on almost all stoves). Again, unless you had ALL of the heating elements were on, it would not cause damage to ALL of the heating element even if it damaged one or two.

in residential electrical systems, you have 120 volt circuits and 240 volt circuits. A 120 volt circuit is obtained by connecting to one "leg" in the panel and the neutral of the system. To create a 240 volt circuit, you connect a conductor to each "leg" in the panel. Usually, if you have lost all 240 volt power, you have lost 1 "leg" from the power company. It is very implausible to have all of your 240 volt appliances damaged at the same time given the odds of them all being "on" at the same time is uncommon. Then, to have them all "on" after a power outage is nearly impossible.

so, if there was a surge that damaged all of the 240 volt appliances, if the surge was received through only one leg from the power company, that would mean every 120 volt appliance or such that was on that same leg would also experience the surge. If there are no 120 volt appliances or such that were not damaged, I doubt it was a power surge as you believe.
 

al91206

Member
Yup - electrical problems - BUT

Thanks for the advice - looks like:

1. My insurance company would have covered everything damaged - they just needed a report saying what was damaged and the cause (must have been "power surge")
2. Could be that nothing is damaged - having a "real" electrician come to my place next week - he says something is messed up w/ my breakers

Al in SoCal
 

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