A home foot spa is an incredible way to unwind after a long day. These machines work away stress and soreness, leaving you feeling renewed and rejuvenated. However, whenever an appliance with water in it needs to be plugged in, there can be some understandable trepidation about dipping a toe in. It might be harder to relax if you’re worried about being electrocuted. So, is there cause for concern?
Can you receive an electric shock from a foot spa? It’s not likely. Although you certainly need to be careful where water and electricity are concerned, foot spas are designed to keep the water away from the electrical components. Government certifications and consumer watchdogs make sure that all products on the market are safe to use as intended.
You want to make sure that your foot spa is safe before flicking it on and climbing in. While it’s almost a certainty that you’ve got nothing to worry about—here’s a quick rundown of why you might be concerned, how foot spas are designed to avoid danger, and the cases in which you need to be extra cautious.
Water and Electricity Do Not Mix
Water is a conductor of electricity. This means that if there’s a live wire or some other electric current in a pool of water, that water will deliver the electricity to your body if you touch it. Water is not nearly as effective a conductor as say, a copper wire. The electricity will dissipate as it spreads through the water. However, foot spas are pretty small, and there isn’t nearly enough space for the electricity to harmlessly dissipate.
Foot spas make use of warmers, bubblers, jets, rollers, etc. to create a pleasant and relaxing experience. All of these features are powered by electricity. If any of the power supplies or electronic components for these features were to touch the water tank, then the results could be rather shocking. Once again, there’s no need to worry. Foot spas are designed to keep the water away from the electrical components.
How Foot Spas are Designed to Be Safe
Manufacturers are highly motivated to keep their products totally safe. After all, a product that injures someone and gets removed from shelves is unlikely to make a lot of money and could harm the company’s reputation, resulting in a loss of sales on other products. There are a number of strategies foot spa manufacturers employ to ensure that their products are safe to use.
Housing Electrical Components Away from Water
Your home foot spa essentially consists of a small tank of water, large enough to hold a set of feet, and a housing area where the electronic and electrical components are stored. This separation is key to ensuring that the product is safe. If electricity comes in contact with the water supply, that’s when there’s trouble.
Frequently, manufacturers will place a water tank so that it rests on the floor and the electrical components behind this tank rather than underneath it. This is one way that manufacturers can make it, so there is no chance of water leaking through the tank and making contact with electricity.
Including Fail Safes
Designing a foot spa to keep water and electricity safely separated is a great start. But what about if something goes wrong? Over time components warp, crack, move out of place, or deteriorate in other ways.
The solution to keeping these products safe is to add multiple layers of protection. Electrical wires are housed in water-resistant cabling; water tanks are designed so that if they break, the water will flow away from the electricity, additional barriers are placed. By adding multiple protections, product engineers and manufacturers are able to ensure that their product remains safe even if one of the components fails.
Using Safe Controls
The only electrical components of your foot spa that you’re likely to really interact with are the controls. All home foot spas will have some set up of buttons, switches, and dials to allow you to get your spa just how you like it. There’s a slim chance that using these controls while in the water could complete a circuit through your body, resulting in you getting zapped.
Saunas and hot tubs often place the controls for the jets out of reach of the sauna. This requires users to get all the way out of the water to go press the button or turn the dial, preventing any chance of electrocution. Foot spa manufacturers will be mindful of the same principle.
They may provide a remote to use to control the spa so that you don’t have to press the button on the actual unit. They may employ additional shielding to prevent a shock or spark from operating the controls. It may not be a bad rule of thumb to avoid adjusting things while your feet are in the water.
Read and Follow Your User’s Manual
Always read your instruction manual and obey any safety guidelines contained within. Using the foot spa in ways other than how it was intended to be used is playing with fire. The foot spa is designed to be safe in certain conditions. If you don’t follow the manufacturer’s guidelines, you risk creating a dangerous situation.
Batteries are Safer than Power Cords
If you are anxious about using a home foot spa safely, then get one that’s battery-operated. Unlike a wall outlet, batteries only have so much charge in them. When water makes contact with an electrical power source that’s plugged into the wall, it has a near limitless supply of electricity to pull from.
Even if a battery-operated foot spa were to shock you, it likely wouldn’t have enough power to do any real damage.
You’ll never have to worry about changing batteries in a plug-in unit. If you get a battery-operated model, you may have to change or recharge batteries fairly regularly, but that’s a small price to pay for peace of mind.
Unfortunately, I could only find one model that is battery-operated at this time. And it is designed for kids.
Be Careful of Shoddy Manufacturing
In 2006, a government consumer protections group ruled that a poorly manufactured foot spa, imported from China, posed “a serious risk of electric shock.” The product was not marked with CE, the EU’s mark indicating conformity with health, safety, and environmental regulations. This product was quickly removed from shelves, and nobody was injured.
In 2011, the Consumer Council, a Hong Kong-based consumer advocacy group, warned of a foot spa, which caused a woman to die of electrocution. This was due to water ingress, which caused water to reach the electrical components of the foot spa. The product also had a power cord with inadequate sheathing, which might have caused the wiring to become exposed over time.
There are from time to time, poorly constructed, and potentially dangerous foot spas that find their way to market. However, these instances are rare. It’s worth noting that in both cases, the dangerous products were found and removed by consumer watchdogs. There are people who spend a great deal of time and effort, making sure that the products that find their way into our homes are safe for us to use.
Overall, these products are completely safe. Manufacturers use various techniques to keep the electricity that powers your spa away from the water your feet are in. Those products that don’t meet safety standards are quickly found and removed from stores. So, go ahead, soak your feet. There’s nothing for you to worry about, except maybe whether or not to turn on the bubbles.
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