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What should I do if I get an electric shock from a tap or appliance?

The short answer

Treat it as an emergency. A tingle from a tap or appliance usually means voltage is present on metalwork that should be at earth potential, and it can become lethal without warning.

TradieAnswers editorial · written in-house and sourced to the authorities listed below

Checked against 4 published sources, listed in full at the end of this page. How we source this

A tingle is not a minor annoyance to be lived with. It means current is finding a path through you, and the size of that current depends on conditions that change: how wet your hands are, what shoes you are wearing, whether the ground outside is dry or saturated. The same fault that produces a tingle on a dry day can produce a fatal shock on a wet one.

What to do

  1. Stop using the tap, appliance or fixture, and keep others away from it.
  2. If you can identify a single appliance, unplug it. If the tingle is from plumbing or a fixed appliance, do not attempt to isolate anything beyond switching off the relevant circuit at the board.
  3. Call a licensed electrician and describe it as a shock, not as a fault, so it is triaged correctly.
  4. If more than one location in the house tingles, contact your electricity distributor as well, because a lost neutral in the supply can do this and it is their equipment.

The common causes

The frequent ones are a faulty appliance leaking to its metal case, a broken earth connection so a fault has nowhere safe to go, plastic sections in the water pipework that have interrupted the earthing path, or a fault in the network neutral. All of them are diagnosable and none of them are do-it-yourself work.

Who does this work

You need a licensed electrician

Because a tingle from metalwork means mains voltage is reaching something it should not, and locating that is licensed electrical testing.

This is licensed work in every Australian state and territory. Check a licence in your state

What to do now

  1. Stop using the tap or appliance and keep everyone away from it.
  2. If more than one metal fitting tingles, turn the main switch off and call your electricity distributor's emergency line, which operates around the clock.
  3. If it is one appliance, unplug it and leave it unplugged.
  4. Have a licensed electrician test before anything goes back into use. This is not a fault to live with while you get quotes.

Sources

Every source below was fetched and its response recorded on the date shown. Where a government site blocks automated clients, that is noted rather than reported as a successful check.

  1. Electricians · NSW GovernmentChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  2. Search a public register · Energy Safe VictoriaChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK
  3. Electrical safety laws · WorkSafe QueenslandChecked 2026-08-10 · live, but blocks automated clients so the specific page could not be confirmed
  4. Standards Australia · Standards AustraliaChecked 2026-08-10 · responded 200 OK

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