/diy/ - Do It Yourself

Got an old timer for standard Australian power outlet, and I have a dodgy water heater that constantly heats (thermostat problem or something?), want to restrict heating to an hour a day so my next water bill isn't >$800 again.

Standard outlet here is 240v, 10amp. Water heater is 15amp, and the ground pin on it is longer than standard to prevent idiots from doing exactly the kind of dumb shit like I'm about to propose...

Could I carefully file out the ground hole (bottom vertical one) on the plug so it takes a 15 amp plug and use it like that? Will my fingers get shot and my dog blown up?

I haven't opened the timer yet, but it seems to be mechanical. I'm hoping the worst that would happen is some wire can't take it inside the timer and just melts, leaving me able to simply remove it and go back to manually switching it off at the breaker like I'm doing now.

>eventually I'll report it to the landlord, but I have severe anxiety and it'll literally take me months to build up the courage to phone them