In the UK at least this used to be pretty common up until recently. It was usually recommended to wire your washing machines into a fixed wall spur instead of using a plug. Incidentally my mums house almost burnt down due to a washing machine plug which had a wiring fault and started melting through the wall socket.
The more I learn about UK wiring, the more I'm convinced it is the worst in the world. Untrained people in third world countries regularly do better. Of course the UK has been getting better, but they are the ones who came up with the ring wiring and then have to put a fuse in each plug to try to overcome some of the problems from that idiot system.
