PH Electricians

[sneijder]

One of out circuit breakers keeps tripping out, I've narrowed it down to our kettle being turned on.

Use the toaster or blender in the same socket and it's business as usual, try and use the kettle though and it's lights out.

Kettle is less than a year old, but quite hefty.

Do I buy a new kettle, or ring the janitor and get him round with his sonic screwdriver ?

Thanks for reading

[sneijder]

I just tried the vacuum cleaner and iron in the same outlet and everything worked.

It has to be the kettle, right ?

[Smiler.]

Sound like the culprit.

If you think is might be faulty, get it checked before further use.

What else is connected to the circuit in question? Look at the Consumer Unit - is the circuit a ring or radial? What is the rating on the circuit breaker?

What is the make/model of kettle?

[Kevp]

Not the kettle.

The kettle should have a 13amp fuse in the plug. If the kettle was faulty this would blow, not the (32amp?) mcb. However your circuit could be heavily used/overloaded, & the new kettle may be of a higher rating. This could send it over the circuits capacity.

Is it the MCB that is tripping, not an RCD or RCBO? What other equipment is running at the time?

[sneijder]

The fridge and dishwasher were on, this is Norway though, there's no fuse in the plugs as far as I can see.

Kettle is a Wilfa, 220-240v 50/60Hz 2000 - 2400w.

[Kevp]

Oh. I shouldnt assume.
I still doubt its the kettle. Probably having the dishwasher (high load) & kettle on at the same time is to much. To prove this try using the kettle when the dishwasher is off. Or try the kettle on another circuit.

[spikeyhead]

What sort of circuit breaker is it? MCB, RCD?

[Raverbaby]

My moneys on the kettle, presuming its an RCD/RCBO
Its common for heating elements to cause RCD's to trip.

[sneijder]

spikeyhead said:

What sort of circuit breaker is it? MCB, RCD?

You lost me at 'What' !



It's the one on the right.



All it does is the lights and the fridge in the kitchen normally, plug in the kettle and it trips off.

I can have the lights, dishwasher, fridge, vacuum, toaster and blender going and everything is fine.

[Smiler.]

OK, that looks like an 80A RCD. It operates on an out of balance current between live & neutral. Its rated at 30mA, but may operate at less than that.

My advice would be to switch off & un-plug all other appliances & then try the kettle.

Raverbaby said:

My moneys on the kettle, presuming its an RCD/RCBO
Its common for heating elements to cause RCD's to trip.

Surprisingly so.

[dilbert]

If you have a multimeter, then check the resistance between the earth pin and each of live and neutral (of the unplugged kettle).

A proper PAT tester would do the test at greater than 1000V, but you can just do it with a multimeter. If the test shows that the resistance is anything other than open circuit, you know the kettle is dead.

If you keep hammering your main supply, to test an iffy kettle, you'll only end up damaging something else. Probably an expensive computer.

Edited by dilbert on Thursday 8th July 14:30

[PH5121]

If the kettle is tripping the rcd ditch the kettle.

[dave_s13]

PH5121 said:

If the kettle is tripping the rcd ditch the kettle.

This!!

Simple.

Or try someone elses kettle.

Have you ever watched your leccy meter when say you've got a couple of lights on, TV going, nothing much else. It just ticks along nicely. Brew up and wham! vtec kicks in yo! Mine sets off like a good un

[Driller]

Why not try plugging the kettle into another socket and see what happens?

[netherfield]

Pull it out and stick a 6 inch nail in instead,this PH after all.

[sneijder]

I'll treat the missus to a new kettle.

[freecar]

dave_s13 said:

PH5121 said:

If the kettle is tripping the rcd ditch the kettle.

This!!

Simple.

Or try someone elses kettle.

Have you ever watched your leccy meter when say you've got a couple of lights on, TV going, nothing much else. It just ticks along nicely. Brew up and wham! vtec kicks in yo! Mine sets off like a good un

I've got that beat, try running an electric kiln! The meter goes bananas every time the heating element cuts in! 5Kw!

[Brite spark]

freecar said:

dave_s13 said:

PH5121 said:

If the kettle is tripping the rcd ditch the kettle.

This!!

Simple.

Or try someone elses kettle.

Have you ever watched your leccy meter when say you've got a couple of lights on, TV going, nothing much else. It just ticks along nicely. Brew up and wham! vtec kicks in yo! Mine sets off like a good un

I've got that beat, try running an electric kiln! The meter goes bananas every time the heating element cuts in! 5Kw!

There seems to be some confusion on this thread- an rcd/rcbo may trip under overload conditions but will also trip under earth leakage currents which is likely to be the case with the kettle