Fault advice

[Ross1]

Evening guys,

Been to a customer today to investigate a fault that they have had for over a year now.

When the cooker/hob is on then they are getting a tingle on the taps and in the shower. didnt have much time today but can tell you that water pipes in bathroom and the boiler area are all bonded back to the MET. the cooker, boiler and lights are on the non RCD side of board.

Hate fault finding, has anyone got any tips for me to narrow it down quickly.

thanks

 

[Welchyboy]

Probably Something's not earthed mate, sounds like she's feeling the effects of a potential difference between two points

 

[infinity]

IR test, wander lead to check bonding resistances.

 

[Knobhead]

Find an electrician that can fault find. With the information you give no one could give you an answer. If they do advise it will be pure guess work.

 

[chrish_1977]

This should be pretty simple to fault find, if there is voltage on something there shouldn't be, just check the basics first and also the obvious too

 

[snowhead]

I'll have a guess;

The Cooker is the source of the fault, you should be able to pin down which hob it is by tingle testing with one on at a time.

(disclaimer, extemely bad method of testing, but no worse than walking away and leaving a potentially dangerous situation, the cooker should have been isolated, takeaways are cheaper than funerals)

 

[ezzzekiel]

as its the cooker then an ir should show an earth fault on the circuit testing it would hopefully be the switch end but more than likely the main run is damaged

 

[ackbarthestar]

PAT testing the cooker will show up any wayward leakages......

Now how many people PAT test fixed/hard wired equipment ?

However, any leakages on the elements, which is quite probable, should be dealt with by the cooker's cpc.

Edit:
Now, if the installation was TT with no RCD, or even with an RCD, the potential on the MET would rise to the difference between the applied voltage and the volt drop across the cooker's element.
If the TT Ra (Zs e) is high, then the voltage might well be high on the MET..... Just a thought...

 

[JeanGenie]

Seen a similar fault before, neutral and earth was reversed.

 

[44ALLAN]

PAT testing the cooker will show up any wayward leakages......

Now how many people PAT test fixed/hard wired equipment ?

Funny you should say that actually lol
Lots of my fixed/hard wired equipment now has various single and 3 phase plugs on and I've made various assortments of sockets to plug them into which then plugs into my PAT tester............so easy to do as well

 

[ackbarthestar]

Just like to add a bit more......

Local supplementary bonding will reduce the possibility of shock particularly when completely wet in a shower.

However an RCD alone may not provide the necessary protection as you are hanging onto a metal shower head, or possibly not, while standing on a metal bath.
I don't think the enamel or a metal shower water drain, or not, will provide enough IR not to provide a few mA of circulating current.

I think standing wet in a shower with 5mA of current circulating would be enough to tell me something wasn't right.....

SO much for 30mA RCDs, never mind the 100mA up front RCDs installed on some TT systems

 

[trev]

Please tell us you isolated the cooker

 

[telectrix]

probably been cooking too many horse lasagnes. trigger's revenge.

 

[trev]

Tel keep on topic mate please. I reckon this read is neigh place for horsemeat jokes.

 

[ackbarthestar]

Ney.......

 

[Andy78]

C'mon lads !! I find these jokes to be pretty poor taste. Rein it in please.

 

[trev]

Ney.......

Enough with the NAGging

 

[trev]

C'mon lads !! I find these jokes to be pretty poor taste. Rein it in please.

Maybe we should let it ride Andy

 

[Andy78]

Maybe we should let it ride Andy

Nah I'm sick of hearing of it to be honest. It's been going on furlong enough.

 

[44ALLAN]

I wonder what the odds were of me reading a post like this tonight...............