Garden lighting issue

[Ryans94]

Hi all,

Any help would by greatly appreciated as i have tried everything i possibly can. Heres some info on the situation, installed some spike lights a year or so ago. Couple of weeks ago they tripped so went round and found one of the wiska boxes to have been damage and water had gotten in. So replaced the box and sealed it with gel all was well for a little while then it started going again. So i have tried; Testing the RCD all good reading, Changing all the led bulbs incase one was faulty, replaced a couple of fittings that looked a little worn may have been hit by the gardener, Tested the armoured throughout the circuit and checked all joint boxes and lights for any water and nothing. The only strange thing i cant under is when i remove the LED's form the circuit and do an insulation test with the fittings in i get a down reading but they are only knightsbridge mains GU10 spike lights but the cable is brand new. Now they work for a couple of hours then trip? why would this be and not straight away...

Any help would be amazing.
Thanks in advance
Ryan

 

[buzzlightyear]

damage cable to the led light fittings from the wiska box .
start from one led to the second and from there .seek you will find it .the Knightsbridge are a sealed unit .possible faulty led .

 

[Strima]

Don't just do a quick RCD test, if your MFT has the function lock it to put out 500 volts for a few minutes to see if the insulation breaks down after a while.

 

[The Ghost]

Thinking about the two hours then the RCD trips suggest to me that something is heating up slowly and gets to a point that causes the RCD fault. I was thinking of water but heat makes more sense, maybe???

 

[Wilko]

Just a thought - if the cable sheath is damaged there is the possibility for water to wick into your junctions. Maybe recheck the one you recently fixed?

 

[Boing89]

Corrosion on the connections that were wet perhaps? This could potentially give them a high resistance but not high enough to actually stop everything working straight off. The extra build up of heat over time could be causing your fault which disappears again when the cct is deenergised.

 

[Pete999]

Whats a "down" reading?

 

[telectrix]

Whats a "down" reading?

opposite to an "up" reading. usually found in Australia.

 

[Pete999]

opposite to an "up" reading. usually found in Australia.

So not a side reading then Tel?

 

[telectrix]

nah. side readings are from China.

 

[sam400]

The Knightsbridge spike lights are terrible I fitted some last year and 3 out of 12 filled with water after a couple of weeks.
I replaced them with Ansell ones, far superior product.

 

[sam400]

The Knightsbridge spike lights are terrible I fitted some last year and 3 out of 12 filled with water after a couple of weeks.
I replaced them with Ansell ones, far superior product.

 

[Pete999]

nah. side readings are from China.

Slanted reading Tel

 

[MDJ]

Down ?, well that means a short circuit, start at the beginning and check all connections, back to basics I am afraid.

 

[Ryans94]

Thinking about the two hours then the RCD trips suggest to me that something is heating up slowly and gets to a point that causes the RCD fault. I was thinking of water but heat makes more sense, maybe???

This was my thought as ive tested and changed all the bulbs possibly one of the connections could be slightly loose but they are all gel filled......

 

[Octopus]

I can assure the OP that the problem is caused by the manufacturer sourcing the parts from the Far East and that the cables, marked up to be hno5 are certainly not to this grade.

I took apart a set of garden lights and in all cases the low ir was due to the cables attached to the lights

I took this up with Kensington technical a few months ago and they told me that they had lasted more than 1 year so not their problem.

Carp products, carp manufacturer .... won’t buy or install their garden lights now

I’ve got 8 year old hno5 installed and it’s never created a problem .....

 

[TJ Anderson]

What readings were you getting exactly in M/Ohms and how are you testing?

 

[mattg4321]

As above, can almost guarantee the fittings are causing the problem. They are probably leaking water or the flex has gone bad as it's of such poor quality. Had this quite a few times in the past.

I now only fit quality ELV gear when doing outdoor lighting that is heavily exposed to the elements. Probably 20 separate jobs since I started doing this around 3 years ago and zero problems so far, other than one driver failure. Easily sorted in 5 minutes.

 

[weevilward]

Hi all,

Any help would by greatly appreciated as i have tried everything i possibly can. Heres some info on the situation, installed some spike lights a year or so ago. Couple of weeks ago they tripped so went round and found one of the wiska boxes to have been damage and water had gotten in. So replaced the box and sealed it with gel all was well for a little while then it started going again. So i have tried; Testing the RCD all good reading, Changing all the led bulbs incase one was faulty, replaced a couple of fittings that looked a little worn may have been hit by the gardener, Tested the armoured throughout the circuit and checked all joint boxes and lights for any water and nothing. The only strange thing i cant under is when i remove the LED's form the circuit and do an insulation test with the fittings in i get a down reading but they are only knightsbridge mains GU10 spike lights but the cable is brand new. Now they work for a couple of hours then trip? why would this be and not straight away...

Any help would be amazing.
Thanks in advance
Ryan

Just had this exact problem… Knightsbridge spike lights, 3 years old, it’s the carp cable they are made with. it was below 1MOhm and would trip the RCD after about 2 minutes of being switched on. I re-flexed the lights in question and all test >500MOhm now.