Garden Supply trips RCD

Deleted member 86472 · Jan 9, 2015

Hey everyone, this is my first question post so please go easy on me

My parents have a pond in their back garden, it has a pump and filter in it which is powered from a mains supply from the garage. The RCD on the house consumer unit tripped a couple of days ago and wouldn't reset untill we isolated the garden supply. I helped my dad have a look in the waterproof box and everything looked to be ok, no bare ends hanging out or loose terminal screws. We disconnected both the filter and pump from the terminal block (L, N and E) and turned on the garden power supply and the RCD was ok and the feed became live. I put a 13A plug on the pump and filter and used a seperate fed 13A socket to check if either unit was faulty and they both worked fine, however, when connecting them 1 at a time to the garden supply the RCD trips straight away.

My parents have an electrician which has done a few bits on the house but is currently away so I thought I would ask on here for any pointers before calling someone else in.

I look forward to your help!

telectrix · Jan 9, 2015

needs proper testing to locate the fault. my advice is to leave it dissed untill your elec. is available. if it's essential ( to fish etc.) then you'll have to get it sorted quicker.

Pete999 · Jan 9, 2015

telectrix said:
needs proper testing to locate the fault. my advice is to leave it dissed untill your elec. is available. if it's essential ( to fish etc.) then you'll have to get it sorted quicker.

What he said^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Marvo · Jan 9, 2015

To locate the type of fault that would trip the RCD requires a special type of tester. Without this tester there's nothing else you can do to fault-find any further.

Deleted member 9648 · Jan 9, 2015

Marvo said:
To locate the type of fault that would trip the RCD requires a special type of tester. Without this tester there's nothing else you can do to fault-find any further.

Definately not one of these!

Octopus · Jan 9, 2015

The investigation you have done will speed up the process of instigating a fix, so call somebody in, walk them through your "work" and leave them to it.

SirKit Breaker · Jan 9, 2015

I agree with all of the above.

The problem you are looking for concerns a very small amount of current leaking into the CPC somewhere within the circuit and causing the RCD to trip, or you have an over sensitive RCD, but the spark will have the knowledge and specialist kit to identify exactly what your problem is, and it should be a very quick diagnosis.

Cheers...........Howard