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Dear Electrical Experts.

Hokay, I know the question sounds stoopid - but here's the thing. I've not had an electric kettle for awhile because they kept blowing the mains circuits - the last 2 went rabid, if you turned them on the mains instantly turned off.

I live in a one-room flat, basically. The kitchen area's tiny, so I got a Baby Belling type stove - two hot rings - not the kind with gaps between the circles, sealed-in hot rings - and an oven. You can't use the oven as well as a top ring and it plugs into the mains, not wired in like a full-on cooker. All I've been using is the small ring to heat pans of water for tea - love tea - and the oven.

Awhile back, the larger of the two rings blew the mains. I'd been using it to boil water on. So I switched to just the small ring and the oven. Now this morning the small ring blew the mains - and the large ring seems to be working again. Thing they had in common? Both being used to boil water on, hence the question!

Dunno if this helps, and have no explanation for the phenomenon, but if a bit of water got on the small ring and you put the saucepan on top, it made a loud knocking sound. If you held the saucepan's handle while that was going on, you felt a clear vibration through the handle. Zero idea what caused that, don't know much about electrics, that's why I'm here. Basically - is it anything to do with me just boiling water on the rings, maybe occasional slight spillages - I MEAN slight, just a few drops, I'm disabled, it happens - getting into the wiring or something? I've no idea, hazarding a guess.

Big ring seems to be working OK at the moment, that's all I can say. Small ring, instant blowout. But it WAS the other way around!! And don't forget electric kettles - the last 2 - were causing blowouts too. Thing in common - all heating water. Is that a coincidence?

All advice will be followed.

Yours puzzledly

Chris.
 
if a bit of water got on the small ring and you put the saucepan on top, it made a loud knocking sound. If you held the saucepan's handle while that was going on, you felt a clear vibration through the handle.
To clarify just the above issue - what you describe there is normal, and is not an electrical fault.
If you spill water on a hot plate, it seperates into a number of 'balls' running around on the hotplate, and then if you put a saucepan or kettle on top, it traps these 'balls' of water, they get superheated, and the steam eventually forces its way out from under the pan/kettle, which then falls back on the hotplate.
A very familiar effect for anyone with an Aga!
It's not a fault.
Best to try not to spill water, though the Baby Belling should be able to withstand the occasional splash on top.

I've no idea why only one hotplate works and then the other, but I doubt it's anything to do with the noise/vibration you describe, but it could be to do with water getting into the cooker.

PS when you say "blew the mains" do you mean tripped a circuit breaker or RCD? And if so which one?
 
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I reckon we have another earth-neutral fault on an unrelated circuit.
Used to spend ages, as a child, dropping water onto my mother's Rayburn, then quickly dropping the kettle onto the boiling droplets, and watching it jump around.
 
To clarify just the above issue - what you describe there is normal, and is not an electrical fault.
If you spill water on a hot plate, it seperates into a number of 'balls' running around on the hotplate, and then if you put a saucepan or kettle on top, it traps these 'balls' of water, they get superheated, and the steam eventually forces its way out from under the pan/kettle, which then falls back on the hotplate.
A very familiar effect for anyone with an Aga!
It's not a fault.
Best to try not to spill water, though the Baby Belling should be able to withstand the occasional splash on top.

I've no idea why only one hotplate works and then the other, but I doubt it's anything to do with the noise/vibration you describe, but it could be to do with water getting into the cooker.

PS when you say "blew the mains" do you mean tripped a circuit breaker or RCD? And if so which one?
Dear Avo.

Sorry, wish I w as more of an expert. I've got a box on the bedroom wall with all the fuse switches in, the switches go off when they get tripped and you have to put them back on again. That's what I meant. It trips the main power fuse switch off.

I just don't understand why it was always the bigger of the rings doing it, then suddenly the smaller ring started doing it and I thought 'jeez, new belling needed' because I can't get anyone to wire the proper cooker in. If I try to hire someone they say it's down to the housing association, the housing association's electricity firm say I can't pay them to do it either because they're only set up to take money through the housing association and the housing association say they'll get to it when they 'update the kitchens' and I've no idea when that's going to be! Anyway, I tentatively tried turning the big ring on and it was working again!

So at the moment I'm just using the big ring only because it's working. But it WASN'T at one point and I've got no idea why it's not blowing the switches any more, or if it's going to suddenly start doing it again. I was lucky getting this Belling-type (it's not a true Baby Belling but it doesn't have a brand name on it and that's the closest description I can get of it) affordably and I don't know whether to just keep on using the big ring only or try to wire the proper cooker in myself as nobody else seems prepared to do it.

The box in the wall in the kitchen area's just got a switch on the front and wires inside. How dangerous could it be to turn all the power off, get a diagram of how to do it up on my laptop and fit the wires of the big cooker onto those coming out of the socket in the wall? Shouldn't be THAT hard, should it, as nobody's going to be doing it for me? You're the expert, what could go wrong with just twisting some wires together?

Yours puzzledly

Chris.
 
Can you post a pic of your fuse box, please.
Well I've not got a camera but here's the closest pictures I can find. It's a Hager box, it's got circuitbreaker switches, it looks pretty old as the plastic it's made from's gone yellow. Here's two pretty close pictures of the 'inside' and 'outside' - except where the bigger red switch is on the picture is one the same size, but black. I don't know if the colour makes any difference. The rest of it's the same, though. Same amount of smaller switches, same everything, just the big one's black. My one says RCD above the switches in big letters.

Hope these help! Sorry for lack of camera, had my phone stolen.

Yours respectfully

Chris.
 

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  • Is boiling water on a Baby Belling-type cooker safe? Fusebox looks like this on the outside - EletriciansForums.net
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  • Is boiling water on a Baby Belling-type cooker safe? Kinda what my fusebox looks like on the inside - EletriciansForums.net
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The smaller switches are called MCBs. The large one is a RCD, which, it looks like, also doubles up as your main switch.
Can you confirm that, if the RCD is off' you have no electricity at all?
Are the MCBs labelled? If so, what is each one for?
 

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