Kitchen Ring earth fault?

[Ross1]

Hi guys,

Customer woke up this morning with the Main switch/RCD tripped. He narrowed the problem down to the kitcken ring so He unplugged all the counter top appliances and switched all the big under counter appliances off at the switches.

I got there and turned the mcb on then plugged the toaster in first and the RCD tripped. I then punplugged the toaster and reset the RCD. I then plugged everything in the kitchen in One by one and left each appliance plugged in individually for 5 - 10 mins each, the only thing that that tripped the RCD was when I plugged the freezer in.

I checked the wiring behind each socket and all was ok. So I plugged everything in except for the freezer and the RCD didnt trip. I waited for nearly an hour and no trip even with the toaster plugged in and the switch turned on.

I didnt have any test equipment on me but I`m going back tmrw with test equipment, so my question is can anybody advise on possibley the quickest way to iddentify the cause of the fault?

Thanks

 

[Mark_Burgess]

Ahh the freezer, at least you know what it is!!
What you pretty much found but couldn't confirm first time.

 

[richy3333]

the other thing to note is the MWC itself asks for "details of the modified circuit". replacing a fitting /accessory is not modifying the circuit. therefore, IMO, no certificate is required (although i do not dispute the idea that it may be advantageous to complete a test of the circuit and issue a MW

edit:sorry, double post.

Hi Tel.

Just looking at the MWC in the BRB (page 335). Could you clarify where it refers to 'details of modified circuit' in the certificate?

 

[Knobhead]

Thanks to most of you guys for all your responses apart from the odd 1 or 2 of you. If you got nothing helpful to say, I`d rather you not comment on my threads.


I was back on the job today with my tester, I done ring end to end continuity 0.51 L-L 0.52 N-N 0.84 E-E. IR test, lowest reading i got was 250M Ohm.


Everything in the house stays on, under load aswell untill I plug the freezer in and.....boom RCD trips within 30secs. So my conclusion is the freezer is the problem ( its a smeg under counter job if that helps ) Ive never claimed to be an 20 - 40 year experienced spark, thats why I am on this forum which I find a great source of info from lots of experienced sparks.

Im new to testing and fault finding so am I missing something Guys?

I stand vindicated!

As to are you missing something, it’s just experience which will come with time.