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teneke

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Hi all, I really hope this is the correct place in the forum.
tldr; Oven and boiler take turns to trip the breaker, but I don't think it's either of them so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Basically the main breaker keeps tripping in the house I'm renting. We've been living here for ~half an year but it only started happening in December. At first it was the oven. It'd trip the main breaker and by switching all the separate breakers in the box one by one I figured out it was the Oven that was tripping the system. It'd keep tripping it for the evening (meaning if i try to flick the oven breaker back on, it'd immediately trip the main breaker) and then in the morning it'd work again perfectly fine. For 6-7-8 days then it'd happen again.

The agency's electrical contractor came in first time, flipped the switch (about 12h later) and it worked fine so he gave me this story of how there's something in these ovens that just goes and you have to chuck the whole oven away it just happens and is inevitable and there's nothing you can do about it. Didn't really buy it but it's not my trade so who knows it's perfectly possible it's true. (Forgot to mention this is a new built, the house is 4-5y old)

About a week later it happened again, I called the agency and they arranged for a brand new oven. Guy came over installed it and it worked fine for another week or two. Then it tripped again. This time it was the boiler (gas combi boiler for shower and heating) (figured out by the trial and error method again). But the boiler trip was different. When the oven would immediately trip the breaker if I tried switching only the 'Oven' breaker switch in the main box On, the boiler would start up for about 30-60s and THEN trip. It sometimes even not trip if the heating was off and the tap was off, but as soon as I turn any of them on, it'd go.

Then eventually next day at some point I'd flip the breaker and it would stay on for few days.

Few days later breaker trips again, this time the brand new oven. Same as above wait it out and in the morning it'd work fine. And lastly, few days ago, and also just now, the boiler again.

This time, just now, I went downstairs, switched off everything that was linked to that half of the breaker box, all the downstairs sockets, the fridge, the washer, all the appliances EXCEPT the boiler and the oven.
And it still tripped about a minute later ....


So now I don't know what to do. The agency isn't excited to invest 250£ into testing the whole house given they might not find anything and I'm stuck in a limbo with a hot water heater in the winter that sooner or later will stop turning back on few hours later ...

I can't see nor smell anything out of the ordinary near the boiler or oven's switches in the kitchen or the breaker box. There' doesn't seem to be any water near these appliances. I even popped the boiler open (two screws from the bottom) looks perfectly pristine on the inside, nothing burnt or bent or leaking, or condensed.
Apart from just now at 22:30, all the other trips would usually happen around 17:30 - 18:00 in the evening. Can't say there's anything extra plugged in, anywhere in the house other than our usual electricals.

It almost feels like there's some current built up like a capacitator and it needs to cool down for few hours before it allows me to turn the boiler/oven back on.
Thank you if you're reading this!
 
This sounds like an earth leakage issue, and probably a neutral to earth fault. The item that causes the trip isn't necessarily the circuit with the problem, it just drives current through the fault causing the RCD to trip. That nasty thing about these is that turning a circuit off doesn't prevent it causing a fault, as as the neutrals aren't usually isolated inside the consumer unit.
A competent sparks needs to test each circuit in turn at the consumer unit. Finding out which circuit is the actual primary cause isn't a big job. If it's something on a sockets circuit it can take a bit longer.
Whereabouts are you (start of postcode?)
 
This sounds like an earth leakage issue, and probably a neutral to earth fault. The item that causes the trip isn't necessarily the circuit with the problem, it just drives current through the fault causing the RCD to trip.
A competent sparks needs to test each circuit in turn at the consumer unit. Finding out which circuit is the actual primary cause isn't a big job. If it's something on a sockets circuit it can take a bit longer.
Whereabouts are you (start of postcode?)
Thank you for the explanation. Peterborough
 
To add, at this point it doesn't need a full check of the whole house, it needs a couple of hours of a decent spark's time. Within that window it would be possible to prove if there is a constant fault and the variable is the amount of current running through the fault or whether it is an intermittent fault after all. My gut feeling on this one is that because different things are triggering it the variable is the amount of current used by that side of the board, not the fault condition itself. If so simply IR testing each circuit will show up where the primary issue is.

If the agency or you are willing to get a sparks in, the closest forum member I know of is @Pete999 / @Petej999 in Northampton though I believe he in turn knows a sparks in Peterborough.
 
To add, at this point it doesn't need a full check of the whole house, it needs a couple of hours of a decent spark's time. Within that window it would be possible to prove if there is a constant fault and the variable is the amount of current running through the fault or whether it is an intermittent fault after all. My gut feeling on this one is that because different things are triggering it the variable is the amount of current used by that side of the board, not the fault condition itself. If so simply IR testing each circuit will show up where the primary issue is.

If the agency or you are willing to get a sparks in, the closest forum member I know of is @Pete999 / @Petej999 in Northampton though I believe he in turn knows a sparks in Peterborough.
Sorry Tim don't know of any electricians in Peterborough, willing to help if I can though, OP contact either me or Camerabloke
 
Hi fellas, I know no one cares and no one's invested but in-case someone could use the experience or a google search leads to here:

After a plumber yesterday concluded it's not the boiler. Then a spark concluded it's absolutely the boiler (disconnected the boiler from the switch under it and it wouldn't trip) but also pointed me in the direction of the valves upstairs so a new plumber came and exactly 0.1 seconds after approaching the valves said 'yep there's your problem, I can feel water'.

So now the faulty one's disconnected and 'upstairs' controls the whole house till new valves can be installed.

Thanks again all and have a good weekend all.
 

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Last edited:
Hi all, I really hope this is the correct place in the forum.
tldr; Oven and boiler take turns to trip the breaker, but I don't think it's either of them so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Basically the main breaker keeps tripping in the house I'm renting. We've been living here for ~half an year but it only started happening in December. At first it was the oven. It'd trip the main breaker and by switching all the separate breakers in the box one by one I figured out it was the Oven that was tripping the system. It'd keep tripping it for the evening (meaning if i try to flick the oven breaker back on, it'd immediately trip the main breaker) and then in the morning it'd work again perfectly fine. For 6-7-8 days then it'd happen again.

The agency's electrical contractor came in first time, flipped the switch (about 12h later) and it worked fine so he gave me this story of how there's something in these ovens that just goes and you have to chuck the whole oven away it just happens and is inevitable and there's nothing you can do about it. Didn't really buy it but it's not my trade so who knows it's perfectly possible it's true. (Forgot to mention this is a new built, the house is 4-5y old)

About a week later it happened again, I called the agency and they arranged for a brand new oven. Guy came over installed it and it worked fine for another week or two. Then it tripped again. This time it was the boiler (gas combi boiler for shower and heating) (figured out by the trial and error method again). But the boiler trip was different. When the oven would immediately trip the breaker if I tried switching only the 'Oven' breaker switch in the main box On, the boiler would start up for about 30-60s and THEN trip. It sometimes even not trip if the heating was off and the tap was off, but as soon as I turn any of them on, it'd go.

Then eventually next day at some point I'd flip the breaker and it would stay on for few days.

Few days later breaker trips again, this time the brand new oven. Same as above wait it out and in the morning it'd work fine. And lastly, few days ago, and also just now, the boiler again.

This time, just now, I went downstairs, switched off everything that was linked to that half of the breaker box, all the downstairs sockets, the fridge, the washer, all the appliances EXCEPT the boiler and the oven.
And it still tripped about a minute later ....


So now I don't know what to do. The agency isn't excited to invest 250£ into testing the whole house given they might not find anything and I'm stuck in a limbo with a hot water heater in the winter that sooner or later will stop turning back on few hours later ...

I can't see nor smell anything out of the ordinary near the boiler or oven's switches in the kitchen or the breaker box. There' doesn't seem to be any water near these appliances. I even popped the boiler open (two screws from the bottom) looks perfectly pristine on the inside, nothing burnt or bent or leaking, or condensed.
Apart from just now at 22:30, all the other trips would usually happen around 17:30 - 18:00 in the evening. Can't say there's anything extra plugged in, anywhere in the house other than our usual electricals.

It almost feels like there's some current built up like a capacitator and it needs to cool down for few hours before it allows me to turn the boiler/oven back on.
Thank you if you're reading this!
What sort and size is the" breaker " you describe??? is it an overload device or an Earth leakage device, and have you had chance to look at the consumption issues in your property??
 
Hi fellas, I know no one cares and no one's invested but in-case someone could use the experience or a google search leads to here:

After a plumber yesterday concluded it's not the boiler. Then a spark concluded it's absolutely the boiler (disconnected the boiler from the switch under it and it wouldn't trip) but also pointed me in the direction of the valves upstairs so a new plumber came and exactly 0.1 seconds after approaching the valves said 'yep there's your problem, I can feel water'.

So now the faulty one's disconnected and 'upstairs' controls the whole house till new valves can be installed.

Thanks again all and have a good weekend all.
You are wrong.

we do care and we are always interested in what the final outcome is.

in fact it can be quite frustrating when you get a problem described asking for help.
several options or things to check are often posted and then the thread goes dead. One of the options has presumably pointed them in the right direction to fix the fault but no update is posted so we never know..

THANKS FOR THE UPDATE
Glad you have got it sorted.
 
Petej, wish I could answer correctly but I'm not a spark so I'd be rambling for ages describing the thing when there's a word for it already that I just don't know. Plus it seems it's not the breaker or anything electrical but a valve has leaked water (images now attached to my previous post). The house is a new built 4-5y old. The breaker box has two sets of 5 individual switches (one for the cooker, one for the boiler, one for the lights, one for the sockets etc.) when it'd pop it'd trip one of those two sets via the main switch - meaning not the individual boiler breaker would trip but the main one for the set with the 'test regularly' label. Doesn't seem like there's any irregular consumption but the house hasn't been tested. I've ordered me some smart plugs that seam to monitor power and current (W,A) but the jury's still out on those ones.

James, I mean no one would be as invested as me in the issue but yeah, being a coder I absolutely know from first hand the pain of finding EXACTLY to the letter the issue you're having in a dead thread from 10 years ago with one reply.

Thanks all, stay awesome! Speaks alot that you read through my initial word vomit and chipped in with suggestions.
 
Hi all, I really hope this is the correct place in the forum.
tldr; Oven and boiler take turns to trip the breaker, but I don't think it's either of them so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Basically the main breaker keeps tripping in the house I'm renting. We've been living here for ~half an year but it only started happening in December. At first it was the oven. It'd trip the main breaker and by switching all the separate breakers in the box one by one I figured out it was the Oven that was tripping the system. It'd keep tripping it for the evening (meaning if i try to flick the oven breaker back on, it'd immediately trip the main breaker) and then in the morning it'd work again perfectly fine. For 6-7-8 days then it'd happen again.

The agency's electrical contractor came in first time, flipped the switch (about 12h later) and it worked fine so he gave me this story of how there's something in these ovens that just goes and you have to chuck the whole oven away it just happens and is inevitable and there's nothing you can do about it. Didn't really buy it but it's not my trade so who knows it's perfectly possible it's true. (Forgot to mention this is a new built, the house is 4-5y old)

About a week later it happened again, I called the agency and they arranged for a brand new oven. Guy came over installed it and it worked fine for another week or two. Then it tripped again. This time it was the boiler (gas combi boiler for shower and heating) (figured out by the trial and error method again). But the boiler trip was different. When the oven would immediately trip the breaker if I tried switching only the 'Oven' breaker switch in the main box On, the boiler would start up for about 30-60s and THEN trip. It sometimes even not trip if the heating was off and the tap was off, but as soon as I turn any of them on, it'd go.

Then eventually next day at some point I'd flip the breaker and it would stay on for few days.

Few days later breaker trips again, this time the brand new oven. Same as above wait it out and in the morning it'd work fine. And lastly, few days ago, and also just now, the boiler again.

This time, just now, I went downstairs, switched off everything that was linked to that half of the breaker box, all the downstairs sockets, the fridge, the washer, all the appliances EXCEPT the boiler and the oven.
And it still tripped about a minute later ....


So now I don't know what to do. The agency isn't excited to invest 250£ into testing the whole house given they might not find anything and I'm stuck in a limbo with a hot water heater in the winter that sooner or later will stop turning back on few hours later ...

I can't see nor smell anything out of the ordinary near the boiler or oven's switches in the kitchen or the breaker box. There' doesn't seem to be any water near these appliances. I even popped the boiler open (two screws from the bottom) looks perfectly pristine on the inside, nothing burnt or bent or leaking, or condensed.
Apart from just now at 22:30, all the other trips would usually happen around 17:30 - 18:00 in the evening. Can't say there's anything extra plugged in, anywhere in the house other than our usual electricals.

It almost feels like there's some current built up like a capacitator and it needs to cool down for few hours before it allows me to turn the boiler/oven back on.
Thank you if you're reading this!
Do you mean the main switch for the whole board is tripping or the individual ones for each circuit? And does it say RCD or RCCB on it?
 

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