bathroom cabinet wiring problem

[Matt Jackson]

I'm installing a bathroom cabinet that needs power and more specifically ea rth. it has demister / LED lights and infra red switch.

The previous wiring (to the old cabinet) passed through the wall behind the cabinet and into the kitchen... spurring off a cooker socket. The new cab inet does not work with this setup, I suspected that the earth wasn't there , but it ive tested with multimeter and the kitchen has 240v testing live / earth.

I tested the cabinet was working by wiring a standard plug to it and pluggi ng it into a socket. It does works.... but only when I plug it into through a peripheral device (rodent deterrent from maplin) which has a pass-throug h socket on it. I though it may have been an RCD detection, and plugged it through an RCD but this didn't work, only the rodent deterrent device.

In summary, I'm really confused as to why I can only get the device to work when plugged into / through this rodent deterrent, but nothing else. And h ow i can move forward.

i understand most people will say get an electrician...but i'm looking for an answer about how to do this myself.

Any advice or help much appreciated, cheers matt.

[John Rumm]

The presence or otherwise of the earth should not affect whether the thing functions. (not being there, would be a safety issue - but not a functional thing, since there are very few things that depend on an earth to function correctly)

ok, ignore the rodent deterrent and anything further upstream for the moment. You should be able to get it to work on a plug.

Now when you connect direct to a socket, is it that the device does not work, or is it that the whole circuit RCD trips and disconnects power to the whole circuit?

If the latter, then you have an insulation fault in the cabinet.

If the former, then you probably have a lose connection fault in the cabinet.

Unless you have two very odd faults (like earth transposed with one of the other wires in both the cabinet *and* the rodent device, or perhaps a non standard plug with pins that don;t mate properly with all sockets then you are probably just chasing a co-incidence there.

Using your multimeter on a resistance range, can you confirm continuity from the pins of the plug through to the terminals at the other end of the flex in the cabinet? If you can, then try with the flex in different positions.

[Brian Gaff]

I'm not sure what you term the rodent deterent. What actually is it and what is it for? On the face of it 240vac is what it says on the tin, why should where it comes from make any difference at all. Brian

[Andy Burns]

The cabinet probably has an isolating transformer in it, so chances are anything plugged into the cabinet's socket wouldn't trip an RCD.

[Dave W]

The previous wiring (to the old cabinet) passed through the wall behind the cabinet and into the kitchen... spurring off a cooker socket. The new cabinet does not work with this setup, I suspected that the earth wasn't there, but it ive tested with multimeter and the kitchen has 240v testing live / earth.

I tested the cabinet was working by wiring a standard plug to it and plugging it into a socket. It does works.... but only when I plug it into through a peripheral device (rodent deterrent from maplin) which has a pass-through socket on it. I though it may have been an RCD detection, and plugged it through an RCD but this didn't work, only the rodent deterrent device.

In summary, I'm really confused as to why I can only get the device to work when plugged into / through this rodent deterrent, but nothing else. And how i can move forward.

i understand most people will say get an electrician...but i'm looking for an answer about how to do this myself.

Any advice or help much appreciated, cheers matt.

Maybe your "standard plug" is old and has tarnished pins which don't make very good contact in an old socket? Your rodent deterrent will have a shiny new socket with decent springs.