"Where the lead plugs in?"
Aren't almost all modern kettles cordless these days?
I have known buildup of copper vapour on the base cause problems on ones that are frequently picked up hot whilst still drawing 3kW.
Kettle failure is usually corrosion of the heating element which can self heal from limescale and/or electrolysis of the water itself.
Understood, but what we need to know is if the thing in the consumer unit that you are calling a breaker is in fact an RCD. An RCD will have a separate "test" button on it, an MCB will not.
I'll take a photo of the MCB in the garage tomorrow, so that people can see what I mean. Because I feel I may be confusing people with my words.
I'll be back tomorrow.
You have one MCB which trips and switches the entire house off?
It's more likely you have a whole house RCD which is tripping. That would take everything out.
Most common cause is a mineral insulated heating element of some sort - like you find in immersion heaters and cookers, etc. Looks like a small pipe.
If you have double pole switching to isolate these, just switching it off should cure things. So switch off the cooker and immersion heater at their isolating switch. Unplug things like washing machines, tumble driers and kettles. You should be able to find the faulty item this way.
Exactly, all this discussion is almost meaningless until we know exactly what the device is that is tripping.if it is indeed just a plain circuit breaker it may be dangerous or simply a faulty breaker.
most of this discussion has been about differing tripping devices which mean nothing without knowing the exact nature of the device.
Too much loose use of terminology here to really work out what is going on. Could you photograph the thing that trips and post it where we can see it?
Once saw a kettle that was tripping the RCD due to boiling for about 15s before switching off. It was in a cafe - I'd noticed it through the open doorway to the kitchen. The cafe said it couldn't do hot drinks, I pointed out the problem, another kettle was found and all was well. No, I didn't get free tea - the owner seemed resentful, possibly because of missing the bleeding obvious.
It's tomorrow...
I've had this happen twice since we got our all new board. Once was the steam iron. The second was a slug in the back of a socket.
But neither was intermittent!
Andy
Is it Monday?
Tomorrow is today, yesterday...........
Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.
Ask the community — no account required