HELP - Electric leak

[Andrew]

I am getting a slight electric shock from the inside of my washing machine and dishwasher. 6-18V

This is only on one circuit. The appliances are fine on the cooker circuit for example.

I unplugged everything and switched all the plug sockets off

With the plug sockets switched off there is about 4-6V across the live to Earth

With the plug socket on live to earth is 140V, Neutral to earth is

100V

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance Andrew

[Ian Stirling]

Harmless in itself, tiny currents can often flow due to various effects that will make meters read voltages that have no real current behind them.

This would indicate that your earth is not actually connected to anything, which is bad. You can check this. Take a couple of plugtops, and wire to the earth lead in both a wire that you can run back to your multimeter. Now, turn the whole house electricity off at the breaker/switch. In a properly functioning system, there should be under an ohm or so between the ground pins of any two sockets in the house.

Measure this. It's probable that the earth wire is not wired up only at the washing machine socket, or not connected back at the consumer unit, or less likely there are two breaks in the earth wire.

I'd bet on the socket being the problem.

Open it up (power OFF!) and make sure that the earth wire is actually connected.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Sounds like your earthing is not connected to anything. As a matter of some urgency, get an electrician in to fix it. Would stringly suggest you don't use any metal cased earthed appliances until it's fixed.

[Badger]

I agree, probably just the one socket, but test the rest as well. I had to use a high current bonding tester in the past and a lot of properties only have the SWA supply earth on the cables outer wire sheath, not always a very good earth, blew a few of those apart with the tester, then the owners had to call in an electricain to sort them, before we'd repair their cookers. One lady (as in a lords wife) had a broken cooker for 3 months until the electrical contract manager was on site when I called and tested it in front of him, his, and this sparkies, avos showed a good bond.... I've also had a socket mis-wired at work, a 16A type, the earth comes into a 2 connector choc-block, only one side should be used, the contractor had put it into the wrong terminal, live and neutral both went direct to their respective sockets....CRAP design, accident waiting to happen, measured 200 volts chassis to (properly earthed) chassis on that one, the users had thought it was just static build up!

Niel.

[Andrew]

That's good. However, I am getting the same problem from all the plug sockets on the circuit. I have had a new water main fitted and central heating to the house. Old gas piping and lead pipes have been chopped about and a lot of the water redone. I assumed that the earth should go through the comsumer unit and that because I was getting power the connection to this it was good. Is it likely that the central heating work could be the cause of this?

Thanks for your help. I will run the tests against other earths with the consumer unit completely off in the next few days. I will also see what checks I can run from the consumer unit to other earths to try to chase the earth break through

And in a faulty system I am guessing anything else?

I will post with how I get on.

Thanks

Andrew

[Colin Wilson]

Was this previously used as your earth for the property ? (many do) - the supply companies are not obliged to provide an earth, and in days gone by, the water and gas pipes were often used to provide one.

Now they`re all being changed to plastic, many properties no longer have an earth, but its down to the house owner to sort it out themselves - but many are unaware of this.

Depending on the type of network in your area, your local electricity board (REC, whatever you want to call them these days) *may* be able to provide you with an earth from their cable sheath (quite possibly at a cost) - or you could arrange for an earth rod to be fitted.

[Tim]

I find that a tad alarming. Fair enought - water companies have no obligation to provide an earth, but I would have thought that they would have an obligation *not* to remove earthing cables without at least advising the owner to have the wiring checked and alternatives installed instead?

Thought the gas people *never* liked their pipes being used as handy earth rods though...

Timbo

[Brett Jackson]

Had similar with my dishwasher whilst I was re-fitting my kitchen. This was due to a dodgy four way connector I bought from Asda. The earth connector had just fallen apart inside the block!