Rcd Related Question

[NLD]

We woke up this morning to find that the RCD of the main consumer unit had tripped sometime overnight (note: none of the individual circuit breakers had tripped).

With all the circuit breakers switched 'on' the RCD could not be reset, but after isolating each circuit breaker individually the problem circuit seems to be a power socket circuit, which appears to be for the power sockets in the kitchen.

However, we plugged the kettle in one of the other power sockets (ie. not on the kitchen power socket circuit) and as soon as the kettle was switched on it tripped the RCD of the main consumer unit, but again no individual circuit breakers had been tripped.

Obviously, I need to determine whether the kettle is at fault, but other than that any ideas?

 

[Steve3948]

If your lucky it may be the kettle, it's called nuisance tripping for a reason.

Unplug everything and turn all fused spurs off to boiler, appliances etc, then try kettle again.

If it went during the night, what was on during the night or first thing this morning, Water heater, Heating ??

Turn them off and check if it still trips.

 

[NLD]

The wife got up first, and she says that the power was already off, but I've personally got a suspicion that maybe it only tripped when she turned the kettle on.  The reason I say this is because the storage heaters were hot, so I very much doubt that the RCD had tripped much sooner!

Out of interest, would the RCD 'trip' with just the kettle plugged in and switched off?  Why would the RCD trip and not the circuit breaker?

All that's on overnight is the storage heaters in the living room and hall, panel heaters in both bedrooms, the fridge/freezer and water heater.

 

[ProDave]

Definitely sounds like a fault kettle.

Almost certainly the insulation of the element has broken down, quite probably corrosion and water has got into the element.

As most kettles only switch the live, there will still be a leakage path from neutral to earth with the kettle plugged in but turned off. Perhaps that's what tripped it overnight?

Just buy a new kettle and go from there.

 

[NLD]

Thanks very much for all the advice.

I'll pop home at lunchtime and see if I can reset the RCD with the kitchen power socket circuit braker switched on, without the kettle plugged in anywhere.  That will at least confirm that the kettle is the culprit, if not, I think it's just going to be a process of elimination.

I'll let you know the outcome this afternoon.

 

[NLD]

You were spot on, it was definitely the kettle which has now been disposed of.  Many thanks!

 

[kerching]

Side note....the storage heaters should be on a different board and not be affected by other stuff