Oven tripping the electrics

Catbenetar

Hi all, sorry this is a little long, but hoping someone can offer some advice.

For around 2 and a half years our oven has been tripping the electrics, usually after about 20 mins of use. We have a care plan and have had engineers out several times to replace elements, thermostat and I think the fan. Still the issue persisted so I gave up trying and just got an air fryer. 

Until recently I have been using the hob and air fryer to get meals done. Out of the blue a couple of weeks ago our electrics got tripped while the cooker was not in use. Every time we switched it back on using the oven switch at the wall it would again trip and we could only get the power back on by switching off at the wall.

We called our care plan again and this time they have sent a new oven. It has been properly fitted and I have been using it for a couple of days and now it has again tripped and we cannot switch it back on, exactly like the previous oven.

It's worth noting as well that we had an electrician out who tested the wiring and fuse box to try and find issues outside of the oven. He deemed all was ok and issue was the oven. Now it is replaced and the same thing is happening I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

Also at the time the issues started we had a socket moved in our bedroom, which is on the same circuit as the oven and kitchen. Could this have caused the issue? And if so why did the electrician not pick this up?

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Anybody got any suggestions?

vacheron

Is it tripping just the kitchen or downstairs sockets (plus the new socket in your bedroom) which would be an overcurrent fault = Circuit Breaker

Or is it tripping the whole house (or sometimes maybe half of the house) = RCD?


We had a similar problem when we got a new kitchen and fish tank.

RCD's activate at 30mA leakage current, but everything you plug in leaks a tiny amount naturally, In our case, all the new appliances had combined for a normal leakage of 25-28mA so it only took a tiny blip to go over 30 and trip the RCD.. and ovens are notorious for larger leakage currents. 

Any electrician with a current clamp around your incoming tail cables can verify this in 5 minutes. The solution may be a Split RCD Consumer unit or, even better, an RCBO version. But it will cost about £500+ to get done if this is the reason. 

Catbenetar

Hey,

It trips everything on the circuit which are the lights and all sockets in the kitchen and my bedroom. Rest of house remains active.

vacheron

Then it sounds like an overcurrent trip (unless you know that you have an RCBO consumer unit in which case it could still be earth leakage). 

What is the Amp rating of the switch that trips? If you have added a new spur socket and potentially a larger oven with a higher rated heating element it may be underrated, but does not explain why it is tripping when the oven is off, and also I hope that the electrician would have spotted that! 

Are there any other large devices (hobs, toasters, kettles, air fryers, fridges) connected to this circuit normally?

born_again

Catbenetar said:

Hi all, sorry this is a little long, but hoping someone can offer some advice.

For around 2 and a half years our oven has been tripping the electrics, usually after about 20 mins of use. We have a care plan and have had engineers out several times to replace elements, thermostat and I think the fan. Still the issue persisted so I gave up trying and just got an air fryer. 

Until recently I have been using the hob and air fryer to get meals done. Out of the blue a couple of weeks ago our electrics got tripped while the cooker was not in use. Every time we switched it back on using the oven switch at the wall it would again trip and we could only get the power back on by switching off at the wall.

We called our care plan again and this time they have sent a new oven. It has been properly fitted and I have been using it for a couple of days and now it has again tripped and we cannot switch it back on, exactly like the previous oven.

It's worth noting as well that we had an electrician out who tested the wiring and fuse box to try and find issues outside of the oven. He deemed all was ok and issue was the oven. Now it is replaced and the same thing is happening I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

Also at the time the issues started we had a socket moved in our bedroom, which is on the same circuit as the oven and kitchen. Could this have caused the issue? And if so why did the electrician not pick this up?

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Anybody got any suggestions?

Did you tell the electrician about this socket on the same circuit?

Could it be that this socket is the problem & maybe that the connections in the socket are lose, thus causing a issue, or that the wiring when moved is the issue?
If the electrician did not know about it, short of pulling all the cabling out, they would never work that one out. As usually house wiring covers certain rooms/floors & a bedroom socket on a kitchen circuit would not be normal.

Catbenetar

vacheron said:

Then it sounds like an overcurrent trip (unless you know that you have an RCBO consumer unit in which case it could still be earth leakage). 

What is the Amp rating of the switch that trips? If you have added a new spur socket and potentially a larger oven with a higher rated heating element it may be underrated, but does not explain why it is tripping when the oven is off, and also I hope that the electrician would have spotted that! 

Are there any other large devices (hobs, toasters, kettles, air fryers, fridges) connected to this circuit normally?

I don't know the amp rating I'm afraid. As luck would have it everything worked fine when we had the electrician out as the issue was just intermittent then. It then got worse very soon after that.
There are many things used on this circuit. Everything listed above as well as the boiler. Nothing else causes any sort of issue and only ever is it the oven that trips it. 

born_again

Catbenetar said:

vacheron said:

Then it sounds like an overcurrent trip (unless you know that you have an RCBO consumer unit in which case it could still be earth leakage). 

What is the Amp rating of the switch that trips? If you have added a new spur socket and potentially a larger oven with a higher rated heating element it may be underrated, but does not explain why it is tripping when the oven is off, and also I hope that the electrician would have spotted that! 

Are there any other large devices (hobs, toasters, kettles, air fryers, fridges) connected to this circuit normally?

I don't know the amp rating I'm afraid. As luck would have it everything worked fine when we had the electrician out as the issue was just intermittent then. It then got worse very soon after that.
There are many things used on this circuit. Everything listed above as well as the boiler. Nothing else causes any sort of issue and only ever is it the oven that trips it. 

What items are running when it trips?

How old is the wiring/fuse box?

As rule of thumb, Boiler & cooker would be on their own circuit in fuse box.

Is cooker hard wired in or just on a normal plug?
Which cooker?

Catbenetar

born_again said:

Catbenetar said:

vacheron said:

Then it sounds like an overcurrent trip (unless you know that you have an RCBO consumer unit in which case it could still be earth leakage). 

What is the Amp rating of the switch that trips? If you have added a new spur socket and potentially a larger oven with a higher rated heating element it may be underrated, but does not explain why it is tripping when the oven is off, and also I hope that the electrician would have spotted that! 

Are there any other large devices (hobs, toasters, kettles, air fryers, fridges) connected to this circuit normally?

I don't know the amp rating I'm afraid. As luck would have it everything worked fine when we had the electrician out as the issue was just intermittent then. It then got worse very soon after that.
There are many things used on this circuit. Everything listed above as well as the boiler. Nothing else causes any sort of issue and only ever is it the oven that trips it. 

What items are running when it trips?

How old is the wiring/fuse box?

As rule of thumb, Boiler & cooker would be on their own circuit in fuse box.

Is cooker hard wired in or just on a normal plug?
Which cooker?

Sometimes only the fridge will be on when it trips. Stuff is plugged in but not running.

I don't know the age of it. We moved in in 2017. House was built in 1990.

It is hard wired. The oven switch has a socket next to it which works fine.

Last was a zanussi new one is an Amica. Both ceramic hob fan oven.

The first oven worked for over 5 years with no issue. tripping started after we had the socket moved.

Doonhamer

Did I read correctly that switching the oven off at the oven wall switch stops the trips from happening? If that's the case it must be the cable from the oven wall switch to the oven. Maybe replace that, it could have been squashed and damaged at some point, or maybe it tee's off to feed an electric hob that was replaced with a gas one in the past. And replace the oven switch, they're not expensive

Catbenetar

Doonhamer said:

Did I read correctly that switching the oven off at the oven wall switch stops the trips from happening? If that's the case it must be the cable from the oven wall switch to the oven. Maybe replace that, it could have been squashed and damaged at some point, or maybe it tee's off to feed an electric hob that was replaced with a gas one in the past.

Yes switching off at the wall is the only way to get the power back on. At present we can't turn it back on at all as it trips every time.

Funnily enough the oven that was there before was full gas hob. 

Catbenetar

born_again said:

Catbenetar said:

Hi all, sorry this is a little long, but hoping someone can offer some advice.

For around 2 and a half years our oven has been tripping the electrics, usually after about 20 mins of use. We have a care plan and have had engineers out several times to replace elements, thermostat and I think the fan. Still the issue persisted so I gave up trying and just got an air fryer. 

Until recently I have been using the hob and air fryer to get meals done. Out of the blue a couple of weeks ago our electrics got tripped while the cooker was not in use. Every time we switched it back on using the oven switch at the wall it would again trip and we could only get the power back on by switching off at the wall.

We called our care plan again and this time they have sent a new oven. It has been properly fitted and I have been using it for a couple of days and now it has again tripped and we cannot switch it back on, exactly like the previous oven.

It's worth noting as well that we had an electrician out who tested the wiring and fuse box to try and find issues outside of the oven. He deemed all was ok and issue was the oven. Now it is replaced and the same thing is happening I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do.

Also at the time the issues started we had a socket moved in our bedroom, which is on the same circuit as the oven and kitchen. Could this have caused the issue? And if so why did the electrician not pick this up?

Thanks for reading if you got this far!

Anybody got any suggestions?

Did you tell the electrician about this socket on the same circuit?

Could it be that this socket is the problem & maybe that the connections in the socket are lose, thus causing a issue, or that the wiring when moved is the issue?
If the electrician did not know about it, short of pulling all the cabling out, they would never work that one out. As usually house wiring covers certain rooms/floors & a bedroom socket on a kitchen circuit would not be normal.

No, we didn’t mention this socket last time as I’ve only just checked back on the timeline and made the link between the two events. Though I’m now thinking it’s just a coincidence. 

The wring is very odd in the house. Kitchen and main bedroom are both on a circuit together. 

I think I just want to be armed with some knowledge so that I can’t be fobbed off again. Electrician blamed the oven and the oven people blamed the electrics. With a brand new oven in behaving the same way I’m certain it must be something in the wiring.