Kettle or electrics?

Sporky

octatonic said:

unless you have my wife's taste in kettles (google Kitchen Aid- yes, she really paid that for a kettle).

Your wife has excellent taste in kettles - I got one of those when my Sage one went wiggy. A great improvement in every regard.

boogieman

ICBM said:

In my house (built 1982) it comes in as the outer sheath of the armoured underground cable. No earth rod.

Yup, most houses will have an incoming earth supplied by the the electricity company, using the cable sheathing is the favourite method. I’ve only ever seen earth rods used in rural properties. 

boogieman

Barney said:

It seems odd that it's only doing it with a kettle ...iff it was a fault on the ring main something like a microwave or toaster would cause it to trip 

A kettle is going to pull nearly 3kw though, a microwave or toaster won’t get near that. A heavy load like that will show up any weakness.    

Barney

boogieman said:

Barney said:

It seems odd that it's only doing it with a kettle ...iff it was a fault on the ring main something like a microwave or toaster would cause it to trip 

A kettle is going to pull nearly 3kw though, a microwave or toaster won’t get near that. A heavy load like that will show up any weakness.    

Bloody hell ..I didn't think kettles pulled that much ...they will be needing there own supply next ..

ToneControl

I bought an unused Smeg oven once, that had been used as a display prop in a caravan shop for 2-3 years
On plugging in, it tripped the RCD every time.
We were advised that the elements might have absorbed moisture, and to run it on a non-RCD socket for a few hours to dry it out. Worked perfectly after that. This is an example of how a tiny issue with a big load can trip an RCD

Conversely, I did a couple of searches for RCDs tripping repeatedly, and there are many things you can do wrong with the house wiring! 

Phil_aka_Pip

I was disgusted at the way my house got re-wired. The bloke was legally and technically competent but he just did not understand my requirements.

I needed the two main downstairs rooms on their own rings so that whatever happened elsewhere in the house they would not be affected. The washing machine developed a fault. It took down the breaker for the whole board, not just the kitchen (plus whatever else was on the kitchen's ring). It took out all the computing and musical equipment on the ground floor. I was not impressed.

fandango

Better safe than sorry. As others have indicated it's got to be something dodgy with the electrics, not the kettle. You can test the kettle at a neighbour's (or friend's) house.

Then, having eliminated the kettle as the problem, you then know you've got dodgy electrics.
The no-brainer response to dodgy electrics is to get a NICEIC* Electrician in to do a proper test. You'll get a test report of where the issues are, or if it passes, a certificate of compliance (or whatever it's called).

* http://www.niceic.com/householder/find-a-contractor

usedtobe

Well, we’re boiling the kettle in the lounge now. Today wife had oven and washer going at same time. Tripped the kitchen sockets switch only, and not the larger one at the end of the row. Electrician is coming tomorrow teatime.

usedtobe

Here’s a link to the two versions of switch tripping. Both tripped is the aforementioned kettle issue, and the single switch tripped, is today with the oven and washer on. 
https://imgur.com/gallery/tyq3xgo

ICBM

usedtobe said:

Well, we’re boiling the kettle in the lounge now. Today wife had oven and washer going at same time. Tripped the kitchen sockets switch only, and not the larger one at the end of the row. Electrician is coming tomorrow teatime.

That makes it certain that there's something amiss in the kitchen wiring which is causing a large current draw to appear as a fault and trip the breaker.

octatonic

Sporky said:

octatonic said:

unless you have my wife's taste in kettles (google Kitchen Aid- yes, she really paid that for a kettle).

Your wife has excellent taste in kettles - I got one of those when my Sage one went wiggy. A great improvement in every regard.

and husband's...

Roland

usedtobe said:

Found my socket tester. Seems to think everything is peachy..

Socket testers check wiring continuity and earth resistance, but not how much current is being used.

boogieman

Phil_aka_Pip said:

I was disgusted at the way my house got re-wired. The bloke was legally and technically competent but he just did not understand my requirements.

I needed the two main downstairs rooms on their own rings so that whatever happened elsewhere in the house they would not be affected. The washing machine developed a fault. It took down the breaker for the whole board, not just the kitchen (plus whatever else was on the kitchen's ring). It took out all the computing and musical equipment on the ground floor. I was not impressed.

I’ve no idea what sort of consumer unit you’ve got but the “main breaker” might have been an rcd? The individual mcb’s for each circuit react and trip if there’s too much current being pulled through them. An rcd looks at the balance between the current draw on the live and neutral and trips if one is higher than the other. So say if the live side goes short to earth in the washing machine, then the rcd will trip and the whole board shuts down. You can get boards with split loads, so separate rcd’s on different parts of the house, maybe you should have specified one of those.  (Or the sparky should’ve been smart enough to realise that’s what you needed?) 

Sorry if im teaching you to suck eggs btw. 

Phil_aka_Pip

@boogieman that's ok mate, you've explained why the box behaved as it did (I didn't know that) and I think you're right the sparky should have sussed what I meant. Anyway it were 2 houses ago now so it's no longer my problem, but at least I now know how to describe what I want in my next house!