Cooker And Oven Forum

[AndyF]

Hi,

I see SKIMS asked a similar question back in Jan '05 about this model of cooker and mine is doing the same. My cooker is 3yo but never used until last week, it has been in the house stored, dry and warm whilst building work going on. As soon as you switch the oven from the light to any of the settings for fan, grill or elements it trips the RCD in my consumer unit. Engineer supposedly put a mega on the elements but says it may now be the switch or the oven wired wrong. He is odering and will come back with new part. Elements look absolutely fine, no holes etc. Any ideas welcome. I need to save my Christmas dinner!

Andy

[Santa]

Electric heating elements via RCDs are not the best way to keep the lecky on, they are generally regarded as hygroscopic (attract water), what was the result of the Mega test ?
You could be a devil and get the sparky to disconnect the element(s) and then see if the RCD trips if not then dry them out by wiring to non RCD side of consumer unit (if split load type) .
Not knowing the oven or installation type I would give general advice to put in a seperate circuit and wire on the non RCD side of the consumer unit (using a suitably Part P registered trician !)

[AndyF]

That sounds right lecky who wired the kitchen said there should be no need to have an RCD on the cooker only on sockets and outside lights etc. He advised splitting the consumer unit. I think I will get a lecky to remove the RCD as I have 2 consumer units both with RCD which is not necessary.

the cooker guy suggested the elements were fine but I am not sure how he tested them, I am not so sure myself. I will get him to disconnect all elements and then try switching on. I assume the wires will need to be kept apart for shorts and if the switch does not trip the RCD then it looks like the elements or they need drying out. Would it be a good idea to put the elements in another oven to warm them up?

[AndyF]

Anyone else have any thoughts, is it likely the elements just need drying out and if so is outting them in another oven a good idea?

[Dave_Conway]

My guess is it will probably only be one of the elements causing the problem.

They will all need to be Mega'd to check though, a simple high ohms test to earth is not enough which is possibly the test that has been done so far.

Ask the cooker guy to come back with a Mega

Dave.

[AndyF]

Dave,

Thanks, the engineer had a mega but I think he was doing the high ohms test to earth. How does he test the elements with a mega, does he need to remove all the wires first and put the mega across the terminals, unplugged of course!

Thanks,

Andy

[Dave_Conway]

How does he test the elements with a mega,

He'll know how to use it properly

Dave.

[AndyF]

I wish I shared your faith, He says he has already tested the elements so a new switch awaits I will let the forum know what the reslut is. This is a great forum but one small criticism is there is often no final email from the originator saying, great xy or z worked.

Thanks for your help.

Andy

[AndyF]

Success!! I took all terminals off all elements. Turned on the power, no trip of RCD therefore switch okay. I then connected just one of the ring elements round one fan, again turned on and no trip, it warmed up. I then added the other ring element, but it tripped. I removed that element and connected the next, grill element, tripped again, then finally the bottom element, trip again. I decided to leave the one ring element on and put the oven on full power and left for half an hour. Then I attached the other ring elemet again, turned on and no trip this time! Then after another 15mins on full temp I attached the grill and bottom elements, hey presto no trip of RCD. Oven all back together and working fine, cooked dinner and everything fine and dandy.

I phoned Service 71 in Haywards Heath to tell them I did not need their engineer and to say how annoyed I was that I had now paid £40+ for a switch when it was a most basic of problems. No comment from Service 71 but they can think again if they think I will pay any bill for their visit when they could have checked the elements properly and saved me a lot of hassle.

If anyone wants a switch for this cooker let me know. I ca't see them going wrong very often as they are very simple engineering.

Thanks to all who replied to my query. Considering Service 71 is the only agent authorised to service SMEG in my area I am not impressed.

Regards,

Andy

[LadyQuake]

hi, i have a similar problem, i have an electrolux premier, and when i turn on one ring the trips the RCD and all my socket power goes off. i recently cleaned this hob with a oven cleaner (says for hobs) so it could be that caused it. I tried one other ring and that works, havent tried the other 2 or the oven part yet.

Do you think i just need to dry it out?

Shirl

[Brains]

Shirl

This does seem to be an insulation failure. Letting it dry out is an option. If it still trips, have an engineer carry out a 500V insulation test on the element. You can get an engineer thru' the repairs@ module.

Merry xmas etc..

Regards