Interesting problem.

[boatnik1]

Funny callout on Sunday. Kitchen ring breaker cutting out and sometimes resetting and sometimes not.
Householder explained that this had been happening for over a week.
Each night around ten the breaker tripped and wouldn't reset but when the owner came back from work the next day about 6pm it reset OK, just to breakdown around 10pm again.
Five double sockets above the worktop and a fused outlet under the worktop for the washing machine on the ring.
Only thing running at the time of the cutout was the fridge.

Interested in your thoughts about what could cause this. It took a while to figure it out.

I will post the solution when I've heard a few of your theories.

 

[boatnik1]

Interesting subject, Can someone explain a gravity fault

Chris

Voltage drop, Things fall i.e. drop because of gravity, otherwise we would refer to voltage drop as voltage reduction.

(That's one to tell the apprentices, please don't take it seriously.) Sorry Chris.

Immersion wired into the RFC going to earth when the timer kicks in.

It wasn't me who wired an immersion into the Rugby Football Club when they went to earth.


THEY WENT TO EARTH BECAUSE iRELAND BEAT THEM. The Taffs. Will Rise Again.. Maybe

 

[Guest123]

It's not one of those old houses with a ruddy great street light stuck on the front of it is it??

 

[kung]

At 10pm the mouse alarm clock went off waking the male mouse up for work then he gets his sds drill out and retakes up drilling through to the cheese stash in the fridge ! thats whats happend hes drilled through the line/cpc of the fridge light shorting it out with the drill bit !
Bit cheesy but thats my take !

 

[bomdiddly]

the spark who was there before you has been up to something naughty

 

[silva.foxx]

I'll side with ICE... it's something to do with next door.
Was the sparky from next door and he tapped off from one of the sockets?

It's got to be something rediculous!

.

 

[tenheads]

just a thought try another breaker see what happens

 

[shedbuilder]

OK... My shot in the dark!

A TT system & a very marginal fault to earth on the circuit in question. 10pm dog goes out and pees on the earth rod decreasing Ze & increasing the fault current to >30mA where the RCD trips.

 

[boatnik1]

OK Ya ready for this. Ice pointed in the right direction whwn he implicated the neighbours.

First of all the fault was easily enough sorted. I had taken all the sockets off the wall and disconnected all the lives and on having a second look at the undershelf outlet it stank as in fried insulation but no sign of melted pvc. Removed outlet completely and found it to be sticky. Had a spare in the motor and replaced it just in case, knowing that even if it was at fault, that couldn't account for the timing issue. Anyway, as it was now 9.40PM I decided to blag a cuppa and hang around until tenish to see what happened.
Sure enough a noise in the kitchen at 1min to ten had me off the settee and in there like a shot. Next doors cat had come in through the cat flap and first stop was to stick his --- in to the gap beside the washing machine and spray the wall above the outlet.

Conclusion was that the cat spray running down behind the outlet caused an earth fault causeing the breaker to blow and wouldn't reset until it had dried out the following day.

It seems that the householders knew that this cat came in each night around this time for the past week. and cleared the home cats dishes and left again so they wern't too concerned about it. Their own cats had been getting chucked out more often because they (the owners) could smell cat pee, and their own cats were taking the rap.

It might not be a frequent occurance but might be worth keeping in mind for intermittent faults.

 

[silva.foxx]

That could've been cat-astrophic!
Taxiiiii...

 

[sparkswillfly]

someones taking the **** surely

 

[stephenf8542]

Cant fit a CAT scanner in my tool box

 

[bomdiddly]

i will log that in my CATalouge of possible faults

 

[shedbuilder]

So, this really was part P work then?

 

[kung]

Well i was close ! i said mouse but it was the cat unless it was the mouse up the cats that was to blame !

 

[Gravid]

Crazy, does this come under interKITTENt faults........sorry.