Washing machine trips 32 amp mcb intermittently

[egginyourface]

Called to a property today. Customer said that kitchen ring circuit trpped whilst washing machine was half way through cycle. Tested the circuit with my insulation resistance tester and all was fine.

Tested the appliance itself and found dead short between live / earth and 0.26 between neutral and earth.

I told the customer the appliance is at fault and needs to be replaced.

Couple of things I don't understand are is it true washing machines leak to earth sometimes and what is the reading. Also why wasn't the plug top fuse popping.

Tanks

 

[LlandrilloSpark]

Plug the machine in switch on and IR test the circuit L-E show customer the reading, unplug it and test it again, show customer the reading, this is his how I had to prove to a nursery owner that his dishwasher was knackered and tripping his RCD , when the engineer finally came he confirmed the motor windings were shot.

Sometimes also the faults don't appear until the motor is under load, so a dead IR test won't show a fault

 

[biggsy]

RCd will trip much faster than a fuse

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Called to a property today. Customer said that kitchen ring circuit trpped whilst washing machine was half way through cycle. Tested the circuit with my insulation resistance tester and all was fine.

Tested the appliance itself and found dead short between live / earth and 0.26 between neutral and earth.

I told the customer the appliance is at fault and needs to be replaced.

Couple of things I don't understand are is it true washing machines leak to earth sometimes and what is the reading. Also why wasn't the plug top fuse popping.

Tanks

leak to earth yes....how much...depends...

 

[egginyourface]

The fuse board didn't have an rcd. 32 amp breaker was tripping. The reason I'm asking this is I had a similar call out recently and tested the washing machine and told the customer washing machine had gone faulty with live/ earth fault.

H called out washing machine repair man who told them there was nothing wrong with it...

 

[Geordie Spark]

I had a washer dryer that tripped the rcbo intermittently.

I found the fault when it went up in flames one day - it was the heater for the dryer function full of fluff. Bloody stupid design !!!

 

[egginyourface]

I'm bit confused because if my insulation resistance tester shows dead short then that's what it is .

 

[stuartcourt]

If between neutral on earth and no R.C.D would not trip until phase to earth fault low enough

- - - Updated - - -

sorry just read again

 

[egginyourface]

Apparently the bang was really loud so must be a serious fault. Told them not to use the machine until its been repaired or replaced

 

[Richard Burns]

I'm bit confused because if my insulation resistance tester shows dead short then that's what it is .

An insulation resistance tester may show 0.00 but that just means the resistance is less than 9,999 ohms.

 

[stuartcourt]

I have found before that it sometimes things can be unbelievably low before they trip, but will rarely take out 13 amp fuse before breaker

 

[bigbaddave]

Called to a property today. Customer said that kitchen ring circuit trpped whilst washing machine was half way through cycle. Tested the circuit with my insulation resistance tester and all was fine.

Tested the appliance itself and found dead short between live / earth and 0.26 between neutral and earth.

I told the customer the appliance is at fault and needs to be replaced.

Couple of things I don't understand are is it true washing machines leak to earth sometimes and what is the reading. Also why wasn't the plug top fuse popping.



Tanks

Are you sure its taking out the MCB?

 

[egginyourface]

Defo takes out the mcb. Customer said there was a loud bang on two occasions. But they carried on using it which confuses me how it still worked

 

[bigbaddave]

MCB dont pick up N-CPC fault though..

 

[egginyourface]

Earth to neutral was 0.26...... Live to earth was 0.00 when I tested it with insulation resistance tester