Electric Kettle Tripping EHU

[Ayjay]

Can anybody help an electrical numpty please? We’ve just returned from a few days at Easewell Farm in Mortehoe on a pitch with EHU advertised as 16 Amp. After arrival, we plugged in our small 850W electric kettle and made a cuppa followed by a second one about 30 minutes later and all was OK. The problem started in the morning when the kettle was switched on and tripped the RCD at the EHU end as well as the RCD in the van consumer unit.

• I unscrewed the cover to the EHU, reset them both EHU and the van and tried the kettle again with the same result.
• After another reset, I tried a small 600W oil filled radiator and my wifes 850W hairdryer without any problems (singly and both at the same time)
• I then plugged in the kettle on its own again and it immediately tripped both RCDs again.
• I put the cover back on the EHU and the called the campsite maintenance people (without mentioning what I had already done!). They turned up at the pitch within 5 minutes, reset the EHU, told me to reset the van RCD and to try the kettle again – unsurprisingly they both trippd out again.
• After another reset, he asked me to plug something else in and I used the hair dryer which, as before, was OK. He then said that he thought the problem was with the kettle.
• I thought that he was probably correct but when we got home earlier today, I plugged the van into the mains via a a 3 pin RCD and the kettle worked as it should.

I’m now wondering whether I need to by a new kettle or not as we will be going on a 4/5 week european trip soon and don’t want to find it’s an issue then. Maybe I ought to add that the same thing happened during two separate visits with the same kettle to the same French site last year (but no other sites throughout the whole trip). On those two occasions, I just put it down to a dodgy EHU and switched on the gas.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[EAN]

Is your kettle cordless with a separate corded base?
If so could it be water occasionally getting into the base thats causing it to trip?
Hence why it’s a bit intermittent.
Definitely points to the kettle being the problem.

 

[Dellmassive]

There are breaker switches that work in different ways.

RCD work with any earth leakage. (Or any difference from live Vs neutral)

MCB work with over current.

That site may have had a iffy breaker.

Some European sites are also known to have reversed polarity EHU posts....

Or your kettle may have a slight issue.... Even slight dampness can trip RCD s.

So, maybe get a new kettle anyway.


@Pauly may have some extra advice?



.

 

[DXX]

They sell kettles in Europe, if it’s still a problem renew it.

 

[Stay Frosty]

Check polarity and neutral continuity on your vans wiring as the RCD operates when there's a current imbalance to earth so either live conductor or neutral conductor leaking more than 30 thousandths of 1 amp to earth will trip the device... really tiny, microscopic amount of electric.

 

[Insert Coin]

I was always told that mcb’s had a finite number of uses/trips before they became a replaceable item?

Maybe it was RCD’s, maybe both?

 

[Ayjay]

Thanks for all the quick replies people.

@EAN. NOT cordless.
@Dellmassive. This is a picture under the plastic panel of the consumer unit. My understanding is that the RCD is the single one on the right hand side - ie. which isolates all the 240V stuff when it trips (as opposed to the MCBs on the other side which individually only isolates some of it). My first thought as well was that the site might have had an iffy breaker and that the French site might well have been the same but, as mentioned above, I had second thoughts about a faulty kettle. Also, I always check polarity of an EHU before it's used with a little plug in tester.
@DXX > Congratualtions on stating the bleeding obvious!
@Stay Frosty. 'Check polarity and neutral continuity on your vans wiring'. Wouldn't have a scooby how to do that but I have every faith in the bloke that wired it all in the first place.
@Insert Coin. Maybe but I doubt it's in single figures and the MCBs did not trip.

Maybe it is just time for a new kettle but it annoys me that I might never know whether the current one is at fault or not.

Any other suggestions much appreciated.

 

[Stay Frosty]

The MCBs will only trip when they are asked to pass more than their indicated tripping value eg. the 16A MCB will trip when a 20A or more load is plugged as a combination into a daisy chain of extension leads fed from the 13A skt that the 16A MCB is protecting.
That's an over current fault as you already know and a pretty big one when compared to the thirty thousandths of an a single Amp leaking through the cable insulation of the appliance lead or metalwork to any earthed metalwork protected by the RCD.
It sounds from personal experience that it's time for a new kettle and that's a reasonably inexpensive bit of fault finding plus as @Insert Coin has pointed out the RCD will go soft if it's tripping regularly, off topic but they're not my regular trousers, these are my dancing ones...

 

[Ayjay]

@Stay Frosty. Again, thanks.

but they're not my regular trousers, these are my dancing ones

Or as a mate of mine from The Black Country calls them 'Disco Pants'.

 

[Ayjay]

Thanks for the advice all. In the end, I went out and bought a new 1L / 1000W Quest cordless jobbie. Life's to short to have a kettle not work when you really need a cuppa or, in the case of earlier this week, to find out that it's not working and then have to fold the bed away to switch the gas on and get the other kettle out of the cupboard. I do love my cup of tea in bed first thing in the morning - it's just a civilised way to start the day.

 

[Dellmassive]

Good call.

Though it's a coffee for me first thing

 

[Ayjay]

@Dellmassive. Even when I was in Naples, I'd always have to have tea first thing but would then hit the coffeee shop for a doppio espresso on the way into work.