Dodgy Toaster Maybe

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3 May 2014
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We had a toaster that started tripping the fuse box so dumped it, worked fine for two years. Purchased a new one that worked for a couple of weeks, now that is tripping. Tried it in several sockets all trip.

Maybe I should not have dumped the old one.

I would have thought that two dodgy toasters is unlikely, anything else that could cause this to happen?
 
Check the MCB. It's not supposed to happen ("if they trip, they are working"), but they can wear out or go faulty. I had one on an electric shower that kept tripping after you turned the shower off. The heat soak would trigger the thermal protection in the shower and the MCB would trip. I changed the shower, and all was good for six months, and then the same thing started happening again.

The MCB for the shower was much easier to trip with your fingers, and it was almost trembling on the edge of popping open. It had a little play in the switch, instead of being solidly in place like the others. The other MCBs in comparison felt quite solid and needed a proper nudge to get them to trip. I changed that particular MCB and all has been good since.

The easiest check would be to try the toaster in a socket on a different circuit/MCB, and if it doesn't trip, try changing the MCB on the faulty circuit. It's not a difficult or expensive job, but if you don't know what you are doing, you can kill yourself messing about in a consumer unit. Unless you have an isolator switch between the meter and the consumer unit, you do have mains live electricity in there. It's possible that you have several MCBs protected by a MCCB, and that's where the fault could be.

It's also possible that the bus bar on that MCB has not been installed correctly, and it's not giving a good connection, and that's causing the MCB to trip. It would just need reseating, but given a MCB costs a few pounds, it's worth replacing and making sure it's on the bus bar correctly.

If you're not sure about going into the consumer unit, then get an electrician in and tell him what's going on, and he'll diagnose it and be able to run checks on the cabling, MCB, as well as the toaster.
 
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i had a similar issue with a kettle, tripping and then plugged in a different socket in the kitchen and was ok. A sparky came and tested and found there was an issue with the socket replaced it and was ok.

Replaced the socket with a new one and was ok.
 
Sounds like possibly an earthing fault on the ring in your kitchen, intermittent so not always happening.
 
Many thanks all I will check the MCB, mind it is not a single trip tripping its the main trip switch on there so everything is going off.

The kitchen is not the only room that is causing a problem tested elsewhere as well.

More digging at the weekend me thinks.
 
Do you know if it's tripping an MCB or an RCD (if it's shared over several circuits then it'll be an RCD).

Does the toaster cause the circuit to trip out literally every time it's used or just sometimes? If it's intermittent does it coincide with the use of something else? It may for instance be your washing machine or immersion heater has a fairly high earth leakage the toaster is pushing it over the edge.

If it's an MCB, are all your sockets on the same circuit
 
Assuming its the RCD thats tripping.... have you tried checking the toaser for residual currants..

... No i'm not being factious... a crumb or currant from things that have been toasted can cause an earth fault that trips an RCD if they should become stuck between the nicrome wire heating element and the body of the toaster
 
Assuming its the RCD thats tripping.... have you tried checking the toaser for residual currants..

... No i'm not being factious... a crumb or currant from things that have been toasted can cause an earth fault that trips an RCD if they should become stuck between the nicrome wire heating element and the body of the toaster

We had that currant scenario last year, didn't spot it at first, removed and then toaster stopped tripping RCD.
 
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