Turning oven on flips breaker switch on fuse box

Boozebeard · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:44

The other day one of my house mates went to turn the oven on and we lost all power to the house! We went under the stairs and saw that the switch on the fuse box had been flipped so we flipped it back and tried the oven again and it turned off again.

Is this some kind of fuse problem? Is it something we can easily fix our selves?

TaKeN · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:46

Sounds like the overload is tripping. Could be something wrong with the oven causing it to draw too much power!

Boozebeard · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:47

So not anything as simple as changing a fuse? :C

bledd · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:47

Wedge a coin or a peg under the switch, problem solved

PhillyDee · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:48

bledd. said:
Wedge a coin or a peg under the switch, problem solved

Oh sweet jesus . . . . . :rolleyes:

.

If you have no experience with electrics, do not touch the cooker. Seriosly. Otherwise, it is likely to be the element.

Boozebeard said:
So not anything as simple as changing a fuse? :C

The breaker IS the fuse. Very unlikely that this is knackered.

mejinks · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:49

Seriously?

You don't think it could be a problem with the oven and the fuse is protecting you?

Get the landlord to get the over checked.

Cosimo · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:50

bledd. said:
Wedge a coin or a peg under the switch, problem solved

How did the last peson you gave advice to die?

bledd · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:51

simulatorman said:
How did the last peson you gave advice to die?

He's still alive, everyone calls him Stumpy now

Boozebeard · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:51

One of our house mates actually said "I'm gonna try holding the switch up and tuning the over on". We were all like "WTF YOU CRAZY."

Von Smallhausen · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:52

simulatorman said:
How did the last peson you gave advice to die?

He was killed for complaining.

SeraphX · 21 Jan 2011 at 15:54

we had this with our old electric cooker, it actually turned out to be some of the other wires in the block touching part of a wrong terminal, just whipped the cables out, tidied them up, back in and it worked fine, Turn the power off at the breaker obviously too

Reality|Bites · 21 Jan 2011 at 16:11

I had the same problem with my cooker last year, was making a pot of soup and it over boiled and water went into the electrics, had to replace a hob plate. Electrician said I could have probably waited a week for the cooker to dry out and it would have been fine though. I couldn't live a week on take aways though lol.

#Chri5# · 21 Jan 2011 at 16:17

Could be the heating element in the oven - possibly easy to replace, depends on the oven.

PixieLandGirl · 21 Jan 2011 at 16:20

#Chri5# said:
Could be the heating element in the oven - possibly easy to replace, depends on the oven.

Exactly this - the element in my oven went bang on the 27th Dec (had it replaced yesterday) it tripped the electrics out, only once but after that it wouldn't heat anything.

JohnnyG · 21 Jan 2011 at 20:11

If you lost power to all of the house then it's not a fuse that's tripping but more likely a single RCD main switch which is protecting all circuits.
If it trips when the oven is turned on then it's highly likely the oven element has gone (as already mentioned) or a it's a wiring problem on the kitchen circuit.
Neither of these are things you can realistically sort out yourself and as it sounds like you're renting anyway your landlord should sort it out as a matter of urgency