Main Trip Switch Tripped, All Power lost, electric cooker element.

DrWho

DrWho

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Power lost all of a sudden the other day, seems it could be the cooker oven element as it's not heating the oven anymore, although at the time I wasn't sure what caused the power to be lost throughout the house, so when I checked the trip switch box I saw that all were on apart from the main switch, so I put that switch back on then on came the power to the house.

Is it normal for the whole house to lose power when an element goes faulty? I thought that only the trip switch marked cooker would automatically switch off but not in this case.

I tried turning off the cooker trip switch only once the house power was back on but the clock on the cooker remained lit, is that normal? there is a plug and socket switch underneath the cooker but I haven't touched that just left it on, looks like that could be where it's switched off completely.
 
One reason the whole installation / main switch went down could be The MCB serving the cooker could be faulty if it didn't trip when the element went. Hard to tell without more info
 
chivers67 said:
One reason the whole installation / main switch went down could be The MCB serving the cooker could be faulty if it didn't trip when the element went. Hard to tell without more info
Click to expand...
 
Sorry, app error.
I have an engineer coming tomorrow to replace the element, should he be able to test and check the trip switch at the same time, in other words will he be classed as a qualified electrician?
 
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daleks said:
Sorry, app error.
I have an engineer coming tomorrow to fix the element, should he be able to test and check the trip switch at the same time, in other words will he be classed as a qualified electrician?
Click to expand...

No he won't be an engineer or a qualified electrician, he will be a spare part fitter.

It seems you have a dedicated cooker circuit which is not being used, and your cooker is connected "somehow" through a plug and socket. What are the cooker details? and can you post a pic of your consumer unit/fuse box clear enough to show size details and descriptions.
 
The cooker is an Electrolux Induction hob.
Uploaded via Android app.jpg
Uploaded via Android app.jpg
 
And this is what is visible when the bottom section is removed, the switch you see is on btw.

Cooker is a Whirlpool Induction Hob.
Uploaded via Android app.jpg
 
Here's something else that's weird, what you see here is red wall switches in the kitchen with one plug attached, the one on the left says COOKER underneath it and is on the on position, the switch to the right next to the grey plug says SOCKET underneath, this too is on. if I switch any of these off the fridge turns off, how crazy is that? image supplied.
 
I can understand why the fridge turns off as that plug connects to it, but why the one marked cooker on the latest image turns off the fridge is anyone's guess.
 
Is it more important to demand a qualified electrician to look at all of this before a part fitter arrives?
 
When elements fail they can sometimes short to earth, though usually more common with water heating elements, this can often trip an earth trip like you have, the mcb works different, so its common for an Rcd to go off but the Mcb stay on.
If the fault blows clear it is possible for the Rcd to reset but the element no ,longer work.
Its also possible the element if it has failed has blown something internal to the oven possibly the control switch.

It appears the original cooker switch is not being used for the cooker and simply has the fridge plugged into it, the mcb marked cooker will turn off the plug attached to the unused cooker outlet.

just get the oven serviced and see how it goes
 
333rocky333 said:
When elements fail they can sometimes short to earth, though usually more common with water heating elements, this can often trip an earth trip like you have, the mcb works different, so its common for an Rcd to go off but the Mcb stay on.
If the fault blows clear it is possible for the Rcd to reset but the element no ,longer work.
Its also possible the element if it has failed has blown something internal to the oven possibly the control switch.
Click to expand...

The power in the house went off completely after I had the oven on for about 10 mins, I then checked the trip box to find the MCB's all in the on position but the main Rcd had been turned off when the element became faulty, I then switched the main switch on the Rcd to the on position and the power to the whole house came back, I then went to check the appliances and found out that the oven wasn't heating, the grill worked though.

So I imagine because there is an on/off cooker switch underneath the cooker is this why when I turn off the Mcb strictly named for the cooker doesn't switch it off? I haven't tried turning off the switch under the cooker.

As it's a rented property I don't have much choice to go with the part fitter, but for health and safety reasons I should be able to demand an electrician to check everything. When I reported the fault I was told that the electrics had passed all their safety checks, I doubt this very much.

To just get the cooker looked at with the new element fitted isn't enough in my opinion because if anything else was to go wrong then it might fuse the Rcd completely again.
 
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One last thing I wanted to mention was that once I switched the power back on via the main trip switch box whenever I tried turning the oven or grill on etc the trip box didn't trip again, all that happened was the oven would sound like it was working but just wasn't heating, I could turn it on and off and the house power stayed on.
 
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