The automatic circuit breaker or RCD knocks out at inclusion of the washing machine. How to find a solution without a multimeter.
Furnace not fire up, Faulty Ignition Sensor
What to do if, after a certain period of undamaged operation, you started breaking out the circuit breaker or RCD in the electrical box when you turn on the washing machine?
Not everyone wants to run to the service center at once, especially when the warranty is over. And transportation of such oversized equipment is not an ordinary thing.
And with a competent approach, you can identify the cause of the shutdown even without special measuring instruments. There are several common symptoms and cases, let’s review them in order.
With what to start searching for faults? First of all, you do not need to immediately get involved and disassemble the machine. Maybe it is not at all, and the fault is in the socket, wiring or automatic device itself.
How to learn it? Include in the same socket a load of about the same capacity. For example an electric kettle and see how the circuit breaker will behave.
If it blows out again, it’s not the washing machine’s fault. You have to look for a fault:
If nothing turns off, the machine is most likely to be at fault. To be 100% sure of this, temporarily connect it from a different outlet, not connected to the bathroom line.
However, several conditions must be met here:
You can not permanently connect the washing machine through the transfer.
The thing is that if you turn the plug 180 degrees, it often stops tripping.
Only if all of the above conditions are met, in the case of a failure of the washing machine, will knock out a different circuit breaker or RCD.
By the way, when you do not have a dedicated line to the bathroom, and on the same machine also sit other outlets, before all manipulations and checks, be sure to turn off all extraneous load.
Suddenly it turns out that the cause is not the washing machine at all, but other equipment connected in parallel.
So, if you find that without a machine in the socket nothing turns off. Look for a leakage or a short circuit before it.
Turn off the circuit breaker, check the absence of voltage in the socket and disassemble it for visual inspection.
It is very important that only moisture-proof sockets are used for washing machines in the bathroom. Otherwise, the oxidation of contacts and constant actuation of RCD or automatic circuit breaker you will be sure.
If you open the socket, all of its contacts and the case itself will be constantly wet. In this case, the RCD can trip spontaneously, even at idle speed, when nothing is connected in the bathroom.
To be able to work with such a socket, you will have to keep the extractor fan in the bathroom permanently on.
Also, condensation often forms inside machines with a washing temperature of 40 degrees or less. In this mode and when rinsing in cold water, moisture droplets settle first on the inner walls, and then reach the electrical contacts.
If the damage will be in the socket, you will definitely see it by the soot and burnt contacts.
Well, if you don’t find anything suspicious here, you can check the cable.
In general, this is done with a special device. megohmmeter.
Unscrew the ends on both sides of the cable and remove the insulation.
The problem is, not even all electricians have such a gauge at home. What to say about ordinary consumers.
How to do without it? The modern home electrical switchboard in most apartments and private homes, no longer consists of just two switches or plugs.
There are at least ten switchgear devices, and even more.
All you need to do to check it is to throw the cable that goes to the bathroom socket under the washing machine, for another device of the same rating.
For this purpose, for greater safety you disconnect the common input and check the absence of voltage in the control panel.
Preliminarily having thrown away from it the native cable going to another load. Turn on the input and the “new circuit breaker” protection. Again you check everything by turning on the load in the bathroom in the form of a kettle.
If you and the other circuit breaker knocked out, then the defect in the wiring. You have to check the whole chain, open all the junction boxes, etc.д.
Read more about the steps of this check in the article below.
By the way, RCDs in such cases can often tripped simply because of a loose zero in the panel itself. You will run around the room, tear up the wallpaper, and the cause will be under your nose. Don’t rule this one out either.
If, after you have switched to a new device, everything is working properly, then replace the native switch. Most likely it has burned out contacts and is no longer holding its nominal load.
Now consider the reasons when the malfunction is related to the washing machine itself.
There are many more options for damage:
Most often it is visible even visually. It is enough to carefully inspect all contacts on both sides.
You can not disassemble the plug, it comes molded. But the integrity of the insulation can be seen.
You should always start your search with the most common breakdown. a faulty heater. In 2/3 of the cases, it is because of it tripped circuit breaker and RCD.
Again, everything can be identified without instrumentation. How to do it?
Above all, do not forget about safety and before any work inside the machine, not only turn off the circuit breaker in the switchboard, but also pull the power plug out of the socket.
Next you take off the back or front cover (depending on the design) to get to the contacts of the heating element. The heating element will be located in the lower part.
On the edges fit the phase and zero, and in the middle is ground.
When you don’t even have a multimeter handy, to check the heater element, simply disconnect the phase and neutral conductors and insulate them.
Now plug in the washer plug and turn on the automatic. If the machine starts and the circuit breaker stops kicking out, then change the heating element.
That is what caused the malfunction.
But keep in mind that some washing machines do not work without an electric heater. They have it on the same circuit as the water valve. In this case without a tester can not do without.
When you knock out not the circuit breaker, but the RCD, then by the moment and time of tripping, you can indirectly know the nature of the damage:
1 The RCD turns off as soon as the plug is inserted into the socket, even without starting the motor and turning on the heater.
The reason. Damage to the plug, power cord, or moisture on the control board contacts.
The reason is the damage of the board itself, the internal wiring, or the input converter or filter.
The cause is a short circuit of the turns, breakdown of the motor insulation or power keys.
The reason. the heating element is broken.
And here the tripping may not be immediate. there are microcracks in the heater which are initially covered by a thick layer of limescale and open only after heating.
Water reaches the coil after opening and only then there is a current leakage, followed by tripping of the protection. Such a damaged heating element can only be identified by a continuity test immediately after disconnecting the safety covers while it is still hot, with a crack open.
On a cold one, even a modern multimeter will show insulation of a few meg. But a normal megohmmeter in 500V, not a tester, helps to identify such a defect immediately.
5 RCD trips at the very end of the wash when spinning.
The reason. somewhere there is a small water leak.
Unscrew protective covers and carefully inspect all areas for moisture and condensation. Including all contact terminals, temperature sensors, relays, etc.п.
This is usually helped by a “general” cleaning inside the washer, followed by identifying the location of the leak.
If you still do not trust all these experiments and want to be 100% sure that it is the heating element that is damaged and not something else, your only help is to. Multimeter.
How to correctly check the heating element? Again pull the plug out of the socket, and put the tester in resistance measuring mode.
The scale of measurement up to 200 ohms is enough.
Hold the probe to the contacts of the heating element, to check its continuity and absence of interruption. In normal circumstances its resistance should be between 20 to 50 ohms.
If the device shows infinity, then the coil is broken.
It is also necessary to test it for short to ground. One probe put to the metal part of the heater or the central bolt, where the grounding sits.
And the other touch the phase and zero leads alternately.
Any readings, even a few dozen ohms show that the heater is punctured and must be replaced.
In this case an error can pop up on the display, that the water is not heated.
If you do not have an error code display, simply touch the glass on the door of the washer. It should warm up a bit from warm water.
If your heating element is on the back and is fairly easy to access (LG washing machines), then replacing it is not too difficult.
It is necessary to unscrew only one nut on the central tightening bolt (not all the way out), and then you should slightly knock on it and push this bolt inside.
Now you can use a screwdriver to pry up the edges of the heater housing and pull it out.
The new element must be inserted in the guide until it stops.
Then you tighten the central nut and reconnect all the power wires.
To access the heater from the front (Bosch models and others), you will need to disassemble and remove the top cover, control panel and front side.
With other more serious causes, such as circuit board short circuit, damage to the motor windings, it is better to contact the service center to the appropriate professionals.
But once again, that almost 90% of cases of tripping of automatic and RCD in the washing machine is still due to a faulty heater or wiring.
The circuit is overloaded
You have a rated current of 25A and you have connected a load much heavier than 25A to the sockets at the same time. It is quite natural that the circuit breaker will break after a certain time, protecting your wiring from overheating and fire. How do you know if a circuit breaker is tripping for this reason?? It’s very simple. You are likely to re-start the machine and after a short period of time it will kick out again.
This will be the case until you unplug any appliance from the socket. In this case it is highly unrecommended to change it to a higher-value circuit breaker. It is better to make a separate group of wiring and switch some of the outlets to an additional circuit breaker.
The machine knocks out the cause
Let’s proceed to the question, what to do if the machine knocks out the causes and consequences.
Let’s imagine that we have a circuit breaker rated at 16 amps. There are several outlets connected to it with 2.5 mm2 wire. In fact, this is a classic common case, standard in ordinary apartments or houses.
We plug the washing machine into one of the outlets. And right now it’s heating water for washing.
At this time we go to the kitchen and plug the kettle into another socket, which is also in the same group as the circuit breaker.
It turns out that the current flowing through the circuit breaker is already equal to the sum of the currents from the kettle and the washing machine.
The procedure for identifying faults and fixing them
When the circuit breaker trips, you can turn it on again to remove the knockout due to power surges on the line. In an unsuccessful attempt, from the socket, which is controlled by the circuit breaker, turn off the consumer. If the circuit breaker then turns on, the reason lies in the isolation of the consumer’s network.
If the attempt is unsuccessful, then disconnect the phase wire from the dispenser to check its functionality without load. A functioning circuit breaker will turn on when you use the “Test” key. In the work to identify faults will help multimeter to find the voltage between the output of the circuit breaker and the neutral busbar.
What not to do
It should be understood that the circuit breaker, together with the RCD, is used to protect against current shock or fire. If it constantly knocks out, many people change the device for a higher capacity device for convenience, so that it does not react as often to an increased load.
This can have dangerous consequences:
- Many powerful machines are connected, the wires get hot, the insulation gets melted and a short circuit occurs. But the switch does not de-energize the line, the flame appears.
- The socket has poor contact, the plastic heats up and then burns, but the circuit breaker still does not work, t. к. Is designed for high amperage and voltages.
Do not fix the device yourself, use a faulty.
Why does the fuse or breaker in the apartment blow??
What to do if the circuit breaker in your apartment has tripped? They used to say, “a fuse blew” or “the meter blew”
Is it worth rushing straight to the electricity.You need to plug it in to try to turn it back on, and what to do if it doesn’t??
Let’s look at all the options on how to solve this problem.
Don’t go under the power yourself!
The reasons may be several, from minor ones, which are solved in a couple of minutes, to quite problematic ones, when you have to tear down the wallpaper and re-do the plaster.
All the more reason to try to keep the flag in the up position by force. There are also such advisers
It didn’t just go out. It is possible that you have a damage directly in the switchboard. the outgoing wires melted or shorted to the frame, or burned the circuit breaker itself.
If you turn it on forcibly, you will thereby create a second short circuit, which can lead to much more serious consequences. And all this will happen literally “under your nose.
Whether or not you get hurt is a matter of chance.
Therefore, the first thing to do when turning off the circuit breaker. carefully inspect the panel and the circuit breaker itself.
If you have a plastron (protective plate) that protects all contacts of the equipment, you carefully unscrew the screws in the corners with a screwdriver and remove it.
In the multi-storey panel board, too, there is such a protection.
Without removing the plastron, you simply can’t see what you have going on inside. Here is a picture you can see at the terminals of the automatic unit.
In this case, the outside where the “checkbox” is located. everything will be perfect.
That’s why old electricians still warmly remember “plugs”. They have always responded reliably because of the calibrated fuse-link, they have no sticking contacts, plus they have a factory ceramic version.
The most important rule was. Do not plant home-made “bugs” out of improvised objects.
After removing the protective strip, carefully examine the case of the circuit breaker itself. It should not have any dark, yellowed, burnt spots or bloat.
This is usually found near the lower terminals. If there is something like this, it is already a clear call to replace the circuit breaker with a new one.
Also, all wires should be in insulation, with no characteristic drips or melting.
How to find your automatic circuit breaker in the general panel of multi-storey houses? Usually all the circuit breakers in this arrangement are placed from left to right, just like the apartments on the floor.
One unit assembled from several switches is one apartment.
A typical connection diagram of one assembly of automatic machines and a meter for an apartment in a common switchboard of a multi-storey building looks like this.
On your assembly, one of the “flags” will be looking down.
When you are sure everything is okay in the switchboard, you go back to your apartment and unplug all the wires from the sockets.and you shut off the lights everywhere.
In the following we are going to look at short circuits and not overloads. This is when you “hang” a large amount of electrical current on one automatic circuit breaker of small rating.devices.
Of course it’s going to blow out. This problem can be solved elementary. by unplugging the most powerful load.
Detect such a problem is also quite simple. Automatic circuit breaker, triggered from the overload, will be very warm.
Especially in the lower part of it, where the bimetal plate is located. You can feel it with your hand without any equipment.
A circuit breaker that has been tripped by an overload may not even turn on immediately until it cools down. A protection device that has been tripped by a short-circuit usually remains cold.
By the way, the same trouble will be observed if you have a bad contact on the terminal. You seemingly nothing powerful in the sockets do not turn on (the load is the same as it was), and the machine does not immediately, but after some time knocks out.
Check the heating of the side walls of the circuit breaker and, if necessary, tighten the screw clamp. It is likely to be loose.
Because of this the auth. Off. Will also heat up.
Prolonged heating can even be detected by the color of the clamping screws. They will be clearly different from each other.
If there is damage to a home appliance, look for the alleged culprit. It could be anything:
Only after you’ve turned off all the lights.You can try switching on a circuit breaker.
For example, the same el.Stove or cooktop.
And disconnecting them with the knobs on the control panel won’t do anything. You will have to pull the cable strands directly off the terminals.
If, after all these manipulations, the circuit breaker has turned on successfully, you can go back to the apartment and gradually turn on all the electrical appliances in the house.appliances.
Better to start with lighting. Some chandelier could have a shorted socket.
In the LED lights are often damaged transformer power supply for 12V.
When the automatic breaker trips again, you unscrew all the bulbs in the faulty fixture and examine it in detail. If you are not able to repair it yourself, in the last resort, you can turn off the chandelier in question and apply voltage to the rest of the room.
When you turn on the light did not knock out anything, move on to more complex and powerful equipment.
Starting up faulty equipment like this will end badly for the outlet as well as for you.
See what happens in the circuit breaker when it is triggered by a short in the outgoing line.
And now imagine that you short-circuit the whole thing through a socket, which has no arc-suppression chamber or other protective elements.
So, to make everything as safe as possible, you turn off the circuit breaker in the panelboard, put the plug from the appliance into the socket without voltage, and only then turn on the circuit breaker again.
Consistently do the same operation with all the previously disconnected electrical.equipment. On a faulty appliance, the breaker will trip again and knock out.
That’s how you find out the original cause of the trip.
And what to do if the circuit breaker doesn’t turn on even with all the appliances and lights in the apartment switched off?? There could be two possibilities:
Some cheap Chinese models (usually yellow), last literally until the first serious short circuit. In fact, the breaker acts as a “plug.”.
Once it worked and that’s all, you will not turn it on again, because it had something broken inside the mechanism. To find it out you have to take the wire away from the terminal and try to turn on the automatic unit without electric wiring.the circuit breaker without electric wiring.
To do this, use a screwdriver to check whether the voltage comes from above or below. And it can come from either the upper terminal or the lower one!
It all depends on the installer, who assembled the switchboard. Unscrew the outgoing wire and take it out of the circuit breaker.
After that, you try to turn it on again. If it turns on, you have a short in your wiring. If not. change the circuit breaker to another.
Another trouble with cheap protection devices is the fast wear and tear of the bimetal plate. Because of overheating, it quickly changes its original shape (bending) and will trip at a much lower current for which it was originally designed.
That is, a 16A breaker will trip at 12-13A, or even less.
Finding a short circuit in a home electrical.Wiring should be done by a professional electrician with the proper tools. What you can do without it?
Here are a few tips. In 99% of cases the fault is in the connection area of the wires. It very rarely happens on a single piece of cable.
Unless someone accidentally sticks a screwdriver or a nail in it.
Or builders won’t break the wire when drilling into the wall. For such builders in hell there is a separate boiler with a broken temperature sensor
That’s right, in the junction boxes and socket blocks. At a minimum, you can inspect these places yourself.
First you open all the lids of junction boxes under the ceiling and look closely at the wiring (which should be prohibited).
Believe me, when you short-circuit two wires, they will definitely leave marks and consequences of such an accident. Even an untrained eye will be able to see this.
If the junction boxes are “clean”, go to the wall outlets. There should also be no fouling, blackening, etc.п.
As a rule, the wires here are very strongly curved and tightly packed in a tight space, and this causes heating of the insulation.
Only after going through all these steps, and not finding anything suspicious, you can safely call an electrician with special appliances at home.
How does he detect a short circuit in the electrical system?wiring? Disconnects all the circuit breakers and all appliances lighting.
Then you insert the probe into the sockets to measure the resistance.
If there’s a device still connected, the screen will show some resistance values. Все зависит от типа аппарата.
If there is a short circuit in the mains or on some equipment that is switched on, the display will be near zero readings.
And then the hidden wiring detection tool with signal generation and capturing comes into play.
And what to do if all the circuit breakers in the switchboard are on, but the light is still not at home?? There are also cases like this.
The first thing you do is to take a screwdriver and use it to check the voltage, starting from the main entry and up the chain. Both on the upper terminals and on the lower terminals.
There is obviously a burned out or missing contact somewhere. Находите неисправный выключатель, к которому напряжение подходит, но не выходит и меняете его.
If you have a holiday, a birthday party, it’s evening and it’s too late to run to the store, then as a temporary solution you can disconnect the outgoing wire from the faulty automatic device and connect it to another.
For example, you have a burned out circuit breaker.Off. Inom=10A for lighting (cable cross-section 1.5mm2), and you decided to temporarily switch it to a circuit breaker from el.of the 32 amp stove.
Think for a minute, it burned out for a reason, it means there was originally some reason for it? If you connect such a small wire to a 32 amp fuse, you could burn down your apartment and cause a fire in the wiring.
Don’t even use this kind of trick, even as a temp.
And the last option malfunction, which for some reason many people forget. All the circuit breakers are on, the flags are up, the phase is going out, but the light is still off!
In that case, check all the zeros in the panelboard!
And if you break the zero, everything stops working, just like you break the breaker. Zero conductors are fastened on the special tires which are located either near to automatic machines, or in the top or bottom part of a panelboard.
Check that all the pins on that bus are secure.
It is quite possible that some conductor is elementary loose or burned out, hence all the problems.
This often happens in older homes that still have aluminum wiring.
How else can you tell if you have a blown zero?? Use a screwdriver to check the glow in the outlets.
If it will glow at once on two contacts, it does not mean that you have two phases coming into your apartment.
It is this kind of indicator and indicates a burned out zero conductor.
And the most unlikely situation is when your circuit breaker knocks out because too much load connected the neighbor, not you.
Yes, yes, that can happen. Watch the video below, or better yet, read the Комментарии и мнения владельцев
Check the heating system: pipes, radiators, circulation pump
If the boiler capacity meets the requirements, it is worth to pay attention to the elements of the heating system (all valves and thermostats, radiators, pipes) perhaps something blocks or slows down the movement of coolant, make sure there is no airlock.
In systems with forced circulation the cause could be a circulation pump. First, in order to run the boiler in the discharge mode is recommended to install it on the supply (provided that the pump is designed for a temperature of 110-115 ° C). Secondly, you should try to increase its speed, perhaps the speed of movement of the coolant is not enough and it is delayed for a long time in the boiler heat exchanger.
Why does the RCD on the water heater
One of the most common causes of water heater failure. is tripping of the RCD. In this article we will tell you why the RCD on the water heater.
Each person in the house has electrical appliances. Usually the owner tries to protect them from possible power surges by installing various voltage regulators (because high or low voltage can cause damage to electrical equipment).
However, from electric shock damage, it is necessary to protect not only appliances. but also their owner. To avoid injury from electricity and ensure the safety of household appliances, install either a special ground fault interrupter (RCD), or a differential circuit breaker.
Why does the RCD on the water heater. a question that requires careful consideration. Because a water heater is not just an electrical appliance. And an electrical appliance that comes into direct contact with water.
About the consequences of electric shock at the moment when you take a shower. needless to say. Therefore, the RCD is one of the most important elements of the water heater. And that’s why RCDs are installed on all water heaters as standard, not as an option.
And if the RCD knocks out. it’s a signal: something is wrong. And until you figure out what’s wrong, using a water heater is highly discouraged.
RCD wiring of a modern water heater
When the water heater is working, the circuit breaker knocks out (RCD, fuses). One cause is improper wiring
Unfortunately it so happens that this can be caused by unskilled actions of so-called professionals who made the connection device. They just didn’t connect it to the mains correctly. The neutral conductor may have been shorted to earth (this should trip the RCD), the wires may not have been clamped tightly when connected, etc.д.
First of all, you must check the quality of the connection of wires to the fuse or RCD and the socket. It happens that over time contacts (connections) weaken and this affects their work. Outlets, fuse boxes and wires begin to get hot due to loose contacts and the protection mechanism of the automatic unit is triggered and it automatically shuts down.
Connection Rules
The device is installed in the network in the process of connecting the power to the boiler.
Water heater is undesirable to connect to the protection device through the socket, it is allowed to work so only with units of small capacity. Powerful boilers will cause the socket to heat up, the body may melt, so the connection between the socket and the plug becomes unreliable.
Connecting in the switchboard copper three-core reduces the risk of damage to the electrical grid, t. к. There is no contact between the plug and the socket. Combine the RCD with a circuit breaker that reacts to a short circuit and shuts down the network on a signal from the safety device in case of a voltage leak.
- Single-phase switching. The appliance is placed in the closed loop of the control circuit, and the neutral and phase are connected in accordance with the symbols on the protection contacts. In this case, the operating rating of the RCD must be greater than its trip rating.
- Three-phase. A separate three-phase protection device with eight contacts is used for this circuit. Or use three single-phase devices with four contacts.
- In a circuit with grounding. Grounding wire is used instead of a neutral line. The magnetic field in the branch connection is balanced by three equal currents.
The socket must have a grounding contact, which is connected to the appropriate conductor. For the bathroom, they take outlets with the appropriate moisture protection class and a cover.
