Kitchen sink earth

[AGOODALL78]

I've just bought an stainless steel kettle which has highlighted a potential bad earth problem in my kitchen.

When I have water in the sink the kettle is live and gives a tingle. The other day I got a bit of a shock when I was touching the sink and the kettle at the same time. I've tried changing the socket as I thought it might be faulty but that hasn't worked. I'm wondering whether there is an earth problem on the sink?

Any thoughts on how to sove this much appreciated.

 

[ricicle]

For the safety of you and your family please seek the services of a competant Electrician.

 

[holmslaw]

..

 

[Aragorn84]

Either your sink is correctly earthed, and the kettle is faulty, or the kettle is earthed and the sink is live...

If you wanted to test things then a multimeter across a known good earth and your two items and test for voltage and continuity.

If you dont know how to use a multimeter to test for this, then as above, get someone in that knows what they're doing, and be VERY careful around the area in the mean time (ie dont go near it)

 

[AlanPPP]

For the safety of you and your family please seek the services of a competant Electrician.

+1

 

[AGOODALL78]

Cheers for the responses, I'll get an electrician in.

 

[ricicle]

Either your sink is correctly earthed

Please define ?

 

[Aragorn84]

Well i guess bonding of the sink is no longer required so "correctly" might not have been the correct term to use.

Maybe it would be better to say that the sink is providing the earth path, either via the pipes or via supplementary bonding.

If the sink itself was live and the kettle was providing the earth, then does that not suggest that bonding of the sink is infact a good idea?

 

[ricicle]

If the sink itself was live and the kettle was providing the earth, then does that not suggest that bonding of the sink is infact a good idea?

Better take that up with the Engineers at the IET

 

[electronicsuk]

If the sink itself was live and the kettle was providing the earth, then does that not suggest that bonding of the sink is infact a good idea?

I'm not sure there'd be much point. If the pipework to the sink was in copper then the PEB to the main incoming water supply would be providing a low impedance earth, so touch voltage on the sink should be limited, and protective devices should be pretty quick to react. If the pipework was plastic, there'd be little point in bonding the sink, as the plastic pipework would be unlikely to be able to introduce any significant potential to the metalwork.

 

[Aragorn84]

Lets say it was a metal sink, with plastic pipework (or even a plastic interconnect at ANY point along the pipework from the main to the sink itself), and a nearby FCU/socket/cooker/etc live is for whatever reason in contact with the sink frame....

Now you have a nice live sink, and due to a lack of bonding, nothing trips, until you happen to touch both it and the nice shiney metal kettle at the same time.

 

[electronicsuk]

Lets say it was a metal sink, with plastic pipework (or even a plastic interconnect at ANY point along the pipework from the main to the sink itself), and a nearby FCU/socket/cooker/etc live is for whatever reason in contact with the sink frame....

Surely that would be due to the lack of adequate earthing at the FCU/socket/cooker? Conversely, if the sink were bonded but not by chance in contact with the live part, and someone were to touch the sink and live FCU/socket/cooker at the same time, what do you think would happen?

 

[Aragorn84]

well it might be because someones screwed thru the cable to one of the outlets while installing the sink, rather than the FCU being installed badly?

I guess theres arguements for both sides.

If the sink was bonded and the FCU live, then that would indicate the FCU's earthing wasnt upto scratch surely? Not the sinks fault, and as you pointed out earlier, a lot of sinks have metal pipework anyway.

 

[RF Lighting]

Should I earth / bond my metal pan rack which is screwed to the kitchen wall?

 

[Aragorn84]

Yep