PLZ HELP ELECTRIC TRIPPING OUT

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Hello
my electric seems to be tripping out everytime i switch on the water heater.
It seems that once the water is turned on all is fine then about 5-10 mins later the power goes off???
the meter reading is also showing a 0004 ERROR
any ideas plz help
Alan
 
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hi mate
sorry i don't know a lot about electric is this easy to fix and if so how do i do it???? cheers Alan
 
If it really is the Immersion element fault (which is very common after a few years) then a plumber can fit a new one for you.

When you say it trips out, do you mean it is an RCD that trips? What is written on the thing that trips, and how do you reset it?

Someone on here may know what the error message means, if not, ring your electricity supplier and ask them.
 
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the thing that is tripping out is all the house electric and i have to turn the power back on in the fuse box how much am i looking at if a plummer fixed this?????
cheers Alan
ps is the RCD THE FUSE BOX??
 
JohnD said:
When you say it trips out, do you mean it is an RCD that trips? What is written on the thing that trips, and how do you reset it?
 
the make of the boiler that i have is a IDEAL CLASSIC from 2002 and is run from gas ignishtion. flame seems to be fine and is on but just before power trips out you can sometimes hear the boiler kick in. we do not use the electric to heat up the water only turn on the water swich on by the switchmaster 805 in the kitchen.(the thing that you can put water/heating on constant/timed) does this make sense to anyone????
The make of the water tank is a FORTIC COMBI UNIT from 2002
do you still think that it could be the immersion elements or thermostat?????
or could it be the gas boiler tripping something out?? if so what any ideas???
Alan
 
still need an answer to this

JohnD said:
JohnD said:
When you say it trips out, do you mean it is an RCD that trips? What is written on the thing that trips, and how do you reset it?
 
not sure if this is the answer you want but what trips out is the MAIN FUSE BOX TRIP SWITCH FOR for the home and written on it is MEM MEMERA 2000
MAIN SWITCH does this make sense???? also the ERROR 0004 is flashing up on the SINGLE PHASE WATT HOUR METER
hope you can help me with this info
but i will phone powergen today to see what they say
thanks Alan
 
OK, I know what a Memera 2000 is, very good quality consumer unit. Yours is probably cream plastic, with a rectangular hinged door with horizontal lines moulded into it, is that right? If it has a curvy door the layout is different.

It will have a row of MCBs (small things like a switch, acts like a resettable fuse), one for each circuit, these will be each marked "B6" "B16" "B32" "B40" or similar, and will have a black switch lever marked "On/Off" or "0/1" to switch or reset that individual circuit. One of these will trip if the particular circuit is overloaded. With luck there will be a label to each MCB saying things like "upstairs lights" "downstairs sockets" "cooker" etc.

It will also have either one or two bigger switches, twice the width of the MCBs, and with a large red lever to switch on and off. There will be one at the right hand side, and there may be another somewhere along the middle.

The one at the right hand side will be marked "100A" Either it, or the one in the middle will also have a little black test button, and be marked something like "30mA" "30mS"

Is it one of these big switches that is tripping, and how many big switches are there? What is written on the one that trips?
 
hi mate
yes that is the box down to a tee
the switch that is tripping out is the small red switch in the middle marked TRIPPED On/off A100HE above it is a small black switch that says press quarterly to test
on the box there are 4 black switches marked
B16 WATER HEATER ON
B32 UPSTAIRS/DOWNSTAIRS SOCKETS ON
B32 KITCHEN SCOCKETS ON
B32 COOKER ON
then the small red switch that keeps tripping then 2 more black switches
C6 UPSTAIRS LIGHTS ON
C6 DOWNSTAIRS LIGHTS ON
then the mains switch on
when the switch trips you have to press the red switch down and then up to get the power back on. like i say the power only goes off when the water is turned on in the kitchen.
hope you can make sense of it.
thanks Alan
 
Right.

The A100HE is a 100Amp RCD of 30mA sensitivity.

This trips when there is an earth leakage fault. It works rather like those plug-in RCD adapters people use with lawnmowers, to save them from electrocution when they cut through the cable when standing on wet grass. Yours is however better quality, built into the consumer unit and capable of carrying a 100 Amp current, and protects all your sockets. It also sounds as if it is protecting the cooker, this is not always done unless the cookercontrol has a socket on it; and it protects the water heater; water heaters are very prone to leakage when they get old and corroded. If you switch "off" the MCB for the water heater, it may reduce the number of trips, which would be a sign that it is faulty. However, I understand you to say that the trip occurs when you turn on the boiler.

This is a guess because I am not in your house looking at it; but since it appears that the RCD trips when you turn your boiler on, it is quite likely that there is an electrical fault in the boiler or its controls. It might be due to a water leak reaching the electrical parts, don't know. Best thing to do first is to get someone in who is skilled in repairing that type of boiler, he may well find and fix the fault quickly. If not, the next step would be to call in a qualified electrician. One of the things that sometimes happens is that you get several small earth leakages, no one appliance is very bad on its own, but they add up and together will trip the RCD. These faults are more difficult to trace, and need professional testgear to find and fix.

If you know of recent water leaks; or damage to cables or controls (including drilling or nailing into walls); or mice getting into the kitchen and gnawing at cables, that would be a clue to a possible cause.
 
yes the cooker has its own on/off switch in the kitchen
had a look at it and found that the black wire was burn out. could this be the problem with the tripping??
 
Yes it could.

Turn off the cooker MCB in the consumer unit. This may help (but not if the fault was on the black wire though and it is/was touching the metal back box or a screw). Has it been well repaired?

The cause of a wire overheating could be that it was not tightly fixed into a terminal. If the wire has been overheated it is likely to fail again and need to be cut back and rejoined.

If the damaged wire is on the cooker side of the switch, turn the switch off.
 
changed the socket but still tripping out think i will have to get someone out to it
phoned electric comp they said 0004 error is something to do with a break in the flow or high temp?????
thanks alan
 

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