Avent steam sterilser causing electrics to trip!

Akshay · 30 Jan 2007

Hi can anyone suggest why my baby sterilising machine is causing the circuits to trip in the house? They tripped a couple of times today and now the steriliser is dead, leaving me no option but to run out and buy a new one!!

Any ideas what's gone wrong?

JohnD · 30 Jan 2007

Assuming that you mean the RCD is tripping, and cutting power on the Socket circuit, the cause is almost certainly that there is a fault in your steriliser, causing current to leak to earth. This can be dangerous, so I hope you are grateful that the RCD has cut off the power as soon as it detects the fault. If the steriliser is within guarantee, take it back. There is probably a water or steam leak inside.

Earth leakages are mostly caused by "watery" appliances like kettles and washing machines, as they combine electricity and water which can be dangerous when mixed. The other major cause is outdooor circuits and lights, which get rain in them.

In some cases, there can be small leakages on several appliances, which are individually not dangerous, but together add up to enough to trip the RCD. This often happens with cookers, ovens and immersion heaters, which for this reason are better not supplied through the RCD.

p.s. "my baby sterilising machine" I hope you are putting the bottles in this machine, not the baby

Akshay · 31 Jan 2007

Thanks John, yes I have been sterilising the bottles and not baby!

I've had a chat with some friends who have all said that the steam type of sterlisers all fail often, and despite an offer of an replacement from Avent, I'm going to return it and get a cold water steriliser instead!

Chivers7 · 31 Jan 2007

Akshay said:
Thanks John, yes I have been sterilising the bottles and not baby!

I've had a chat with some friends who have all said that the steam type of sterlisers all fail often, and despite an offer of an replacement from Avent, I'm going to return it and get a cold water steriliser instead!

We had similar issues with an Advent (I don't think the thermostatic control on them is well designed) on holiday in a caravan.

In the end we bought a microwave one it saved loads of time and did the job

sm1thson · 31 Jan 2007

Chivers7 said:
In the end we bought a microwave one it saved loads of time and did the job

the advent microwave one we got was crap (although i thought advent we usually good) the lid is huge and the base is shallow, the base holds scolding hot water and when you take the lid off its easy to spill the water on your hands because the base is sides are so low -very bad design!

Chivers7 · 1 Feb 2007

sm1thson said:
Chivers7 said:

In the end we bought a microwave one it saved loads of time and did the job

Click to expand...

the advent microwave one we got was rubbish (although i thought advent we usually good) the lid is huge and the base is shallow, the base holds scolding hot water and when you take the lid off its easy to spill the water on your hands because the base is sides are so low -very bad design!

Ever heard of waiting a while for things to cool down

Akshay · 1 Feb 2007

Well I've got mine working again now. My wife had taken it to her mum's and had stored the cord inside the chamber with the bottles so the plug must have got wet and caused a short. As soon as we got it home, I noticed this and dried it off before testing and it was fine.....so far!!

From speaking to others though, these steam ones can be really good, but some people find they have a high failure rate, but I find the Avent very easy to use! We tried the cold sterilisation technique and got fed up waiting for 30mins, then rinsing everything off with hot water!!! Too much hard work!

sm1thson · 1 Feb 2007

Chivers7 said:
Ever heard of waiting a while for things to cool down

have you ever had a baby screaming for its milk!?!

securespark · 1 Feb 2007

This is where I jump in with a controversial post!

We've never bothered with sterilisers at all!

And when we were in France with our first-born (sub 12m of age), we gave him raw milk. He showed no ill-effects at all.

I think we are incredibly paranoid about bacteria. We use bleach wipes to kill bacteria in case our little darlings ingest some nasty-wasty
buggy-wuggys. The adverts don't help.

I firmly believe that this is why allergies are running like wild-fire through younger generations. Their bodies are not building up a resistance, the natural immune system is being suppressed by a complete lack of exposure to everyday bacteria.

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Avent steam sterilser causing electrics to trip!

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