Hi, just had a call from my tenant to say their washing machine has stopped working in a low level double socket. This is the second time this has happened, the first time was 10 months ago last August 2018, however, there are differences between the two incidents.
We bought the property in September 2015, so for 3 years the washing machine worked without issue. Last August it stopped mid-cycle and the plug was mangled (scorched) and had to be changed, which the tenant did by cutting off the moulded plug and connecting up a new one. The double socket also had scorch marks on it and wouldn't work, so this was also replaced by myself. The mcb tripped on this occasion. The double socket was hanging off the wall with cables sticking out of the wall. There was NO back box, so I fitted a wall mounted back box and a new face plate. Now, the previous owner of the property was a bit of a botch-it-DIY'er, from what I have seen, so I wonder if HE had installed the double socket himself, hence no back box. the new socket and plug appeared to resolve the issue.
Everything has worked fine until this morning. Same thing, the washing machine stopped during its cycle. This time, the plug looks okay and the fuse in it is also okay. They simply plugged it into a different socket and it started working. However, although there are no signs of scorching on the double socket nothing else plugged into this particular socket will work. The tenant says the mcb did NOT trip, unlike last time!
A bit of background. The property was built in the 1930's so clearly the wiring doesn't meet today's standards. The "consumer unit" is very old and originally had wired fuses, the type that needed to be replaced when they blew. I replaced these with appropriate Type B 6 amp and 32 amp MCB's. That was done 4 years ago.
It worries me that the socket has "failed", but the MCB didn't trip!
I'm resigned to having to get an electrician out to test the house wiring and do a PAT test as our tenants safety is our main priority and it would appear that the socket is failing for some reason. I wonder if it is a spur installed by the previous owner and the load from the washing machine is too much for it? Just a thought as I'm not an electrician. I also wonder if the issues could be being caused by the washing machine itself developing a fault.
It would be useful to have a better understanding of what might be happening here, so would appreciate your thoughts.
I'm going over this afternoon and had considered replacing the faulty double socket with a metal socket with a built in rcd to provide some additional protection. But would this only provide protection from the appliance plugged into it and not the circuit connected to the socket.
Coincidentally, and I don't believe this is related, last weekend the cooker hood extractor stopped working. This is wired up to a fused spur, which I noticed had a 13amp fuse in it, rather than the required 3amp fuse. Despite changing the fuse the extractor appears to be dead so I plan to replace it. In the 4 years the tenants have been in the property it looks like the extractor filters have never been cleaned. I've never seen so much grease and gunk on filters and the motor, so this may have caused the issue!
We bought the property in September 2015, so for 3 years the washing machine worked without issue. Last August it stopped mid-cycle and the plug was mangled (scorched) and had to be changed, which the tenant did by cutting off the moulded plug and connecting up a new one. The double socket also had scorch marks on it and wouldn't work, so this was also replaced by myself. The mcb tripped on this occasion. The double socket was hanging off the wall with cables sticking out of the wall. There was NO back box, so I fitted a wall mounted back box and a new face plate. Now, the previous owner of the property was a bit of a botch-it-DIY'er, from what I have seen, so I wonder if HE had installed the double socket himself, hence no back box. the new socket and plug appeared to resolve the issue.
Everything has worked fine until this morning. Same thing, the washing machine stopped during its cycle. This time, the plug looks okay and the fuse in it is also okay. They simply plugged it into a different socket and it started working. However, although there are no signs of scorching on the double socket nothing else plugged into this particular socket will work. The tenant says the mcb did NOT trip, unlike last time!
A bit of background. The property was built in the 1930's so clearly the wiring doesn't meet today's standards. The "consumer unit" is very old and originally had wired fuses, the type that needed to be replaced when they blew. I replaced these with appropriate Type B 6 amp and 32 amp MCB's. That was done 4 years ago.
It worries me that the socket has "failed", but the MCB didn't trip!
I'm resigned to having to get an electrician out to test the house wiring and do a PAT test as our tenants safety is our main priority and it would appear that the socket is failing for some reason. I wonder if it is a spur installed by the previous owner and the load from the washing machine is too much for it? Just a thought as I'm not an electrician. I also wonder if the issues could be being caused by the washing machine itself developing a fault.
It would be useful to have a better understanding of what might be happening here, so would appreciate your thoughts.
I'm going over this afternoon and had considered replacing the faulty double socket with a metal socket with a built in rcd to provide some additional protection. But would this only provide protection from the appliance plugged into it and not the circuit connected to the socket.
Coincidentally, and I don't believe this is related, last weekend the cooker hood extractor stopped working. This is wired up to a fused spur, which I noticed had a 13amp fuse in it, rather than the required 3amp fuse. Despite changing the fuse the extractor appears to be dead so I plan to replace it. In the 4 years the tenants have been in the property it looks like the extractor filters have never been cleaned. I've never seen so much grease and gunk on filters and the motor, so this may have caused the issue!