Kenwood oven trips mains off

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Hello, I wonder if anyone can help with this puzzling problem...

I have a Kenwood range cooker CK404 with gas hob and two ovens, large (fan) and small, ten years old and reliable until now.

Suddenly, while using the main oven, the mains tripped out, and now this happens from the start. If I try the small oven instead, it starts to warm up but then this also trips after a few minutes.

My initial thought was that the thermostat is shorting to earth. But surely there are two thermostats - why should both develop the same fault at the same moment? The same applies to the two separate elements. Could the problem be completely different?

I live near Haslemere, Surrey in case any one can recommend a local repairer who could sort this out at reasonable cost.

Many thanks,
Alec.
 
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I did manage to find a local electrician (friend of a friend) and he said he had once encountered a similar problem: the oven element failed, but this somehow caused a surge which resulted in two adjacent wires shorting. Anyway, he's going to try fitting a new element, and we'll see if that helps.
 
What is tripping - MCB or RCD/RCBO ?

Chucking new parts at an issue and hoping, can work out to be an expensive solution.
 
It's only the individual MCB, so not an earth leakage problem I think.

I take your point.... will keep you posted!
 
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What is tripping - MCB or RCD/RCBO ?

Chucking new parts at an issue and hoping, can work out to be an expensive solution.

Buying a new main oven element proved to be worth the cost, as it solved the problem. I would have thought that a failed element would just result in an open circuit, but obviously it somehow resulted in a short. Being a rented property I had to use a qualified electrician to cover my back, but I will be interested to learn the exact nature of the failure.
 
Buying a new main oven element proved to be worth the cost, as it solved the problem. I would have thought that a failed element would just result in an open circuit, but obviously it somehow resulted in a short. Being a rented property I had to use a qualified electrician to cover my back, but I will be interested to learn the exact nature of the failure.

There can be a number of actual failure modes, most of which burn a small hole in the outer metal of the element. Once they have a hole, the insulation inside is absorbent to moisture [1], the moisture will cause electrical leakage, resulting in the RCD doing what it is designed to do and tripping. It's often a result of a hot spot in the element, the hotspot burns more than the rest of the element and the worse it gets, the worse it will become until it fails completely.

[1] From memory - highly compressed aluminium oxide.

[EDIT] no it is magnesium oxide.
 
Thanks Harry, that made it much clearer to understand what could have been happening.
Alec.
 

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