Quite so. As I wrote (and still believe to be the case)...
However, it seems that eric is one of the few people who would say that! I wonder if he would regard a relay or contactor with N/C contacts as being an 'overcurrent device'?
Whilst I personally have absolutely no problem with people who want to have isolators (or 'emergency switches'), ...
Although I don't doubt that it must happen very occasionally, I think you would probably struggle to find many reports of appliances catching on fire when "not in use". As for once they have already caught on fire (almost always when "in use"), switching off the electricity then is unlikely to have much impact on the fire (and not necessarily even easy/possible, given that those who do have isolators have a habit of locating them very close to the appliance).
All true, but how often does that actually happen? For what it's worth as an anecdote, in the 35 years or so that I have lived with (a good few) RCD-protected kitchen/utility appliances, I can't recall a single occasion on which one of them has tripped an RCD.
Ah - fair enough - but I don't have any electric cooking appliances (other than a microwave)
Mind you, electric cookers are one thing that often usually do have local isolators, even when nothing else does.I've had a good few fridges/freezers die over the years, but can't recall an RCD being tripped. The only freezer-related RCD trip I can recall was when my cellar got flooded, and the water level rose high enough to hit the freezer's electrical bits. In that case, the whole cellar had to be isolated, anyway, and the RCD did that for me!
County Council Social services were paying for most of the work, in fact the isolator on the oven caused a lot of problems, the LA sent some one to show my mother how to use the new oven, and she told mother to switch off at the wall once finished, this caused two problems, one stuff in the cupboard above the oven got hot, as the cooling fan had been turned off, and when the oven was switched on again it would not work until the clock was set.
Many freezers are frost free, the way this is done is put the cooling bits at back under a cover and have a fan circulate the air except on defrost cycle and the de-frost is done with a mineral insulated element similar to used in an oven but only around 120 watt, some times the seals go on the end of the heater and the mineral absorbs any moisture in the atmosphere so trips the RCD. Because the heater only comes on a few times a day, once it trips all can be reset and will work for a good few hours before next de-frost cycle. So hard without a meter between neutral and earth (as line not connected until defrost cycle) to work out what has caused the RCD to trip.Ah - fair enough - but I don't have any electric cooking appliances (other than a microwave)
Do electric cookers not come with DP switches?
I've had a good few fridges/freezers die over the years, but can't recall an RCD being tripped. The only freezer-related RCD trip I can recall was when my cellar got flooded, and the water level rose high enough to hit the freezer's electrical bits. In that case, the whole cellar had to be isolated, anyway, and the RCD did that for me!
Kind Regards, John
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