Dishwasher has blown lighting circuit

[Deleted member 15266]

At least we think it was our dishwasher that tripped our electricity (piece of cutlery had touched the sides of the dishwasher). All the house electrics went off, we switched them back on but none of the downstairs lights will go back on. There is one switch on the consumer unit marked lights which won't go back up. Does this mean there is now a break in our circuit? Would we need an electrician to sort this?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Cutlery touching the side of the dishwasher shouldn't do anything to any circuit. It could well be the dishwasher which tripped the RCD, but not because cutlery touched the side.

Nor should the dishwasher have any effect on a lighting circuit.

Does the lighting MCB switch back on if you turn the main switch off first?

Have you tried pushing the lever all the way down, and then trying to turn it back on?

If it won't go on at all, even with the power off, then the MCB is faulty, and you need an electrician.

If it won't stay on with the power on then you've got a circuit fault, and you need an electrician.

You'll also need an appliance service engineer to fix the dishwasher if it trips the RCD again, unless you can spot an obvious water leak.

 

[Deleted member 15266]

Thanks. I'm sure we've tried this, but will do it again. If the 'lights' switch won't go back up do you think it would be a costly job to fix?

 

[Spark123]

The failure of the MCB is probably owing to another problem. The cost will depend on what this other problem is and the price of a new/replacement MCB which depends on the age and availability of replacement parts. You never know you could be lucky.

 

[IJWS15]

May be a stupid question but has a bulb blown leaving an internal short which is preventing the MCB from re-setting?

Make sure all the lights on the circuit are off and try resetting again.