RCD tripping after water leak

[Andy87]

Hi,

Having a problem with RCD tripping after having a leak from the bathroom into downstairs toilet.

The water from upstairs came through the light fitting in the downstairs toilet. I have removed the light fitting, dried all the wiring and dried out the light fitting. The light now works fine. After a couple of days of the water leak found that the RCD had tripped and would not reset. Unplugged everything in the house and managed to reset it. It now trips whenever an appliance such as kettle, fridge, microwave is turned on. Doesn' t trip for things such as tvs, lamps or phone chargers.

Is this down to some water having got to the electrics and just needs time to dry out? Or something else unrelated?

Thanks

 

[Taylortwocities]

Yes the water has probably found its way into something else. Maybe a junction box under the floor, for instance.

Will it dry out, maybe, eventually.

 

[Andy87]

Thanks for reply although I dont like the maybe, eventually part.

If it hasn't dried in a couple of days am I looking at pulling up floor boards to find this junction box?

Also how come only certain appliances cause the RCD to trip?

 

[ericmark]

Typical neutral earth problem, because neutral to earth not line to earth often removing fuses, switching off MCB etc will not isolate fault. Unplugging and switching off double pole switches like with a fused connection unit will.

 

[ericmark]

Oh sorry reason why only trips with high power user appliances is with no load neutral is the same voltage as earth so no current flows, and the power increases so does the voltage difference between neutral and earth so current starts to flow.

If for example the fault was in a toaster then the toaster may still work, but the kettle could make it trip simply because the kettle uses more power, in that case if toaster was unplugged rather than just being switched off the fault would go so kettle would work again.

 

[bernardgreen]

Neutral_Earth_trip

• bernardgreen
• 16 Jan 2011
• 48

 

[Andy87]

Thanks for the replies, now understand a bit more what is going on!