Why does my cooker keep tripping the power switches?

Question

Everytime my housemates and I use the oven it will only stay on for about 5-10 mins at a time. When it goes off, it trips the switch for all the plug sockets in the house. This means that all the lights still work, but anything plugged into a socket goes off such as the tv, lamps, and also the hot water. Can anyone tell me if this is a problem with the cooker itself or if it is a problem with the wires?

Answer 1

im guessing its a smeg

Answer 2

3 things will generally cause this problem. 1st Too many items pulling electricity from the same circuit. I believe this is your problem. When the stove trips the switch, what else is running @ the time? The "switch" can handle a certain number of amps. Your stove is 220 volts. that's means 2 circuits of 110 volts. The outlets are probably hooked up to 1 or both these circuits since they run on 110 volts. It is overloading that circuit and tripping breaker. 2nd stove. If internal circuitis are old and connection is not tight, it will not provide a good enough connection to sustain prolonged use and trip switch. But since other items turn off when switch is tripped, this tells me that it is cause # 1. 3rd, bad "switch". I do not think this is it either. A Switch gets weaker over time, especially if it is tripped often. However, The stove should be on a seperate circuit by itself. It should have it's own dedicated circuit for this appliance alone. This is per electrical code. Like your frig should be on a circuit by itself also. Did you always have this problem? If this developed over time, this tells me it is the appliance itself or the switch is weak. You may need an electrician to look @ wiring. If you made a list of everything that does not work when switch trips, this will tell you everything that is on that stove circuit. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Sounds like an overload on the power circuits in the house.The lighting is on a separate circuit.OK it doesn't sound like a short circuit or the trip would go as soon as you switched the oven on.What you must do is establish what other things are on at the same time as the oven.Could be the water heater coming on automatically, or someone taking a shower or using a hair dryer or iron. What about your other appliances are they being used at the same time? What about the washing machine, tumble dryer ,dishwasher etc. I think that what is happening is that the electric oven which takes quite a bit of current is in use something else is switched on which makes the total current load on the power circuit exceed the trip rating.Try using the oven with the immersion heater turned off. If the oven is then OK it proves that the load of the oven and w/heater are too great and one of them needs to be rewired to a different circuit. IN which case you will have to use an electrician.

Answer 4

From what you say, I assume it's the RCD that's tripping, not the 32 or 45 amp cooker circuit breaker. I would guess that the heating element in the oven is getting old and as it heats up, the element is touching the earthed outer sheath. This would normally cause a bang, blue smoke and the cooker circuit breaker to trip, but because you have a RCD in your installation that will trip on a few milliamps and take all the house power off. I would put money on this being the case.

Answer 5

Hi. It would appear that the oven/cooker is on the same circuit as the power points. Lights are on their own circuit. Power points are usually protected by 20 amp fuses or circuit breakers and ovens by 30 amp fuses or circuit breakers. (This depends on country and council by-laws of course). As your oven elements heat up and thus draws more amperage, (up to 25 amps) it would blow a fuse or trip a circuit breaker if that amperage exceeds the circuit breaker rating. It would appear the total combined amperage of your oven and misc. items plugged in to the power points, is exceeding the circuit breaker amperage of the breaker that the oven is wired into. Strongly suggest you get an electrician to check it out and wire it to it's own circuit and breaker as it has the potential for danger. If it does allready have it's own dedicated circuit it could be either the oven has problems or even possibly the breaker (They do fail). Best of luck.

Answer 6

it could be either, However it seems that the cooker may not be connected to the correct circut, so this is a problem with the house wiring itself, By you saying that you have housemates it sounds like you may be in rented accomodation, if so this situation is illegal and should be rectified by your Landlord straight away, I advise to stop using the cooker as it is liable to cause a fire if the trip switches fail to cut in. If the property is yours get an electrician in straight away..

By law a landlord should have an elexcttrician certify the house for safety once a year,

Answer 7

Your oven is plugged into the socket ring circuit. It should be plugged into it's own 30 amp circuit seperate to the others. (This will be a plug socket in the kitchen with a red switch labelled for oven).
If you don't have one then you can't use the oven safely.
You, or your landlord cannot fit one of these circuits on your own, it must by law be done by a qualified electrician.

IF YOU CONTINUE TO USE YOUR OVEN IN THIS WAY YOU ARE IN EXTREME DANGER.

Answer 8

cooker should be on its own supply with its own fuse because ovens take more power than other appliances. Your sockets will be on a seperate circuit with its own fuse/trip, and similarly for the lighting circuit. Sounds like your oven is connected to the socket circuit - it should not be.

Answer 9

Television set is produced to the lowest common denominator - i.e., the average IQ of everyone, whereas a booklet is written to the highest common denominator

Answer 10

I love viewing television, The pet is treasured by me shows, the medical shows and the judge and Judges shows

Answer 11

I take it the cooker is in the kitchen and if it is killing your TV in the living room. You need your house rewired or at least separated to different circuits.