DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Please help!

A fuse keeps tripping over and over again. I have 100% narrowed it down to being on the "kitchen sockets" circuit and definitely not to do with overloading or any particular appliance being used.

Believe me, I have unplugged everything in the entire house and it still goes, had one thing plugged in at a time and it still goes, etc. It is not down to one particular socket or thing that's plugged in.

It started randomly in the middle of the night, we discovered it when we woke up. We have not done anything differently recently, nothing new plugged in, no new screws or nails put in walls.

What else could it be please and is it something I can fix myself / if not, will it be a quick/cheap job for an electrician to figure out and complete. I've already wasted £140 today on an electrician who did absolutely nothing.

Sorry for delay, there was a problem logging in to forum. I will guess it's not a fuse but a RCD, and I will guess most likely the freezer as unlike every other item you never really switch it off and don't use it for a few days so any fault is always there.

I will guess it is the defrost element which are often very like a oven element being mineral insulated and if the seal is broken at end it will draw in moisture. They are switched on every so often with frost free freezers to remove frost build up, so it seems the freezer is OK as only when it goes into defrost mode is it connected.

Often you can test earth to neutral with an insulation tester and find the fault, but not always, if it has two pole switching you have to strip down freezer to test.

So simple way is an extension lead to other part of house fed from a different RCD and see if fault swaps to different RCD.

Can be worth looking at alternatives to the problem. Is the kitchen in an extension with a flat roof? Or has it got a void under the floor as mice, rats & squires can absolutely destroy wireing? Also, is there any appliances that are hard-wired to a wall outlet, IE: with no plug top

I agree with Eric, is the fault constantly tripping the mcb or intermittently?