I am hoping its a faulty RCD...

14th you don't say what make but I suspect a faulty RCD.

Kind regards

 

Similar thing 3 month ago customer said the RCD tripped he though a light bulb had gone went to put the trip back in and a puff of smoke, i couldn't get it to trip on the test button or under test. I thought at the time it maybe the trip coil blown or maybe they used a capacitor of some kind inside.

 

I heard of one a few months back,tripped and when the guy tried to reset it,it exploded.

 

Always the case mate took me 2 hours last week just to change a socket front cable was so tight and the connections burnt out had move it up the wall to get enough slack and cut out the burnt ends good job it was a stud wall. and as always no Wagobox on the van

 

Had one doing a board change,neutral/earth fault,did testing and traced it to a blob of gunge inside a socket in a kitchen cupboard.How it got there I can't imagine,the blob of gunge not the socket.lol

 

When someone says they have a faulty RCD because it wont reset, 99.9% of the time its something connected to it with an earth fault despite the customer telling you otherwise. Yet yesterday had that very problem, Hager RCBO wouldn't reset in a commercial kitchen, turned out to be a faulty RCBO, so there you go.

 

Its always worth putting a clamp around the tales when you go to look at the job to see if there is any leaks prior to swapping too. I went to look at something a few weeks ago... lady puts the kettle on to do me a brew and 68ma straight away.

 

Where do you put the clamp, round the earth? I would imagine the fault current could equally go down the bonding wires or into the fabric of the building just as much as the earth tail. or do you check live and neutral and see the difference.

Could always put a volt meter between a disconnected earth and the earth connection. Not a wise thing to do though if someone is making a brew or whatever though.

 

if i can get my clamp on both tails mate, i do that and then try and load the installation up.

 

How does that work, thought you had to do a tail on its own otherwise they both cancel each other out, or is it some kind of new fangled clamp meter.

 

If no leakage the current in live and neutral tails will be equal. By clamping both together therefore you get a zero reading unless of course there's a leakage which will cause an imbalance. With both tails clamped together any reading is leakage to earth.

 

As phil says. The earth is less accurate as no way of telling what has leaked down the gas or water pipe. Unless you disconnect. This is quicker assuming the clamp fits around both line and neutral of course

 

Plus the leakage to earth via the backbox.lol

 

Never thought of doing it that way, its exactly how an RCD works thinking about it, L&N pass through the inside of a round magnet with a sensing coil on it to detect the imbalance.

 

Result!!!

 

yes, I know exactly the problem. You are a no brained idiot who should not be anywhere near this work. If you only killed yourself it would be funny and a service to mankind, but you will probably wipe out someone else as well. GROW UP AND GET A PRO.