MCB Tripping Help Please

[paul.bower]

Hi all third time away in our 2003 sterling eccles amethyst and on wed night the main RCD in the caravan tripped out, after a process of elimination i found that if i iscolated MCB3 which is the one for the fridge/charger all the rest of the electics work. When i switch the MCB3 back on, after a few seconds the hole lot tripps again, i have tried switching the MCB on with just the fridge on or just the charger on and with neither on but it still trips, all fuses i can see in the van are ok, PLEASE CAN SOMEONE HELP

 

[gary]

Pound to a pinch the fridge element is to blame, try running the fridge on gas to dry the element for 24hrs and see if that solves the problem.

 

[paul.bower]

Gary Ran the fridge on gas all the next day and tried the RCD before we packed up to come home on friday and it was still the same !

 

[tony_374321686]

Paul

I had the same problem as you with a 3 yr old Bailey and found it was the charger unit. If the unit is the same as the bailey the mains in to the charger is like a kettle and can be easily disconected and power switched on to see if it trips and it proved in my case it was the charger unit.A new unit was approx

 

[RichardJ]

Hi Mate

If your RCD is tripping, you are looking for an earth fault... somewhere you have a breakdown and circuit is going to earth.

This gets a bit difficult if you do not know what you are doing, you will need to remove the top of the cover and wxpose all the wiring, then you will need to isolate each of the circuits from the MCB, neutral bars and earth bars.

Then you need to test each circuit looking for a circuit either N or L to earth, when found thats your problem circuit.

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS IS YOU ARE NOT SURE ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

If you find no faults anywhere, then I would suggest that you are looking at your fridge element, as when this rises in temp, any fault/split will become more obvious.

One more thing you could try to be sure,if you have a RCD and MCB on your house run an extension lead for the fridge only, switch on the fridge to mains, if you get an RCB problem the fault is found without removing covers etc.

Best of luck

 

[paul.bower]

Hi Mate

If your RCD is tripping, you are looking for an earth fault... somewhere you have a breakdown and circuit is going to earth.

This gets a bit difficult if you do not know what you are doing, you will need to remove the top of the cover and wxpose all the wiring, then you will need to isolate each of the circuits from the MCB, neutral bars and earth bars.

Then you need to test each circuit looking for a circuit either N or L to earth, when found thats your problem circuit.

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS IS YOU ARE NOT SURE ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE DOING.

If you find no faults anywhere, then I would suggest that you are looking at your fridge element, as when this rises in temp, any fault/split will become more obvious.

One more thing you could try to be sure,if you have a RCD and MCB on your house run an extension lead for the fridge only, switch on the fridge to mains, if you get an RCB problem the fault is found without removing covers etc.

Best of luck

Cheers Richard

Seems a bit over my head, i will get someone who knows what they are doing to sort it (are you anywhere near sheffield !)

Thanks again

 

[paul.bower]

You may have been correct gary, used the van this weekend and all was ok thats save us a bit of money !!!!!