Fred wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...
Guy King wrote:
The message
from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:
tumble driers trips rcd

Or if you're feeling foolhardy and brave, open the plug and disconnect
the earth wire to see if it still does it.
definitely foolhardy. A pocket multimeter will tell the OP whether the
tumbler is leaking, one probe on E and the other on L&N with it
switched on will tell you. Yes I know it only catches 99% of cases -
thats a simple easy quick way to almost always tell you whats going on.


A pocket multimeter won't indicate a lot of problems but is still worth
using.

On all machines there are suppressors which are connected between earth -
neutral and earth - live. I would suggest if you see such a can isolate it
from earth by undoing the earth tag or stud and making sure the case is
insulated from the drier body. Neutral - live suppressors won't give rise
to earth currents.

It's a shame there aren't cheap gadgets to measure imbalances in live and
neutral currents. Mind few cheap multimeters measure AC current!


Cheap clamp-ons do.

But not mA..more likely A...

I found that a cheap multimeter goes a LONG way.

2K between neutral and live, and earth, on a washing machine motor that
blew the RCD every time was pretty conclusive..I even stripped it down
to just the frame and the windings. Looked perfect. measured bad. New
motor showed no conduction. It worked.

In laws washing machine was doing this..that also showed a problem BUT
after disconnecting the LEAD from inside the machine (pulled the spades
off the input filter) and taping it up, still same problem. The lead had
flexed and got cracks in it and damp got in..