On Sun, 25 Nov 2007 16:24:42 +0000, Mogga
wrote:


Have you got a dishwasher?

Or a washing machine ?

Ours had something go wrong with it
recently and three times had tripped the main RCD - leaving a smell of
"burnt" in the kitchen briefly.
We'd suspected it might be dishwasher as it'd been finished but still
on twice so put the garden RCD onto the plug. Third time it went that
RCD had tripped as well as the main house one so BF's dad had a look
(ex-repairman) and spotted the problem. Couple of quid for a new bit a
interference suppression capacitor thats on the mains side of the
switch and so didn't matter if the dishwasher was on or off (as it was
the last time) as it had arced across.

It's a very common failure. Usually the capacitor is integral with a
couple of inductors potted in a metal can to make a filter. Washing
type machines draw a high current, the inductors heat up the capacitor
and shorten it's life. It seems to be difficult to make a reliable one
to fit in the small space they've got at the price they want to pay.

DG