On Dec 26, 3:05*pm, John Rumm wrote:
On 26/12/2010 11:12, Graham. wrote:



*wrote in .. .
*wrote:
In message
,
*writes

I think I know what I'm doing next week!

disconnecting the earth& *shorting the RCD?

Strangely enough I did consider this, just to get the element hot in
the hope it may remove the moisture that has probably built up. *The
oven is about 15 years old, was used regularly for about 5 years and
now only once or twice every couple of years.

A new element is 35:00 *so not dramatically expensive, would heating
it be a fix or just a temporary bodge or just a waste of time?

It is worth a shot but your chances of success are only 10-20% IMHO.

I recently replaced the element in our oven. The old one was tripping the RCD
when the oven reached about 200 deg C so it had plenty of opportunity to "dry out"
if moisture was the problem. I wasn't 100% sure if the element would be the cause, but happily it was.

Alas the problem is not really solved just by "drying out" as such,
although that will help in some cases where the moisture is not actually
in the element.

The usual insulation material in the element is magnesium oxide. Its
hygroscopic, and when it gets wet you get a chemical conversion to
magnesium hydroxide which is electrically more conductive. To reverse
the process you need to get it *very* hot, IIRC over 320 deg C.

An element should reach that and more in normal cooking.


NT