Siemens WT46E384 – RCD tripping

[Kommunist]

A couple of months ago I’ve noticed that the garage RCD occasionally trips.
I’ve traced this problem down to Siemens tumble dryer and connected it to the socket via separate RCD from Screwfix.
Everything was fine for a month or so, but tonight both the tumble dryer’s RCD and the one for the entire house tripped again.

The dryer is 12 years old and the model is IQ300 WT46E384.

Is there something I could do apart from scrapping it and getting a new condenser unit in there (I’ve read that heat pumps not really suitable for garages)?

[electrofix]

well the first thing to do is open the element housing and see if its wet in there as if water is there then that answers the tripping

Dave

[Kommunist]

OK, will try to do it over the weekend and see if there is some moist, thank you!

[Kommunist]

Opened the machine today. There are no signs of moisture where the heater is. Gave it a bit a of a clean (there was a lot of solid/semi-solid gunk in there, some of which can be seen in the picture). The impeller was covered by grey plasticide-like stuff, so cleaned that out as well.

However, there are some water droplets under the impeller, where the rubber seal (the one attached to the metal cover) should be. Is this normal?

The forum wouldn’t let me to attach am image, so here’s a link to it:
https://pofigist.files.wordpress.com/2023/01/img_2300.jpeg

[electrofix]

ok now put 2 screw to hold the cover on and try it

does it still trip ?

Dave

[Kommunist]

Just completed the run and it didn’t trip. However, it didn’t trip evert run before anyway. It does it maybe once a month or so.

[electrofix]

you have it on a garage that means is possible you getting condensation forming in the heater duct

I would remove the element and look for bits of lint that might short the element to earth if it got damp

Dave

[Kommunist]

There was some dust, so I gave it a vacuum clean yesterday, hope it would help. 🙂

[electrofix]

have you tried a different socket as they can fail and cause this too

Dave

[Kommunist]

Yes I have. Still trips occasionally. However, it didn’t trip since I cleaned it, so hopefully it was some lint/dust/dirt that was causing it.

[Kommunist]

The RCD tripping saga continues. My wife forgot to turn it off after removing the laundry, so the machine was left on standby. Several hours later… RCD tripped again. Does that mean the story is finally over for this machine?

[electrofix]

well the next is a bit of an experiment

unplug and take the lid off

where the mains wire comes in is a supressor

https://www.siemens-home.bsh-group.com/uk/shop-productlist/00623688

find it and disconnect both wires feeding the machine after the supressor, you will be left with the mains wire connected to the supressor and nothing else. then replace the lid, plug it in and see if tripping continues

Dave

[Kommunist]

Thank you. This means that the machine will be out of action, right?
The interesting thing is that the dryer can work for week or so without any issue and then trip the RCD. So the issue is intermittent (hate these things) and difficult to reproduce.

[electrofix]

thats the idea
am thinking it may be the supressor and by disconnecting the machine we can prove it is or is not the machine

Dave

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