Smeg cooker tripping the RCD after a clean.

[manwithaplan]

Hello to all,
I run an oven cleaning & repair business with my brother.
My brother was cleaning a Smeg range cooker – Mod SY4110 on Tuesday, it was quite dirty and when he turned the cooker on at the end of the job it tripped the RCD. This is something that is a rare occurrence, we carry out 2500 jobs a year, and it probably open happens a dozen times throughout this time.
Normally this is down to the moisture getting into an element, but once it’s been given time to dry (sometimes we speed up the process by using a hairdryer) it works again. We have had to change the odd element when the drying process hasn’t worked.

Anyway, on the job that my brother was on this week, the RCD tripped, he reset the RCD, but now when he turns the cooker on by the rocker switch, the RCD trips every time, even though none of the selector switches/thermostats have been turned.
I visited the customer’s house today to do some fault-finding. I thought it would be an element that was causing the RCD to trip, so I disconnected each element one at a time to see which one was the issue. Every element showed continuity and the RCD continued to trip when the rocker switch is pushed on.

Can anyone advise what could be causing it to trip? Could it be a fault with the rocker switch?

Many thanks in advance,
Jack

[kwatt]

Check…. mains supply, mains block, door switch, clock, oven switch… follow the power. 😉

K.

[electrofix]

your looking for an earth fault so checking the elements across the terminals wont help

you need to measure on a high ohms scale between the element terminal and earth. the higher the resistance the better.

have a careful look at all the elements. Its quite common for elements to split and still work which would allow moisture in. This would mean the element is about to fail and it should be one of the quick checks you do before cleaning. that way if it happens you have every right to charge for a new element if you have informed the customer of the risk before hand

dont forget you can use a heat gun to get the elements hot if you need to but stay clear of the thermostat sensor

the water has obvoiusly got somewhere more serious so it could be in switches or thermostats can be really fun to find odd earth faults

Dave

[manwithaplan]

Hi,
Thank you for your responses. I shall endeavor to get to the bottom of it!
Why are Smegs so temperamental eh?! We have more issues with these than with any other manufacturer!

[kaibart]

Lol join the club I do warranty for them and they are challenging to say the least, to try and point you in some sort of direction ask if they use both ovens or if they use one more than other at a educated guess I would go for a base element obviously cant be 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} without testing

[kwatt]

In the bracket that they sit in, Smeg’s are no worse than anything else and, IMO way better than many. There’s also a lot more out there in that price bracket I expect so you see more, therefore more will inevitably break.

K.

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