# N80 pops House RCD



## Coulstock (Sep 2, 2008)

We're off in a couple of days to a New Years do at Kingfisher so I hooked up the van today (in my drive) to chill down the fridge (I usually give it 24 hours chilling before I load up the food ) - done this dozens of times over the last 3 years or so. But everytime I selected the N80 fridge to 240v operation it pops the RCD on my mains box in the garage. The van is hooked up to a 240v socket in my garage. I repeated this 3 times and sure enough its not the Truma 240v 'immersion' heater, its not the oil filled 600w radiator its definately selecting the N80 to 240v operation . 

So why is it 'popping' my mains domestic RCD - which incidentally won't reset until I switch the fridge to OFF. ??

So now its chilling down on gas -( it'll be interesting to see what temp the freezer compartment reaches over the next 24 hours -on 240v op it usually gets to -12C)
and at 20gr/hour consumption I figure my 2 x 6Kg will last the 4 days we're away !!!

Any clues out there ??

Thanks

Harry


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## Coulstock (Sep 2, 2008)

Bump !!


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## cabby (May 14, 2005)

Funny enough our daughter had this problem with their new house with seperate garage.I suggested they try hook up direct to a socket in the house instead and it worked fine, so yours could be a fault in the garage socket.or not as the case may be. :wink: :wink: 

cabby


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## Coulstock (Sep 2, 2008)

Thanks to 'cabby' and others - tomorrow I'll try another 240v supply socket ( in the house) - realising I've got the Xmas lights outside the house ( 4 sets) plugged into the same 240v strip as the van hook up

Yours -much wiser

Harry


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## Fatalhud (Mar 3, 2006)

It could also be that the fridge is developing a fault down to earth.
It could be a chaffing cable or faulty component
Just shifting the supply to a non RCD socket may not be the way to go

An RCD is designed to trip out before an earth/fault electrocutes you

unplug your xmas lights then see if it still trips. if it does it may need testing and inspecting to ensure it is not dangerous

Alan H


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## trevorf (May 16, 2005)

Its almost definitely a bit of damp in the fridge electrics. Run the fridge on gas for 20 mins to dry it out then switch back to electric and it will be OK.


Trevor


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## Coulstock (Sep 2, 2008)

I chilled the fridge down on gas ( note:the freezer compartment chills down to -12 degrees C as it does on 240 v) - and then ran it on 240v while we were at Kingfisher - no problem.

Back home - hooked it up to the mains supply in the garage - no problem - BUT the Xmas lights had been disconnected by this time

So: Was it a bit of damp in the electrcis or having the van connected on the same spur as the Xmas lights

My suspicion is having all the Xmas lighting connected at the same time as the van 'unbalanced ' the RCD at the mains box. 

Reading the Wikipedia description of RCD it explains at length , complete with dynamic schematic, that the RCD operates on sensing an imbalance between the L and N 240v supply lines ( which could be caused by a short or unequal loading)

In any case -all working again and I had an opportunity to check the gas operation which I hadn't done for 2-3 years.

Harry


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## JockandRita (Jun 1, 2005)

Glad to hear that you are sorted now Harry............until next Christmas at least. :wink: 

Cheers,

Jock.


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## trevorf (May 16, 2005)

Happy to hear you are sorted now Harry. Still think its damp though as I have the same problem with my own van after leaving unused for a little while in the winter. 
Its a good idea to run the fridge on gas for a little while every 3 months or so, keeps the jet clean from siders webs etc  
They use very little gas compared to a water or space heater anyway.


Trevor


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