[dwood27]

Our 10 year old, fan assisted, electric Neff oven has started to trip out the circuit breaker. Sometimes it's ok for an hour.
Sometimes it will trip twice in 15 minutes.

[jasonjimbob]

How long as it being tripping out your Circuit Breaker? It sounds like it has developed a fault, where you should call out an electrician, Does your NEFF oven have a hob attached or is it a seperate?

[woodbush]

Possibly an element fault. If it is they are replacable along with the fan and thermostat. It really needs checking by an electrician.

Neff spares.

[dwood27]

It has an electric hob which is working fine.
Only the oven trips the circuit breaker and it has now happened about 6 - 8 times in the last 8 weeks.
I know the circuit breaker is very sensitive because it used to be tripped by a toaster which we eventually replaced purely because of this problem.

[harry hamster]

Consult a sparky and stick with salads for now.

[woodbush]

Originally Posted by dwood27

It has an electric hob which is working fine.
Only the oven trips the circuit breaker and it has now happened about 6 - 8 times in the last 8 weeks.
I know the circuit breaker is very sensitive because it used to be tripped by a toaster which we eventually replaced purely because of this problem.

They are designed to trip under fault conditions, not unusual to trip with toaster, iron or kettle faults.

An electrician can easily check the elements.

[dwood27]

Thanks very much guys.
I'm currently thinking I'll have a look at the element and see if I can replace it. If that doesn't solve the problem then I will call in a service engineer.

[woodbush]

Originally Posted by dwood27

Thanks very much guys.
I'm currently thinking I'll have a look at the element and see if I can replace it. If that doesn't solve the problem then I will call in a service engineer.

The spare you need is on that link I provided.

[Schadenfreud]

You do NOT need an electrician!

You need an Appliance Engineer!

Big difference! Most electricians won't delve into the inner workings of an appliance as they tend to not know a lot about them, and being the professionals they are, they don't mess with stuff they don't know. That's not to say they're not capable, it's just that most will refer you to an appliance engineer.

Reason for post is to prevent you from paying for someone you don't need.

Btw, it will be the fan element nine times out of ten. Not a difficult job tbh.

[SherbetLemon]

I don't think a faulty element alone would break a circuit, judging by my own experience. With our old oven, we twice had to replace an element and neither time caused the circuit to break. The oven only broke the circuit when it developed a major fault at 11 years old. We promptly bought a new, more energy efficient model rather than fork out for what could be the first of many repairs. That's what I would recommend, if you can afford it.

[Schadenfreud]

Originally Posted by SherbetLemon

I don't think a faulty element alone would break a circuit. With our old oven, we twice had to replace an element and neither time caused the circuit to break. The oven only caused the circuit to break when it developed a fault at 11 years old. We promptly bought a new, more energy efficient model rather than fork out for what could be the first of many repairs.

No offense, but you're completely wrong.
Elements shorting to earth are the number one reason for breaking circuits. It happens all the time (thankfully ).

Sometimes an element can go in such a way as to not trip the breaker, but mostly they do.

[SherbetLemon]

Originally Posted by Schadenfreud

No offense, but you're completely wrong.
Elements shorting to earth are the number one reason for breaking circuits. It happens all the time (thankfully ).

Sometimes an element can go in such a way as to not trip the breaker, but mostly they do.

No offence taken. Like I said, I'm just going by my own personal experience. It may be helpful to the OP if you can tell them how you've come by your experience. Presumably you work in that field?

[ganderpoke66]

Originally Posted by Schadenfreud

You do NOT need an electrician!

You need an Appliance Engineer!

Big difference! Most electricians won't delve into the inner workings of an appliance as they tend to not know a lot about them, and being the professionals they are, they don't mess with stuff they don't know. That's not to say they're not capable, it's just that most will refer you to an appliance engineer. .

Yeah, most electricians are as dim as a 15 watt bulb , gosh, ovens are really complicated.

A four year old could fault find and fix an oven in minutes.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Originally Posted by ganderpoke66

Yeah, most electricians are as dim as a 15 watt bulb , gosh, ovens are really complicated.

A four year old could fault find and fix an oven in minutes.

But electricians don't generally repair ovens - and certainly not domestic ovens - it's an entirely different skill set.

Really it all depends what is tripping? an MCB is tripped by too much current, and an ELCB by leakage to earth. 'Circuit Breaker' isn't specific enough.

[the chimp]

Originally Posted by ganderpoke66

Yeah, most electricians are as dim as a 15 watt bulb , gosh, ovens are really complicated.

A four year old could fault find and fix an oven in minutes.

I'd like to show you many of the ovens I've worked on and repaired, you would realise how clueless your comment is, touch controls, thermisters (i.e not thermostats), logic boards, timer boards, trigger stats, overheat stats, pcb's etc etc and thats before we move onto induction.

[Schadenfreud]

Originally Posted by SherbetLemon

No offence taken. Like I said, I'm just going by my own personal experience. It may be helpful to the OP if you can tell them how you've come by your experience. Presumably you work in that field?

Yes, I've worked on domestic appliances and refrigeration for 30 years and have my own business. I like to think I know what I'm doing, but I will be the first to admit I don't know everything (anyone who says they do is a liar and a fool).

Originally Posted by ganderpoke66

Yeah, most electricians are as dim as a 15 watt bulb , gosh, ovens are really complicated.

A four year old could fault find and fix an oven in minutes.

I think all you're doing is showing your own complete lack of knowledge, alongside that you're a bit immature.

ETA, Oh, and I've been to plenty of ovens where a sparky 'had a go' and I had to rectify the mistakes.

[Maxatoria]

Main thing you can do before spending any serious money is to kill the power and grab some screwdrivers and make sure all the connectors are nice and tight and properly terminated, as nothing say ouch than a sparky on £30/hour to turn up and give a screw 2 extra turns and walk away with your money

but if its the appliance thats faulty it can be cheaper to get a new one sometimes as fixing one problem can then lead to something else failing 3 months later and you end up forking £000's on getting it constantly fixed

[the chimp]

Originally Posted by Maxatoria

but if its the appliance thats faulty it can be cheaper to get a new one sometimes as fixing one problem can then lead to something else failing 3 months later and you end up forking £000's on getting it constantly fixed

Complete myth.

[weirdlywired]

if it's a fan oven, ensure that the fan is rotating freely. If the fan or fan motor is a little stiff or beginning to seize, the excess current drawn to operate the fan can also cause the breaker to trip.

[the chimp]

Originally Posted by weirdlywired

if it's a fan oven, ensure that the fan is rotating freely. If the fan or fan motor is a little stiff or beginning to seize, the excess current drawn to operate the fan can also cause the breaker to trip.

There is no excess current, the fan spins magnetically, it would not cause it to trip, slow fans can cause the element to overheat, split and as a consequence trip out though.

[degsyhufc]

I had a similar problem last month.
It was the fan + thermomenter (not sure which went first).

Called the insurance and got the official engineer to come out and fix it.

[dwood27]

Lots of good advice here - thanks guys.
When I get some time I will unscrew the backplate I have spotted and tighten up any connections I can find. And also check the fan is running freely and take a look at the heating element so that I get the right one, if necessary. This could be interesting......

[d0lphin]

Originally Posted by Schadenfreud

No offense, but you're completely wrong.
Elements shorting to earth are the number one reason for breaking circuits. It happens all the time (thankfully ).

Sometimes an element can go in such a way as to not trip the breaker, but mostly they do.

I have just had exactly the same problem and it was the element. Fortunately Mr dolphin is pretty handy and replaced it at the cost of £45 saving money on a call out. But you need to know what you're doing!!!!

[dwood27]

Do you have any tips for me Mr Dolphin, because I don't really know what I'm doing, but I'm willing to give it a go.
(We used the oven for 90 minutes last night with no problems.)