Panel heater is tripping the trip switch - which one is faulty?

buzz11

I have an older style panel heater that trips the switch when its turn on at high heat, but if I turn the dial down it works ok until I turn up the heat setting and then the trip switch drops. There is a second panel heater in the second bedroom but this works fine.

Is the panel heater faulty or the trip switch?

kirk.

Difficult to say

Does it drop straightaway when you turn up the dial

buzz11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119901492#Comment_119901492

Yes it drops immediatly when the dial is turned up, so its fine at setting 1 &2 but once the dial is at 3 or higher then the trip goes straight away.

kirk.

I'd presume it's a faulty trip switch could be wrong though they don't give much trouble

Would be easy enough to diagnose on site

buzz11

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119917794#Comment_119917794

Sound, thanks for that.👍️

kirk.

Still not making a lot of sense to me this issue

It's emitting heat at 1-2 but trips immediately at 3-4

I presume it's just a thermostatic control of a single element I must be missing something obvious anyhow

10-10-20

Must be a double-element then? Second one has worn insulation. They aren't buggers to open, usually 6 or so screws and a light visual inspection with the power isolated should identify the cause, I'd guess.

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119924218#Comment_119924218

Would explain it but it doesn't sound like a double element heater from the description,to me anyhow

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119927082#Comment_119927082

If it only has one heating element then it could thermal expansion of the heating element contacting with an earthed surface when on high causing it to trip?

kirk.

Could be right there .It seems an odd sort of a fault anyway to me ?

There's no real logic to turning up a dial and MCB trips instantaneously at 3-4 , from the description it's providing low heat at 1-2

I proceed with caution anyhow can easily be shown up as a idiot 😁

kirk.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119928840#Comment_119928840

I was presuming MCB but it could be RCD wasn't thinking there

I don't recall panel heaters being on RCDs but they can be plugged in , as well as being a fixed appliance

Could be what you were saying insulation fault , I dunno, not a fault I've ever heard of

10-10-20

I demand a root-cause analysis to put our overactive minds at rest. 👍️

kirk.

An RCD trip like that is nearly always a fault in the appliance anyhow

MCB trip wasn't making much sense to me

buzz11

I'll try and get a photo of the heater & trip switch 👍️