The other day our upstairs ring main stopped working. The MCB hasn’t tripped, and the (I think) first socket in the ring is still working. I have no doubt I’ll need to get an electrician out, but it’d be good to have an idea what’s going on before I call them. Any ideas anyone?

Well if the first socket is still working open it up and see if the wire going to the next socket is still connected. Rats/mice chewed through your cables?

That’s the first obvious thing to check, but am I right in thinking that the rest of the ring should work even if that particular socket has a fault with the wiring?

That’s the first obvious thing to check, but am I right in thinking that the rest of the ring should work even if that particular socket has a fault with the wiring?

oops double post – sorry

A broken or disconnected wire at socket A will break the circuit.

Gary, Thanks – I’ll have a look.

No it will not Gary

Not if it is a ring main as your picture shows

If in doubt call someone out (would you play with a gas boiler) you cannot see or smell electricity and worse case scenario 😥 work that out yourself

As salad says above, 1 disconnected wire will not stop a ring main from working as it’s fed from both ends of the ring. if it’s a radial main however, it would. just because you’ve two wires in the back of the box don’t assume it’s a ring main, if you don’t know what you’re doing get an electrician in.

Blazin is right, paired cables do not a ring main make!, If the MCB hasn’t tripped then its unlikely that its a vermin problem, if the first socket is working but non of the others then it probably a fault in that socket….hard to tell without checking. Having said all of that if you dont know your beans and also are certain of how its wired dont do owt and gat a spark in, electrocuting yourself is not to bad but burning the house down……

im a sparky. sounds like your sockets are not on a ring but a radial. turn off the power and check tightness of terminals of all connections in your upstairs sockets if in any doubt about what your doing get a sparky in. ££££££££ only kidding. some older houses were wired with a single 4mm twin and earth to a junction box and then spured off from there to all the sockets.usually when there was only one in each room.

This is a new (1 year old) installation and was definitely wired as a ring. I’m happy to check socket terminals, but beyond that I’d be lost as to how to diagnose the problem. As I said, I’m happy to get an electrician in, just wanted to know a bit more about it before I did.

are you sure the one thats still working isnt on the down stairs ring. thats all i can think of at the moment. maybe one of the upstairs ring terminals at the box aint tightened properly, or the mcb is ****. have seen that a couple of times. try wobbling the trip switch about a bit and flicking it on and off.

oh yes and obviously be careful if you go into the consumer unit 💡