Our trip switch keeps tripping every 5 or 6 hours (pretty intermittent). The odd thing is it goes straight back on (and stays on for hours) without any appliances needing to be turned off; it even trips during the night when very little is on.

We’ve had 2 recent electrical events. The first was the element in our oven blowing (which threw the trip) but of course we’re no longer using the lower oven, so I can’t see how it’s this. The second was the replacing of the external power switch for our shower (and the first trip went a few hours after this) although the trip is still tripping when this switch is off, whilst quite happily staying on with the switch on and the shower in use?

Any thoughts, getting someone in to check the electrics sounds expensive!

Most likely is damp getting in to a socket or switch, allowing a slight current to flow to earth.
However it could also be any number of other things

FFS it is tripping because of a safety issue

get it done properly I bet you pay to get your car serviced but how much time do you spend in your car compared to your house

Maybe we’d all be quicker to call in the pros if they weren’t so **** expensive!

so what you mean is electricians do not deserve to make a living then ???

bet you call a corgi registered plumber if yer boiler stops in the middle of winter!!

PJ where do you live in Slumerset??

We had a similar issue once and it was an issue at the junction off the supply to the house. The trip would go randomly or for trivling appliances and bugged us for weeks. Certainly required a pro to fix that one.

Ours was doing same thing few months ago. I traced it back to the new dryer (two weeks old at the time) being on a timer switch (every time it switched itself on it tripped)

Called the manufacturer and they sent an engineer out under the warranty. Much to Mrs Pollock embarrassment the fault was that the metal ‘bone’ from one of her bras had got lodged and was shorting the appliance! 😳

We have a ‘no bras in the dryer’ policy now 😆

so what you mean is electricians do not deserve to make a living then ???

To be fair, most of them are silly prices. Luckily, we’ve found a really good one, who is also a more realistic price then 95% of them out there

This has happened twice in our house which is 70’s build and really needs to be rewired but this will only happen if we move house or I win the lottery.

Anyhoo, first time round the electrician put it down to a fan light in my daughters bedroom and second time after tripping non stop for about two hours it suddenly stopped and the electrician couldn’t explain it!

Usually, with resettable circuit breakers, the offending circuit will be identified by the tripped out breaker.

If it’s not an individual circuit, but the RCB (Residual Current Breaker) on the end of the row of CB’s, then you have an earth leakage on any circuit on the RCB.

The RCB itself could be defective, but you’ll need a certified sparks to sort this out.

Try unplugging everything on each circuit one by one to prove it’s not just a defective appliance you are using (very possible).

This could take time! Make a note of each change.

If you get no trip out when a particular circuit has no loads, start to add each appliance back on until you find the offending appliance. As I said, it will take days because you’ll need to wait up to your experienced maximum of 5-6 hrs.

Of course, if the tripping out continues regardless of loads, it could be the RCB, or a fault anywhere in the house’s wiring that is attached and protected by this RCB breaker.

It would be an expensive callout if all that was causing this is an appliance, but if it isn’t, you DO need a qualified electrician.

BE VERY CAREFUL!

Try one of these;
http://www.jmwlimited.co.uk/Fluke_Socket_Master_SM300.html

Cheapo version;
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=9800

A Martindale tester or eqivalent won’t be able to find intermittent earth leakage faults, but I always ise one before and after I do any work in my house.