Plugged the iron in this morning and it tripped the main house breaker switch, which was handy at 5:30, in the pitch black 🙄

Tried it in another socket that’s on a separate 16a RCB and it still killed the power (100A 30ma switch). The individual circuit RCDs didn’t trip.

No scorch marks or smell from the iron and the only thing I can see that might be an issue is a kink in the cable.

Any ideas on a cause?

The element has probably gone and shorted to earth, bin……..

Ironing at 5:30 in the morning?

Are you having a laugh? Either do it before you go to bed or don’t bother!

Very common – new iron required by the sound of it. I had same issue – a quick google pulled up all sorts of stuff – seems it is a common problem.

I’ve had two irons go like that, bin it and buy a new one.

EDIT: Steam plus electrics and cheap construction is never going to last very long…

Or a break and short in the flex as its continually being twited as you iron.

I guess by 100A 30mA switch you mean RCD, and individual RCDs you mean MCBs, then its an earth fault on the iron or its flex.
Your RCD protects against leakage to earth (trips at 30mA to earth, hence its spec). The MCBs are like a fuse, they will trip if there’s a fault to earth, but only if the circuit reaches the MCBs threshold. The RCD will more likely go first and cut the circuit preventing the MCB reaching its threshold.

Either take a gamble and replace the flex, or just buy a new iron. 😉

mrjmt

Yeah sorry I meant mcbs for the individual breakers. Incidentally I’ve got some shed electrical work coming up so will probably upgrade the house consumer unit to split load and possibly RCBOs

Iron is no more than two years old. Never had a prob before and we replace them when the sole plate furrs up with scale.

Crikey

Ironing is very much on a need to wear basis on our household, and I didn’t have any work shirts. Oh and I’d much rather iron first thing in the morning over last thing at night, especially on a Sunday!

New iron shopping tomorrow it is then

Quite often lint in the iron builds up from the clothes, and when it gets damp it trips the RCD. Just had this with ours last week, and opted to buy a new one. Not sure how easy it would be to clean the internals?

My iron did exactly the same, water was actually getting out of the reservoir and had corroded the cables. I repaired it but as above eventually binned it and replaced!

Will think its a broken wire so tripping when elements gone in iron, new iron.