Today’s boring topic of the day is…

Having worked happily away, minding its own business, for the last 7-8 years our washing machine has suddenly started to trip the RCD on our circuit board.

I’ve only done limited diagnosis so far (it would happen when I’m right in the middle of redecorating half the house wouldn’t it!) but would appreciated any tips or advice 🙂

Known knowns
– Circuit board has 2 bays of fuses and it’s the RCD that “controls” the right-hand bay of fuses that’s tripping (this bay controls mostly sockets, but not lights or the oven).

– Located the washing machine as the culprit by switching off all sockets, resetting the RCD then switching things back on in turn.

– Switching on the plug socket that the washing machine’s plugged into caused no problems, but switching the machine itself on trips the RCD.

– Turning the dial on the washing machine to choose a program lights up the display which shows the usual on-screen settings. There’s then “a sound”, possibly a hum, from inside the machine (not sure if this is usual or not) and the RCD then trips (approx 3s after the dial was turned).

– If it helps, it’s a Bosch Excel WVT1260.

Any help, advice or tips greatly appreciated 🙂

When you say circuit board i assume you mean consumer unit?, as its a dual unit it suggests its fairly new and probably not a fault at the units RCD. Your own diagnostics would tend to suggest its the machine and more so that it only trips when powered up. Most washing machines have some sort of timer delay (mechanical or electronic) so that would explain the delay and as its happening immediately then its possibly the water fill solenoid as most cycles start with a water fill. I would advise against messing with it unless you feel competent to do so as even with rcd protection you run a small risk of shock.

It will be one of the big bits inside the case (not the logic board). So solenoids, heating element and motor would be on the list of things I would check. When the element went in our bosch it just tripped the once then ran normally, worth checking though if it has failed to earth in some way.

I do mean consumer unit 😳 It was put in about 9 years ago.

Just to clarify, it’s before the wash cycle has been started. You turn the dial to “wake up” the machine and use it to select the program you want then press the Start button to kick it off.

The RCD is tripping during the cycle selection process.

I wonder how many deaths have occurred after the following sentence but… I’m a reasonably competent DIYer so am happy to investigate further, but could do with some pointers as to where to begin.

If it comes to calling someone out to repair it then fair enough, but I’d at least like to check the basics (assuming there are some) before doing that.

You need to fix you washing machine or buy a new one. We had similar with the dishwasher. You know this though. I’ve always guessed it is the electricity/water combo somewhere in the machine so err on the side of safety and just replace the machine as they’ve usually been getting on a bit anyway.

7-8 years … washing machine

I’d say it’s done reasonably well then.

As above, there’s water in this electrical appliance – tread carefully (preferably with rubber boots).

Residual Current Device, short to earth somewhere.

7-8 years is an annoying amount of time.

Ideally I’d like it to live longer, but given it’s done 2-3 washes a week in that time it probably doesn’t owe me anything…

When the cooker died last year it was only a matter of undoing a few screws and replacing the element. Took about 15mins.

I was hoping there would be a washing machine equivalent that was a likely culprit…

Our Bosch W/M is also an Exxcel – sounds similar – about 8 years old, there is a local guy that might be able to fix ours (if it went bang) but cost / benefit? don’t know.. I’d be wary of spending too much time and faffing about with water and electricity? probably not..

Was having odd washing machine issues. Then this happened
Now have a new machine

WORDS OF WARNING….DO NOT MESS WITH THE INTERNALS ON A WASHING MACHINE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING, I WENT TO A SUDDEN DEATH OF AN INDIVIDUAL WHO SHORTED OUT THE RATHER LARGE CAPACITOR WITHIN A MACHINE WITH HIS FORARM.
No amount of me doing CPR or paramedics trying to restart him would bring him back!
Sorry for shouting but perhaps you can understand why.