You’ve just finished eating dinner, you go to load the dishwasher and within a few minutes, the fuse box goes down. As concerning as this can be, a dishwasher which trips the fuse box is usually a fairly straightforward fix.
Let’s give you some information to work with before you start making decisions.
How To Keep Safe
Keeping safe when your dishwasher is tripping the fuse box is absolutely vital, especially if you have children in the house.
First, if your dishwasher has tripped the fuse box, avoid restarting it. If you repeatedly restart the dishwasher and it continues to trip the fuse box, it can expose an existing weakness with the RCD. This is especially important if your consumer unit is quite old.
While the RCD is designed to trip hundreds of times, if it happens to break due to age and/or other factors, you will have to call out an electrician to replace this.
In addition to this, repeatedly using the dishwasher after knowing it trips the fuse box can damage the dishwasher itself further.
We get it, you might try to tinker with the appliance yourself first, try to find out a bit more about the problem. Despite this, our best advice for this sort of issue is to always leave it alone and call a professional as more often than not, you might make the problem worse.
Common Causes For This Fault
Let’s give you some information to work with. What can be causing your dishwasher to trip the fuse box?
1 > Heating element. The most common cause for a dishwasher of any brand to trip the fuse box is the heating element. The heating element is a fairly straightforward replacement once successfully diagnosed.
2 > Socket and/or the plug. If your dishwasher is relatively old, it might be the socket and/or the plug itself that’s causing the fuse box to trip. When the socket (or plug) starts causing issues, it will often have visible damage which makes diagnosing the problem very simple.
3 > Damaged wiring. The wiring within the dishwasher can become damaged through age, vibration or rodent damage. Damaged internal wires may cause a short circuit or leak current to earth, causing the RCD to trip. This will once again, as per point 2, often (not always) be easy to diagnose due to visible damage.
Importantly, you should also keep in mind that just about any component in your dishwasher can cause the fuse box to trip. The above three faults are the most common causes but, it can sometimes be more complicated to find the issue.
Can I continue using my dishwasher? When do I call a professional?
As we have already mentioned, you should not continue using your dishwasher once you have realised it’s tripping the fuse box.
Repeatedly using the dishwasher and therefore, causing the RCD to trip several times may, in some cases, cause further damage to both the dishwasher itself and your fuse board. This is mainly of concern for older consumer units but, it is vital to keep note of.
Due to the nature of the problem, we recommend calling a professional to help you advise and hopefully resolve the issue.
We do not recommend trying to fix this sort of issue yourself as inexperienced hands can often make the problem worse.
Frequently Asked Questions
1 > Why is my dishwasher tripping the fuse box randomly during the cycle? If your dishwasher is tripping the fuse box at different times, it may be a wiring issue and/or the heating element.
2 > Is this type of fault repairable? Yes! More often than not, a dishwasher that trips the fuse is repairable.
3 > How much would it cost to repair my dishwasher? When it comes to pricing, we recommend reading our extensive dishwasher repair cost guide. This guide covers all costs associated with appliance repairs.
Conclusion
In this guide, we have covered why your dishwasher may be tripping the fuse box, how to keep safe and, on top of that, we have provided you with some vital information to work with so that you can make the right choices moving forward.
If you’re facing a problem with a washing machine, dishwasher, oven or an extractor fan, why not contact us.
We are always happy to offer free advice over the phone and we may even serve your area to help repair the problem in-person.