Microwave trips site supply
I know that microwave ovens take a high initial current even on low power settings but for the first time ever I have had a problem with tripping the site EHU (several times!). It is only a 6 amp EHU supply but this is fairly common in France, Italy etc.
and we have also been on this site in France before - different outfit but same Daewoo microwave. All other power consumers were switched off except fridge. On the trip down we stayed at three separate sites and had no problems.
Might have to get our own key for the supply box! Has anybody experienced the same problem?
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Yes I have, also with a Daewoo in a Lunar caravan. I couldn't understand why it kept tripping the breakers both in the van and on the bollard even though nothing else was switched on. Eventually I unplugged it and discovered that it tripped the bollard when I simply plugged it back in even without switching it on. I replaced it with another which behaved perfectly, they are only about £50. The hard part is finding either exactly the same microwave or one with the same dimensions so it will fit.
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Thanks for that. It may be the microwave which is faulty. I will try again at the next site.
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I do wonder if the site supply is really 6 amps. The microwave on full power will use about 1 kw so you do not have a lot of leeway on six amps. We have managed a microwave in France on 6 amps but would run only the fridge at the same time. That was branded
as an Avondale so no idea what make it actually was. We also used the one in our Eldiss before that but cannot remember what sort that was.I would have thought if the microwave was faulty it would trip the fuse on any ampage but you say it ran normally on the other sites which makes me think it is the site supply.
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Thanks to all. Microwaves do take a large surge when first switched on so a sensitive breaker might trip, however, the "steady state" consumption is within the EHU limit with the appliances that were running. We will see how it goes.
Never bothered with a microwave in the past but like everything, once you get used to it you miss it.
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Your caravan shops say that their microwaves dont surge, see if you can find a 600 watt microwave, ours is a daewoo 600 watt, input power 1000watt, 4.35 amps
when I first got it Waudbys of south cave said it will surge and trip the power, his where 700 watt, input power 1100 watt the same input power as morrisons, his 700 watt woudnt trip but my 600 watt would, what he didn't know was my late father was R.A.F.
signals I was taught electricl things at an early age including how to convert watts to amps0 -
Feedback on my microwave problem. It has worked fine on about six other sites so it must have been the EHU bollard on the site where we had the problem. Strange because we have been to this site many times and used similar microwaves. It was a new EHU point
and I can only assume that the circuit breaker was over sensitive.0 -
Glad you have had no more problems. I remember reading somewhere that microwaves use double the wattage listed as their cooking power. E.g. A '800 watt' output is 1.6k input, which would be more than 6 amps. Don't forget it also needs power for the turntable
etc as well as cooking. I don't use mine when I have any other appliance on, perhaps just the hot water and fridge of course.Hope this helps
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