Why does my earth leakage keep tripping?
Because more than about 30 milliamps of current is escaping to earth somewhere in your house. That is either one faulty thing, or several small leaks adding up until they cross the line together. The unit is not being difficult. It is doing the one job it has, which is to cut the power before that current finds a person.
What the unit is actually measuring
An earth leakage unit compares the current going out on the live wire with the current coming back on the neutral. In a healthy house those match. If some current is going somewhere else — through damp insulation, through a cracked element, through a person — the two no longer balance, and at about 30 milliamps the unit drops the power. Thirty milliamps is a tiny amount. It is also roughly the amount that stops a heart.
So when it trips, something is genuinely leaking. Taping the switch up or fitting a bigger unit is not a fix, it is removing the smoke alarm.
The usual causes in Vaal homes
A failing geyser element. The single most common one. The element cracks, water reaches the wire inside, and it leaks to earth. Often it trips only when the geyser is heating, which is why the trips seem random.
Damp. Pool pumps, lapa and braai-area wiring, garden lights, gate motors, borehole pumps. After rain, or through a humid Highveld week, water gets into a connection and the leakage climbs. Classic symptom: it trips in wet weather and behaves perfectly when things dry out.
Several appliances adding up. Every appliance leaks a little. A dishwasher, a microwave, a kettle, an old iron, a fridge — each one under the limit on its own, all of them together over it. Nothing is broken, exactly, and yet the board trips every time the kettle goes on at the wrong moment.
A tired earth leakage unit. These wear out. An old unit can start tripping below its rating, or fail the other way and not trip at all. That is why the manufacturers say to press the test button monthly. If it does not trip when you press it, the protection has already failed.
Power coming back after an outage. When the municipal supply is restored there is a pulse on the line, and that can imbalance the circuit enough to trip the unit. If your board trips at the moment the lights come back, that is what happened.
Neutral to earth faults and damaged roof wiring. Years of lightning seasons and hard restarts take a toll on old cable in a hot Vaal roof.
An electric fence. A branch resting on a fence wire has tripped the main earth leakage before now. Fences also die quietly between one and five in the morning when the isolators and tensioners have reached the end of their lives.
Inverter and solar installs. A growing category as the 2022 to 2024 solar wave ages. Some hybrid inverters trip the unit only while charging from the mains, after one to ten minutes, because their leakage adds to the household's existing leakage. Poor earthing or a floating neutral on the inverter side does the same thing.
Ten minutes that save you money
Before you phone anyone, write down three things. They are worth real money because they cut the hunting time.
- What was running?
Geyser, kettle, washing machine, pool pump, tumble dryer, the gate opening. Was it raining? Had the power just come back on?
- Which switch moved?
The main earth leakage, a single breaker, or both. Take a photo of the board with the switches as you found them.
- Immediately, or after a few minutes?
An instant trip and a slow trip point at different faults. This one detail often halves the diagnosis.
Then, if you want to narrow it down: switch every breaker off, reset the earth leakage, and switch the breakers back on one at a time, slowly. The one that drops it is your circuit. Unplug everything on that circuit and try again. If it holds, plug things back one at a time. If it trips with nothing plugged in, stop — that is fixed wiring, and it needs instruments.
What I do that guessing does not
I isolate, lock and tag the board before I open it, the same way I did on plant for twenty years. Then it is circuit-by-circuit isolation, insulation testing to find where the leakage lives, and a ramp test on the earth leakage unit itself — slowly raising the current until it trips, to confirm it actually lets go at 30 milliamps and not at 45. That test is the difference between fixing your fault and selling you a part.
How this one gets priced. A fault has to be found before anybody can put a number on it, so I do not quote this off a photo. The callout is R300, and I waive it when you accept the quote. I find the fault, then you get a written price before I start, whether it turns out to be a geyser element, a wet outside circuit or the earth leakage unit itself. After hours and weekends carry a surcharge and I say what it is before I drive.
1. Write down what was running, which switch moved, and whether it tripped at once or slowly.
2. Photograph the open board and the switch positions.
3. Try the one-breaker-at-a-time method above, once. Do not repeat it all evening.
4. Press the test button on the earth leakage. If nothing happens, the protection has failed — phone.
5. WhatsApp me the photo and your notes. You get a straight answer back, and the work is priced on site once I have found the fault.
Before you phone.
Why does my earth leakage keep tripping?
It trips even with everything unplugged. What now?
How does finding and fixing it get priced?
Tell me what's happening.
It costs nothing to ask, and you get a straight answer back.