Geyser Replacement Tripping Earth Leakage - Assistance Please

[AmithS]

Hello,

Need some assistance please,

Had a new geyser installed at my dads place - very old house and electrical installation.

The geyser that was replaced was not used for a few years and the piping (old iron type) started to leak in the ceiling so we decided to put a new one in.

So...

New geyser installed and old geyser wiring extended to new geyser as its in a different location with new piping.

The new geyser has power on it with the earth leakage off / down...
So we put the geyser CB off and put the earth leakage on... Everything works fine...
The moment we switch the geyser on it trips the earth leakage...

Additional Info
3 phase power
Very old DB and possibly wiring standards with the double thickness CBs compared to new ones
Old geyser is still in ceiling just fully disconnected and drained now
The house does have an additional completely new geyser installation from a few years back that is working perfectly fine.


Any suggestions welcome, thanks in advance...

Installers only suggestion is that the earth leakage is bypassed and the geyser does not have a proper earth (they connected to the existing earth from the old geyser)
They also tried disconnecting the earth in the geyser terminal block on the side with same result.

[SeanM]

Greetings

Sounds like to neutral of the geyser is on the earth leakage neutral bar and to live of the geyser is not fed from earth leakage.

[Jaws]

Greetings

Sounds like to neutral of the geyser is on the earth leakage neutral bar and to live of the geyser is not fed from earth leakage.

Yes I agree.

Check where the Geyser Neutral is from.

From what you describe the neutral was connected from a point upstream of the Earth Leakage . It should be downstream from the EL.
SANS10142 does state that warm water heaters/geyser must be protected by an EL device.

[AndyD]

...........Installers only suggestion is that the earth leakage is bypassed and the geyser does not have a proper earth (they connected to the existing earth from the old geyser)
They also tried disconnecting the earth in the geyser terminal block on the side with same result.

Disconnecting the earth on a geyser won't stop an earth leakage tripping, there are parallel paths to earth via pipework, bonding straps and even the water in the pipes....and plumbers shouldn't be trying to find electrical faults.

You're going to need to get a qualified electrician in. Poking around inside an old 3-phase DB isn't something an untrained person should be doing, it's likely going to end in tears. Either the circuit is incorrectly wired in the DB or the geyser has an insulation fault or maybe even both. Specialised testers are needed to find the fault.

[Schalk]

Greetings.I fully agree with this statement.Live and neutral both from the outgoing side of the earth leakage.
Another problem I`ve found is that the geyser element is worn and so water seepage goes inside the element thus creating a leakage to earth.(Finding the slight tingling of electricity when touching the taps in the kitchen or bathroom.)This is more so applicable to old elements/geysers!This is just info people may use.