Electric cooker plate trips the power - why?

Question

(New here and little to no experience with electrical appliances - please be gentle)

I live in France, in a not-so recent apartment (don't know the exact date, I'd say at least 15 years old but no more than 40). The other day I felt up to it so I decided to give my electric hobs a bit of a clean. I grabbed a sponge, some warm water and some dish soap and got the burnt fat and bits of onion off it. However, now one of the two plates trips the power whenever I turn it on.

Here they are, if that helps at all. The brand appears to be called Teka.

The one in the front works absolutely fine on all settings. The big one in the back will trip the power even on 1. I doubt it has anything to do with the power consumption of the electric plates, as I had the washing machine on earlier and that went fine.

I looked a bit online and apparently this problem can occur and requires a specialised technician to fix, but I also saw that it could just be due to water causing problems in the circuitry. Is there any way to find out?

Secondary question, if I do need to call in a electrician, can my landlord reasonably blame me for the problem and make me pay for it? Or would it be considered general wear & tear?

Answer 1

GFCI aka RCD

Water and electricity don't mix. Or rather, when they do it is often fatal.

In order to help prevent problems, GFCI (Ground Fault Circuit Interrupter - common terminology in the USA) and RCD (Residual Current Device - common in many other countries) are now required in many countries, particularly for kitchen and bathroom receptacles as those are the most likely to have water problems.

When you cleaned the appliance, you probably ended up with some water dripping down inside it where you can't easily dry it off. That little bit of water is conducting a little bit of electricity from the normal circuit wires to the rest of the appliance. The result is that some electricity doesn't flow back through the normal path and the GFCI or RCD detects this and trips.

How can you fix it? In some cases, just waiting long enough for everything to totally dry out will solve the problem by removing the conductive water from the appliance. However, this may actually be a symptom of a larger problem - e.g., worn insulation or cracked components that allow water to get where it shouldn't and cause problems.

With a small appliance the answer is almost always "toss it" - for a typical $10 - $50 appliance the costs (time and/or money) involved in opening it up to clean/dry/fix it are just not worth it and the risks of not doing it right are significant. With a large appliance sometimes the repairs are worthwhile.

If it was me, I would give it a few days to see if it dries out and if it does not then either look for a replacement or see if an appliance repairman can fix it. The catch is that (as has happened to me with other problems) you might pay for a service call only to be told "not worth fixing".