Why does the circuit fuse keep tripping?

[Laundryangel]

I feel as though I am missing something obvious here. Our circuit fuse has just gone three times in 10 mins. Each time, I have turned off the individual fuses on that circuit, put up the circuit fuse & then the individual one hoping to work out what the problem is only for them all to go up, things to run smoothly for a few minutes & then the whole thing trips again. In these few minutes, I am not turning anything on or off . I am confused & am hoping there is a simple explanation...

Try turning everything off at the wall and then turning them back on one by one. You should hopefully be able to find the problem then.

Sounds like you have a dodgy appliance somewhere and the trip is cutting in to prevent something bad happening (electrical fire etc)

It's usually my iron that does this. Or my old oven used to do it when the element went (frequently).

somethings not earthed properly. turn everything in your house off, reset the trip and turn things on one by one at ten minute intervals till you find the culprit and probably change the plug on it.

Our last one of these was the toaster, when frozen bread was put in it. It will be some appliance you've jsut started using.

the thing that trips, is it twice as wide as all the other breakers, and does it have a "T" or "Test" button on it?

Some breakers will be marked "B6" "B32" "B16" and some will be marked "30mA" "100A" etc,

What is marked on the thing that trips?

Thanks for the tips. I was in the process of going around downstairs turning things on & then remembered I'd plugged my laptop into a socket which had been hidden behind a bookcase since we moved here until we had a furniture rearrangement at the weekend & so turned that on & it blew. I won't be using that socket again until someone has been to look at it!