Neutral-earth short in Bionaire air purifier

A Bionaire air purifier with ionizer works fine in a location without Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker (ELCB = RCD, RCCB, GFCI, GFI, ALCI), or with an isolation transformer, but trips the ELCB immediately if plugged in with an ELCB. Resistance between neutral and earth varies between 40 to 80 ohms. Is there any most obvious culprit before I open it (e.g., radio interference suppressor capacitor; motor shorted to frame)?

By the way, when the purifier got plugged in and tripped the ELCB a "wall wart" 5V 2A switching power supply (for WiFi access point) died at exactly the same time - is this something others have had? I've not seen it before. I doubt it's coincidence.

Best wishes, Michael [Email address above no longer valid (used to be)]

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On Fri, 8 Aug 2008 11:58:48 -0700 (PDT), snipped-for-privacy@ms3.org.uk put finger to keyboard and composed:

If not the cap, then maybe a leaky MOV ?

I've seen a short between the neutral and earth terminals of a refrigerator compressor. It only came to light because the owner was using an extension cord where the active and neutral were reversed (there was no ELCB).

- Franc Zabkar

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Franc Zabkar

Good point, will check.

Sounds the same sort of thing I've got. If it's actually a shorted winding it'll mean changinf the motor (or scrapping the unit).

Thanks, Michael (original poster)

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