Does a stove need to be on an earth leakage?

[AndyD]

There's a good chance from the fault you describe that one or more of the plates has a fault that's causing the earth leakage to trip. Problem is that to prove it you need the right test equipment which is outside the budget of most DIY'ers so you're going to have to get a sparky in to do the testing unless you just want to chance that a replacement plate might fix the problem.

[Sparks]

It's a bit odd, I thought the stoves with spiral plates had the type of temperature controller you describe and the stoves with solid plates click between every different setting. Also, don't the solid plate controls only have 5 or 6 temperature settings?

Can you attach a photo please?

Maybe one of the domestic sparkies can give you better info than me, it's not the kind of thing I usually work on so I'm not so familiar with it.

I agree Andy. Enegy regulators are usually used on spiral plates which is why my 1st thought was that the switch is perhaps arcing causing the intermittent tripping. I have given a list of possible faults which can all be tested for with an insulation tester. One cannot pinpoint the cause without actually testing the stove.

[Festi]

Thanks for the thoughts guys. My suspicions are that it is the 1 plate arcing. ( the heat controller ). The tripping only happens when this plate is on, and when turning it down from MAX.

[Sparks]

Be sure to get the correct switch. I suspect that the wrong type of switch has been used.