Washer tripping electrics on wash cycle

[fi69]

Hi, my electrics have tripped twice in a week and I've realised that the only common denominator has been the washer.  It's a Bosch Classixx 7 and has always worked fine for the past 3 years.  It trips about 30 mins into the wash cycle as far as I can tell, when the water is heating up. When I put the electric back on, the washer lights are off, and the only way I can get it back on is to pull it out, full of water, and reach behind and switch the plug socket off and back on again, always works.  However, switching the 'washer' switch above the worktop does nothing, the washer has to be pulled out and the socket below the worktop which the plug is in switched on and off.  Until I get it repaired, do we think it might be a heater element fault and also if I wash things on cold, without the element being used at all, do we think it might stop the electrics tripping?  Obviously that's what I'm going to try, but I'd feel better if someone agreed with me, it's no fun trying to pull a washing machine full of water and heavy wet clothes out whilst trying not to let the feet rip the vinyl flooring.  Thanks.

[fi69]

I should add that it doesn't happen every time I use it, it's done it maybe four times in the past ten months.

[Whitegoodshelp (Andy)]

Hello. Unfortunately the fault you have is beyond DIY help. Particularly because it is intermittent. What would be needed is an engineer with an insulation test meter to trace the fault. These are specialist meters, and quite expensive. They put 500 Volts (DC) through the washing machine and its parts and can detect any insulation faults.

An intermittent tripping could be caused by a leak. A leak could be smaller or larger depending on what loading is in the machine and or what wash cycle is selected. It might be something else though. I do have an article that is worth reading although it essentially says that you need an engineer. However, there are some tips on what might be causing it - Washing Machine Tripping or Fusing