Horizon T4000 Premier trips RCD only when lowering incline – treadmill fault or house electrics?
UPDATE:
Firstly, thank you everyone for all the advice. I thought I’d give an update because I’ve done a lot more testing today.
I did not keep repeatedly testing it. I only did one more controlled test to try and narrow the fault down.
Here’s what happened:
The treadmill powers up completely normally.
I left it switched on for a few minutes and nothing happened. No burning smell, no tripping, no issues.
I then pressed Start (with nobody on the treadmill) and the instant I pressed it, there was a large flash from inside the front of the treadmill. It lit up the wall behind it.
At exactly the same time there was a strong burning electrical smell (like a burnt hairdryer/electrical insulation).
The treadmill died instantly and tripped the same breakers again (B32 sockets breaker in the outhouse, B32 sockets breaker in the house, and the house RCD).
After that I unplugged it immediately and I’m not plugging it in again.
Since yesterday I’ve also:
Opened the motor hood.
Visually inspected the controller board, drive motor, incline motor and wiring.
Checked the plug and fuse.
I can’t see any obvious burn marks, melted wires or loose connections.
One thing I noticed is that the fault doesn’t happen just by switching the treadmill on. It only happens when the treadmill actually tries to run.
At this point I’m fairly confident the problem is inside the treadmill, not my house electrics.
Does this sound more like:
a motor controller board failure,
a drive motor fault,
wiring,
or something else?
Also, if anyone has had a similar fault on a Horizon T4000 Premier, I’d really appreciate hearing what the cause turned out to be.
Thanks again for all the help! I’m definitely not plugging it in again until it’s repaired because that flash was enough to convince me! 😂
…
Hi everyone,
I’m hoping someone can point me in the right direction because I’m completely stumped.
I recently bought a second-hand Horizon T4000 Premier. The seller said it had only been sitting unused for around a month before I collected it and that it had previously been used in their house.
Today we set it up in my garden outhouse.
The treadmill is plugged directly into a standard UK wall socket (no extension lead). The treadmill label says:
220–240V
7A
50Hz
My outhouse has its own consumer unit with a 32A socket circuit and 30mA RCD, and it’s supplied from the house consumer unit via an outdoor cable. The house also has RCD protection.
Here’s exactly what happened:
The treadmill powered on normally.
It ran perfectly for about 5 minutes.
We walked/ran on it without any issues.
The incline went up without any problems.
When we lowered the incline, it got down to about 4%, then everything tripped.
The outhouse lost power and the house RCD also tripped, so I had to reset both.
My sister said she saw a small flash at the socket when it happened.
We noticed a slight burning smell, but there was no smoke.
There are no burn marks or melting on the socket or the treadmill plug, and everything else in the house and outhouse has worked perfectly since resetting the breakers.
There were other things switched on in the outhouse (computer, monitors, lights), but they were all working from the other side of the double socket.
I’ve attached photos of:
House consumer unit.
Outhouse consumer unit.
Socket.
Plug.
Treadmill rating plate.
I’ve also seen a Reddit post where another Horizon treadmill tripped RCD/GFCI protection, but that person’s treadmill tripped almost immediately, whereas mine only tripped while lowering the incline.
My questions are:
Does this sound more like a treadmill fault (possibly incline motor/controller/wiring)?
Could this simply be an RCD compatibility issue?
Has anyone experienced this on a Horizon treadmill before?
Would you be looking at the treadmill first or the house electrics?
Any advice would be massively appreciated because I don’t really want to keep testing it until I know what I’m dealing with.
Thanks!