Can someone please tell me how to replace a fuse/circuit breaker here in Switzerland?
I was vacuuming this evening and pulled the plug to the sound of an almighty pop, a good solid flash and sudden darkness. I looked up in the fuse box and the corresponding circuit breaker had tripped - however, when I switched it back to normal, the power did not come back on. There are four-to-six circuit-breakers up there, and it seems like they are independently mounted. However, no amount of tugging and pulling is able to get the thing out. Am I doing something wrong?
Well, first off, either you have fuses or you have circuit breakers but you don't have both. I suspect you have circuit breakers which means after you check the circuit breaker then you have to look for (in German) a button/switch called Fehlerstrom-Schutzschalter and turn that back on. Power should return at that point.
The picture below shows the box - its the "circuit breaker" at farthest right that is blown (the one that is down). Unfortunately pushing the switch to the "up" position does not restore the power, so I'm guessing that it needs to be replaced. The problem is that I can't actually remove it from the box - it wiggles around a bit when I try to put it directly out, but otherwise just sits fast. Is there anything special I should do, or is it just a case of needing more force??
If it doesn't stay on when you lift it back up then you need to do as I said in my previous post. Unfortunately in your photo I don't see the button/switch that I mentioned, maybe it's outside of your apartment somewhere..?
Are you in a full blown apartment or is this just a small (kitchen less) apartment..? I don't even see a heavy duty switch for the oven.
The "thing between the red and black stickers" is another one of the yellow pieces that you see further to the right - its just that this one is partly broken off. The yellow pieces move upwards, but not particularly far - it seems that they get stuck half way. I'm not quite sure of their function either - my intial guess was that they were locking mechanisms, but I can't seem to move them far enough to unlock anything.
It's a 2.5 room apartment - the oven and boiler are on the two left-hand circuit breakers, but we have a switch in the kitchen that allows us to switch between them - we clearly don't have enough grunt in the place to run both at once!
No, I'm afraid its time for an electrician - I opened the screws on the righthand side, and it's not simply a case of just pulling the old breaker out and replacing it, unfortunately - it is screwed in place, with lots of live wires around the place. That was about the point where I decided it was beyond me.....
Legally you are definitely NOT allowed to repair this box of SAFETY circuit breakers!
Ask your landlord, or caretaker to come and look at it. You need an electrician. These circuit breakers almost NEVER fail.
Have you considered that by pulling out the vacuum cleaner cable you damaged the wall socket? This damaged socket is probably what is stopping the safety circuit breaker from restoring power. Because it is unsafe maybe?