Bizarre fault today immersion timer

[Dustydazzler]

got a phone call from my brother at about 1.30pm to say his immersion timer had caught fire and completely melted.
I thought he was exaggerating so popped round to take a look.
And yep it had completely melted into a big ball of moulded black sticky plastic...
This timer was fitted when he had a new immersion fitted about 2 years ago (all electric flat).
I have replaced plenty timers that have given up the ghost , but never seen one completely melt like this.
Thought ....?

 

[Leesparkykent]

Any pics?

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Loose connection or poor quality/worn contacts, it doesn't take long for a continual 13a current to build up a lot of heat. Any idea what make the timer was?

 

[Dustydazzler]

Loose connection or poor quality/worn contacts, it doesn't take long for a continual 13a current to build up a lot of heat. Any idea what make the timer was?

L

Any pics?

Unfortunately not , as we were both in a hurry to go places so I just cut off the melted timer and connected the immersion directly to the isolation switch

 

[Dustydazzler]

Loose connection or poor quality/worn contacts, it doesn't take long for a continual 13a current to build up a lot of heat. Any idea what make the timer was?

It was a LAP model timer

It was installed by the plumber and had worked for about 2 years without issue

Then just caught fire and melted today

 

[mattg4321]

Who or what to put your money on?

Plumber fiddling with electrics. Did he tighten up the terminals with the end of a spoon?

or

Cheap materials - LAP. Possibly the biggest load of sh*te ever made.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Who or what to put your money on?

Plumber fiddling with electrics. Did he tighten up the terminals with the end of a spoon?

or

Cheap materials - LAP. Possibly the biggest load of sh*te ever made.

Impossible to check terminations as the whole thing was a melted big ball of black plastic

I just cut the abomination off and threw in the bin

 

[Midwest]

LAP, possibly plumber.

Timeguard are quite good, but in one place with quite a dark cupboard, there was an alarming spark from the switch when turning it on.

PS, its quite quiet on here today, not stirring things @Dustydazzler against plumbers, juts to gets some posts

 

[sparkdog]

I always fit a contactor with immersion timers. I think most timers are rubbish and can't handle their rated current.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Nope

I don’t mind plumbers to be fair

Apart from the dipstick who I paid to fix a leak in my bathroom that still leaked after he supposedly fixed it

He took my money and refuses to come back meaning I had to get another guy in

 

[Spoon]

Who or what to put your money on?

Plumber fiddling with electrics. Did he tighten up the terminals with the end of a spoon?

or

Cheap materials - LAP. Possibly the biggest load of sh*te ever made.

Did he tighten up the terminals with the end of a spoon?

How come I'm getting the blame???....

 

[FatAlan]

Impossible to check terminations as the whole thing was a melted big ball of black plastic

I just cut the abomination off and threw in the bin

Shame. You could have sent it the JW to dissect.

 

[Dustydazzler]

Shame. You could have sent it the JW to dissect.

Yes I could have done actually, it was quite impressive

 

[Dustydazzler]

Can anyone recommend a decent digital timer for immersion heaters ?

 

[Resu]

Another vote for Timegaurd.

Although it's full function may be wasted in this scenario you won't go wrong with a Horstmann Electronic 7 either.