immersion heater problems!!! all 7 of'em!

[egginyourface]

Ive been called out to about 7 different jobs this week!! All to check why newly fitted immersion heaters were not working properly.

Its always the same thing. Plumber fittied new immersion heater and since then the water doesnt get fully hot or after the 1st bath the water wont heat up enough till the next day.

Every single one i go to i find that the plumber has turned thermostat up to the max trying to fix the problem causing cut out to kick in!

My job is as always to check the wiring is done correctly and no loose connections. I never touch the thermostat.:6:

What causes this luke warm problem??

Is it a mistake made by plumber, wrong sized immersion, wrong type etc??


Somebody please tell me as i would like to understand this

 

[Dcf]

I had this recently with various new style stats with the overheat cut out.turns out the tenants liked to keep the immersion on all the time so the top of the tank was probably hitting 90c enough to knock the thermostat cut out off.4 visits later and 4 different manufacturers stats later.i have found the cotherm ones about the most reliable.usually top entry heaters are the worst culprits I have found

 

[TaffyDuck]

Almost certainly these bloody thermal cut-outs they are fitting on a lot of new immersions now. There is often a little button on the top of the stat by the adjustable bit. You can bypass them, I do, that solves the problem

 

[i=p/u]

what about people leaving thm on and heading out by mistake???

 

[UKMeterman]

Taffy,
Would you be able to defend your bypassing of the cutout to this family? BBC NEWS | England | Somerset | Scald death family meet minister

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Almost certainly these bloody thermal cut-outs they are fitting on a lot of new immersions now. There is often a little button on the top of the stat by the adjustable bit. You can bypass them, I do, that solves the problem

well these were fitted after that baby got scolded...down birmingham i think.....but they are a pain them thermal cutouts....only thing though....if you intentionally bypass it....then that constitutes tampering....which will instantly null any warrenty....and if someone...or someones kid gets scalded as a result of your actions......youd be for the high jump mate.........

 

[UKMeterman]

Not just scalding, if it is an unvented cylinder and the mechanical temprature / pressure valve has also been tampered with you have a bomb with several 100KG of steam at high pressure on your hands..........

 

[Marvo]

Surely any safety cut-out device would be set considerably higher than the normal operating temperature. I would test thermostat calibration then run the heater up to the temperature the thermal safety is rated, if the thermal trips prematurely I would replace it with a new item.

 

[boberty]

some of the new immersions have a cutout on the immersion base itself then one on the stat. only found this out when heater at wifes shop packed in,

 

[poppypiesdad]

Judging buy the fact the waters look warm , has the thermostat been set too low , or a dodgy batch of heaters or a plumber fitting 6" heaters instead of 12" heaters

not like plumbers to get it wrong or try to save some cash.

jamie

 

[JD6400]

We always let clients with back boiler fires that are linked into their HW system , know where the reset is on the elements .
The worst culprits for tripping them are log burners !
I admire your honesty Taffy , but you are dicing with a potential prison sentence in my opinion .

 

[GLENNSPARK]

could even be a faulty batch of double pole switches....not closing right.....

 

[oldtimer]

Taffy,
Would you be able to defend your bypassing of the cutout to this family? BBC NEWS | England | Somerset | Scald death family meet minister

Yep well highlighted plus this is a classic example of what they call progress ie we used to get our earth from the gas and water pipework but they got changed to water and the incident with the baby was heartrendering as the old galvi tank would have been changed to plastic with the expansion pipe of the immersion being vented into this tank add a thermastat that has had its contacts welded on and essentially you end up having a boiling kettle of an immersion tank. Although I am not sure but in Scotland (what I have seen anyway) we vent the pipe externally but all in all NO and I mean NO safety equipment should be shorted out because there is a reason why they are fitted.

 

[i=p/u]

mines doesnt heat up all that well, so i dont use it, if i take the cover/cap off will there be a rest button, only goes luke warm

 

[GLENNSPARK]

We always let clients with back boiler fires that are linked into their HW system , know where the reset is on the elements .
The worst culprits for tripping them are log burners !
I admire your honesty Taffy , but you are dicing with a potential prison sentence in my opinion .

yeah....if owt happened then an external verefyer will be looking to see if any bypassing/tampering has gone on.....as these cutouts are a known nuisance

 

[Dcf]

I agree that these cutouts are a pain in the ---.that wee babythat got scalded to death would beg to differ tho .i got a call to a place complaining that the dhw was too hot.three phase immersion controlled by 1 stat at the bottom of tank set to 65 was working correctly.trouble was it was about a 500 litre tank n by the time it got to the top it was 108 degrees! It was mor like steam coming out of the taps.after that one I err on the side of caution with immersion heaters