PSpirine
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| posted on 1/5/11 at 01:53 PM |
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Hot water heater kaput?
Just a bit of a sanity check really.
A couple of weeks ago my Economy 7 timer box failed, so the Southern Electric man promptly swapped it for a new unit.
A week later I went to fill the bath with hot water and noticed it was just luke warm. Thinking I must've used hot water during the day or
something I didn't think much of it an waited till the next day and it did the same thing.
My first thought was that Mr. SE did something wrong and now my Economy 7 circuit wasn't on for the full 7 hours..
So over the next couple of days I made sure to check what time it clicks on (all the radiators etc.) and when it clicks off. 1:30-8:30am on the dot.
So no problem there.
Now the strange thing is the immersion heater still warms the water up, but you can barely hear the hissing when it's on, and as mentioned
before it only gets luke warm.
I've got second heater in the tank which is on a booster switch (i.e. not on the economy 7 wiring) and when I flick that on, it heats up
properly.
Should I just swap the wires from the booster to the economy 7 and vice versa? I never use the booster anyway as it's only the bath that uses
hot water from the tank (I've got a power shower etc.). Both are 3kw @ 240v. That would save me having to remove the heater from the water tank
and all the associated faff.
Just slightly stumbled as I didn't realise that a heater can fail "kind of". I thought it was either on or off. Unless the built-in
thermostat is doing something funny.
Pavs
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mookaloid
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| posted on 1/5/11 at 03:44 PM |
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I would swap the wires myself.
Are both heaters at the same level in the tank? I think the economy one is usually placed lower in the tank and heats it better whereas the booster
one usually is nearer the top so it only heats the top half which could be a pain.
"That thing you're thinking - it wont be that."
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PSpirine
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| posted on 1/5/11 at 03:53 PM |
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Yeah they're on different levels as you described, but surely overnight there'd be enough diffusion and convection to heat the whole
thing. Either way it'll be hotter than it is now!
Will give it a go
Pavs
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Benzine
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| posted on 1/5/11 at 04:27 PM |
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hot water heater
So you've got hot water that you need to heat?
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PSpirine
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| posted on 1/5/11 at 04:57 PM |
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After switching the wires, flipped the booster switch on and it tripped the breaker.
Then had a look at the Econ 7 breakers and turns out the heater one was tripped too. So I'm guessing the Econ 7 immersion heater got proper
Fubar'd last night since it tripped the night breaker at some point!
Hopefully overnight the tank will get up to temp and I just shan't use the fubar'd heater.
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daniel mason
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| posted on 1/5/11 at 05:56 PM |
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dont swap wires around check your low level stat (the e 7 one)
1; check its set to a reasonable temp 55-60 degrees for example
2; when it clicks in (live) check voltage to earth and neutral from both sides of the stat (Input and output) but be careful as its live.
3; if so the stat is fine. its generally stat or element fault with these
4;when its dead,(during the day) check continuity across the element. abviously if no continuity there is an open circuit and the element gone.
the boost function uses the top stat so it only has to heat up a small amount of water
the lower stat heats the full tank during the night
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