Immersion Issue

kippy

Hi all,
Just moved into new house.
There was no oil in the tank so tried to heat the water with the immersion.
After leaving the immersion switched on for an hour there was no hot water....
Setup:
I large tank, 2 smaller tanks above it, one blue, one red.
Two switches for the immersion. One with a red light(which illumintes when turned on) and one with bath/sink on it. I assume depending on which one you flick determines the amount of water to heat.
Anyway-neither appear to heat any water.
I am not familiar with this boiler set up so want to make sure there is nothing I am missing.
There appear to be two thremostats on the main tank also but both are awakward to view-There may be a setting here that I need to change but dont want to go changing anything here until I am sure that they may be the root of the problem.
Its a two year old house and I assume that the immersion worked at some stage.
Anyone got any ideas as to what the problem may be?
Any help appreciated,
Kippy

Borzoi

kippy wrote:

Hi all,

Two switches for the immersion. One with a red light(which illumintes when turned on) and one with bath/sink on it. I assume depending on which one you flick determines the amount of water to heat.

Yep, you're right. At least if it lighting, then the switch is getting power, so your problem is either the cable to the immersion, or the immersion itself. If you confident about your ability, and have a multimeter: Turn off the power, use the MM to check the terminals of the immersion. If the's 100% resistance - then the immersion element has burned out - and you need to replace it.

kippy

What would cause the immersion element to burn out-if that is the problem? It is only two years old max...
Would the thremostats have anything at all to do with it?
There does seem to be power getting to the elements but I havent checked them for the resistance that you mention since I am not sure what exactly to measure.

The Hill Billy

You may have hit the nail on the head yourself...

Seems like your thermostat or element has gone.
Have a plumber check it for you.

kippy

Thanks for all your help guys,
The one thing I was wondering regarding the thermostats-would it be worth changing the settings on them? I havent touched them yet and dont know what the current settings are.
Looks like I will need to splash out on a plumber of an electrician if that fails.
Kippy

dools

Hi Kippy,

We moved into a house about 2 weeks ago and had the same problem. We put the immersion on, but the water stayed stone cold.

We called an electrician in who had a look. He came back the next day while we were in work with a new element as he figured it must need replacing. However, when he went to do the job, he realised the element was fine, but the switches had been wired up wrong. The family there before us did tell us that they never used the immersion (they used the GFCH to heat the water) and that his brother had wired it up a few months ago. Obviously, he had wired it wrongly. Electrician fixed it in a few minutes

D

kippy

Thanks all.
Will look in the yellow pages for a sparky.

FX Meister

Before you call a sparky check if it has a cut out. Take the cap off the immersion element and see if it has a small recessed rubber button. If it has press this in to reset. Most newer elements have a cut off which cuts off power if the immersion is left on for too long.

Sparky

Probably two things are wrong.

Your immersion stat is either gone or set too low, there is usually a little knob that sets the heat setting, or secondly the wires in the back of the immersion switch have been disconnected.

If the element was burned out, you can take it that if your cylinder is earthed (and it should be) you would be shorting and triping your RCD and breaker, as the outer core of the immersion element is an earth.

Possably a 1 in 1000th chance that your immersion switch itself is fault and that its making no contact at all to the bath and sink terminals

kippy

Thanks all.

hansov

FX Meister wrote:

Before you call a sparky check if it has a cut out. Take the cap off the immersion element and see if it has a small recessed rubber button. If it has press this in to reset. Most newer elements have a cut off which cuts off power if the immersion is left on for too long.

Just to add my 2 cents. This happened to me - be aware that the button is small. Reset mine and overcame my problem.