Storage heater problems

dr-c

I have an apartment with a couple of storage heaters and my tennent rang to say they were not working. Have checked all wiring and fuses and they are perfect and even dismantled part of the heaters and power is running fine to them.

Any ideas why they would not be heating up at all? Have tried leaving them on for a week but they are stone cold.

Someone told me its possible to replace elements in some of them but im not sure how true this may be.

Stoner

were they working before?

what time did you check them for power?

Are they combi units, i.e a panel heater and a stroage heater combined, the power to the panel heater section could be fine, but the power to the elements that heat the blocks could be an issue.

There should ony be power to the blocks element at night unless you have the know how to chage this for testing reasons,

hiow many units are there? did they all stop at the same time?

It might be a issue with the change over contactor, from day to night rate.

dr-c

Stoner wrote: »

were they working before?

what time did you check them for power?

Are they combi units, i.e a panel heater and a stroage heater combined, the power to the panel heater section could be fine, but the power to the elements that heat the blocks could be an issue.

There should ony be power to the blocks element at night unless you have the know how to chage this for testing reasons,

hiow many units are there? did they all stop at the same time?

It might be a issue with the change over contactor, from day to night rate.

One of the units is a combi and one is a normal one.

We checked the power supply at night during the phase when they are on and power is going into the units but they are not heating up at all.

There are 2 units in total. And both stopped within a week of each other.

Everything electrics wise is perfect from the main fuse box into the apartments fuse box and then onto the heaters. as far as we can tell they just are not heating up.

clinchy

maybe a problem with the heat input controler or the thermistat?

eoghan.geraghty

I had a similar problem last year, opened the heaters to find all the elements burned out. These heaters were 10 plus years old and in a rental property so nobody was there long enough to notice the gradual reduction in heat from the heaters.

Opening the heater to check the elements is an easy enough job, just isolate the supply first in the combi.

Rev. BlueJeans

The elements do pop.

In many cases people don't notice until the last one goes. I'd check those first, even though it means pulling the cover and sticking a multimeter on each in turn (remove 'em first, they could be up to four).

dekbhoy

Make sure the the stat on the wall is turned up fully , this could be behind a door or hidden somewhere , the stat is set so the heat only knocks on when the temp drops below a certain temperature , failing that there is a small twist button on the fuse board, turn this up fully also then when it starts working you can play around with the knobs to get the aquired temperature

davelerave

Ya,if there's a devireg,the 'day' knob is set to zero and 'night' can be adjusted for comfort ( 24hrs to take effect)
The heater switches should all have neons to quickly differentiate control circuit/heater problems.
As already said should be a local problem .cut-out or elements if off-peak power has been verified