burning plastic smell coming from boiler??

jillyb

hey there,

we came back from holidays late last night and went straight to bed.woke up in the night for some water and noticed we had no lights and the trip switch had gone.

I switched it back on but the pump in the hot press was very nosy so i checked it out. There was a strong burning plastic smell and a wet patch by the boiler. The boiler was very hot to touch aswell.
Is this something serious we should get the landlord to take care of??

thanks

Tokyo

Leaking hot press and burning smells... yes, at risk of pointing out the obvious, you should be on the phone to your landlord ASAP. Sounds like the pump has fried itself.

esox28

From what you discribe, it sounds like your immersion was left on. Most likely the thermostat within the immersion failed and over heated the cylinder, probably the immersion hasent got a high limit thermostat so you are fortunate the rcd trip switched on the fuse board.

Get you landlord to call a plumber, who will have the equipment to test the immersion and replace if needed.

Outkast_IRE

esox28 wrote: »

From what you discribe, it sounds like your immersion was left on. Most likely the thermostat within the immersion failed and over heated the cylinder, probably the immersion hasent got a high limit thermostat so you are fortunate the rcd trip switched on the fuse board.

Get you landlord to call a plumber, who will have the equipment to test the immersion and replace if needed.

Did you look at the photo ? it looks like a pump problem, with the puddle under the pump.

jillyb

hey thanks for the replies

I tried to contact the landlord but didn't get through so I left a message. I wasn't sure how urgent it was but thought best to get it sorted just in case.

We don't use immersion at all as we have an electric shower and usually boil the kettle for hot water so the switch couldn't have been left on.

Also in my original post i meant to say the pump was hot to the touch and not the boiler itself.The pump has a switch though that is always switched on as we have a ground floor apartment and the water pressure is weak without it. we turned it off for the moment though in case the leaking got worse and it was noisy!

Outkast_IRE

jillyb wrote: »

hey thanks for the replies

I tried to contact the landlord but didn't get through so I left a message. I wasn't sure how urgent it was but thought best to get it sorted just in case.

We don't use immersion at all as we have an electric shower and usually boil the kettle for hot water so the switch couldn't have been left on.

Also in my original post i meant to say the pump was hot to the touch and not the boiler itself.The pump has a switch though that is always switched on as we have a ground floor apartment and the water pressure is weak without it. we turned it off for the moment though in case the leaking got worse and it was noisy!

But was the pump always running, constantly ?

esox28

Sorry only looked at first pic.

Stuart turner pump, either capacitor or PCB burned out parts available from modern plant long mile road dublin.

jillyb

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

But was the pump always running, constantly ?

Hi yes the landlord said to leave it switched on all the time cos once we switched it off when we had guests as its right by the spare room and can be noisy at times and our water stopped working when we forgot to switch it back on

esox28 wrote: »

Sorry only looked at first pic.

Stuart turner pump, either capacitor or PCB burned out parts available from modern plant long mile road dublin.

Thanks, the landlord got back to me and called out. He's getting his plumber friend to come have a look on tuesday. There was sparks aswell when he was here and turned the pump switch on so glad we turned it off and hopefully the water should be ok for a couple of days!

Outkast_IRE

jillyb wrote: »

Hi yes the landlord said to leave it switched on all the time cos once we switched it off when we had guests as its right by the spare room and can be noisy at times and our water stopped working when we forgot to switch it back on

Ok I know you left it switched on . But there is a difference between switched on and actually running.

When the pump is actually running its noisy, when its just switched on it should be quiet most of the time and kick in when you use water somewhere in the house.

jillyb

Outkast_IRE wrote: »

Ok I know you left it switched on . But there is a difference between switched on and actually running.

When the pump is actually running its noisy, when its just switched on it should be quiet most of the time and kick in when you use water somewhere in the house.

ahh I see ya it was switched on and usually only was noisy when you flushed the toilet etc but when we noticed the smell it was constantly noisy. plumber is coming out today to replace the pump so hopefully all should be ok!