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Immersion suddenly started working after years

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  • 02-02-2019 9:36am
    #1
    LionelNashe
    Registered Users Posts: 1,961 ✭✭✭


    I haven't had hot water at the sinks in yonks. The timer was still ticking, had power etc. There just wasn't any hot water. It didn't matter too much because I have an electric shower. The other day, however, I was looking at it and flicked the switch on and maybe messed with the boost dial. Next morning I'm washing a bowl and there's hot water.

    Now one explanation is that it was working all along, but is there any other explanation? Any component that can work intermittently, or just stop & start working like in this case?


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    #2
    DublinDilbert
    Registered Users Posts: 5,380 ✭✭✭DublinDilbert


    Possibly a loose connection. I wouldn't be happy using it till i know what changed. I would get it checked out and possibly a new timer/boost button fitted at the same time. I wouldn't be using an old flaky timer on an immersion.


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    #3
    Sleeper12
    Registered Users Posts: 17,100 ✭✭✭✭Sleeper12


    As Dilbert says it should be checked. Could be a loose wire, faulty switch or a faulty trip switch. All of these could be a fire hazard. If it was my house I'd have an electrician coming today just to be sure


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    #4
    ted1
    Registered Users Posts: 23,552 ✭✭✭✭ted1


    Are you sure you didn’t switch from bath to sink? Some immersions have two elements a short one for sink and a large one for bath. One if them could be broken


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    #5
    LionelNashe
    Registered Users Posts: 1,961 ✭✭✭LionelNashe


    ted1 wrote: »
    Are you sure you didn’t switch from bath to sink? Some immersions have two elements a short one for sink and a large one for bath. One if them could be broken

    There are two elements, but I could have sworn that neither the main timer nor the boost timer was having any effect, before. The power indicator light for the boost timer isn't working, which I also don't remember noticing before.


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    #6
    Cushie Butterfield
    Registered Users Posts: 1,861 ✭✭✭Cushie Butterfield


    The boost function activates the top (sink) element, so once you used the boost at a time when the bottom (bath) element, which has probably blown, wasn’t timed to heat, the top part of the tank would heat giving you a limited amount of hot water.


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    #7
    kramer1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 305 ✭✭kramer1


    High limit stat popped maybe , you could've pushed it back down by accident , a red button on top of the outer casing of the element.


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    #8
    LionelNashe
    Registered Users Posts: 1,961 ✭✭✭LionelNashe


    So it turned out the timer was totally shagged, wasn't passing power through to the immersion at all. It was just ticking uselessly, keeping perfect time, for the last 3 years. It's in the bin now, still ticking like an idiot, on the battery backup.

    The thermostat on the main element was gone as well. So I must have switched on the boost for 2 hours the other day, to explain the hot water I had at the sinks. Not sure how I was so sure, before, that the boost function wasn't working. Either a loose connection as some said above, I guess, or else I didn't have the main timer switch on when I was trying the boost 3 years ago.

    The timer & thermostat are replaced now. Thanks all.


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