Immersion on - No Hot Water

sapper

I moved into a new house last week. On the first night I set up the immersion timer to come on in the morning. It went on and I got hot water in the morning no problem. Next morning the immersion switch (on/off/bath/sink) clicked on again but this time no hot water, and no hot water since then.

Now bord gais locked the gas supply during the week at the previous owners request, but that shouldn't have any effect on the immersion right? Is there something I'm missing here? I renovated my old house myself and knew all about the plumbing system, but this new house is only a year old....

I'm just thinking that maybe the previous owner shut off the feed to the cylinder, but apart from that I'm out of ideas....

Hoagy

A bit more information would help.
When you turn on the tap, do you get cold water or no water?
Does the timer also control the contral heating?
Is the timer still running?

Palladin

check mcb board to make sure all are on if its a new house then there should be a legend telling you what mcb does what

if its off turn it on ,if its on then check you have power at the switch ,check connections are tight and there is no burning around cables or terminals , take cover off immersion at the tank turn power on there should be four terminals there disregard the earth if the connection is tight then its ok , the other three terminals are your 1 common , 2 sink , 3 bath (for instant)to test for voltage flip switch to bath or sink and test voltage between it and common. TURN POWER OFF test for continuity between earth and the sink , earth and the bath this should be zero , then between common and bath , common and sink this reading is in ohms this wont be zero but it should not show up as OL .

That might be a bit helpful any question just holla back

sapper

Both the switch and the timer to the switch are getting power. The timer controls only the immersion switch. When the taps are turned on we still get water (cold).

I would be surprised if the immersion heater itself has packed it in - it was all working fine a few days ago. I'm sure it must be something about the system that I haven't twigged....

Palladin

set the clock to on come and test for power at the immersion itself ,they can go any time and they tend to be the main offender because it aint down to programming when you had it working before

sapper

Actually the timer switch is located before the immersion switch ie. when immersion switch will only work if the timer switch is on "continuous on" or the timer has kicked in.

With the immersion switch switched to "on", if I flick the timer to "continuous on" the pilot light for the immersion switch comes on, so power is definitely getting to the immersion switch through the timer....

crosstownk

Sounds to me like it's a faulty immersion element - have you tried it on both bath and sink?

Sparky

I assume you have a 'Flash' time switch, if all is getting power the problem is your immersion stat.

First thing is to determine which element it is. Leave it on sink for a while and see if you get even a bit of hot water, if you do then you know the sink element is working.
Next try the bath element. If this is what you have had it set to all along, then you can rule that the bath element is faulty.

Generally from experience, it will be a stat fault. Either that it is set too low or that it has ceased. These just slide into the element head and are a 5 minute job to replace. They are generally set to 65-75 C

If it was a faluty element, 9 times out of ten, your RCD would trip as a result, so you can rule that out.

It could also be a faulty switch. The feed may be there, but switch is not making the contact to give power to the elements.

If you leave the on/off switch in the on position and switch from bath to sink back to bath again, do you notice a slight dip in the lights and a little flash in the switch?

If so, then load is passing. It's just a quick test to see if even one element is working.

sapper

Thanks all - both elements seem to be equally dead so I think sparky is right re. the thermostat. In fact I noticed the little "reset" button had popped up on it, I pressed it down again to no avail.....I'm told by the previous owner that the builder guaranteed the house until next June so I'll get him out to sort it....