Immerison tank

mikehunts

HELLO,
The plumber has put in a new element thingy into our tank and now we only get about half of a bath full of hotish water. You could just run the hot water tap without the cold and put your hand in without getting scalded, with the old one you would not dare to put your hand in without some cold running with it.
He has been back four times with an electrican and they have said its set to so many degrees blah blah blah, thats the way the new elements are....surely this isn't the case is the element faulty. Thanks.

biko

Can you give the model number etc of the tank and the new element?
If the replacement is worse than the old one something seems wrong.

Bruthal

They usually do have a thermostat in them which can be adjusted, its under the cap that covers the immersion heater, also the bath element should heat most of the cylinder up, but if the stat is set a bit too low, the immersion element will cut out before all the water is heated. They are usually pre-set to 65 or 70 degrees. But the stats are usually pre set properly. Assuming the immersion element is wired up properly. I have seen them wrongly connected before.

Its possible your older one was heating the water a bit too hot and you were used to this. The hotter the water in the cylinder, the more cold you have to mix into a bath with it, and so you then have a higher water volume at the comfortable bath temperature.

jeepers101

I agree with robbie there. The immersion is made up of two elements, one longer than the other so it'll heat either the full cylinder or about a third of the cylinder. You could try switching it to 'sink'. If you get a full bath of hot water this will tell you it is wired wrong. Do you have a thermometer you could measure the water temperature from the hot tap? If you can comfortably hold your hand under it i don't think its at 65°.

Billy Bunting

Or... If you don't have a sink/bath switch and its just a single switch he may of just fitted a short element meant for Willis heater replacement, no way of knowing that unless you take it out.

mikehunts

It is set at 70degrees i am sure of that and also wired correctly because they said they checked all that. another thing is if i have the gas on for the central heating it also heats the water but then i have no problem having a proper bath. Thanks for your time.

meercat

it is possible that the new immersion might not be correctly wired
if he followed connections like with like as there are changes

the new immersions have different connections which are
earth green/yellow
neutral blue
sink black
bath brown

you could check the connections in the switch
remember to turn power off if you are doing this yourself

Billy Bunting

mikehunts wrote: »

HELLO,
You could just run the hot water tap without the cold and put your hand in without getting scalded, with the old one you would not dare to put your hand in without some cold running with it.
.

Might be set at it but it ain't at 70o then.... Thermostat

And they normally come preset at 55o

Bruthal

Billy Bunting wrote: »

Might be set at it but it ain't at 70o then.... Thermostat

And they normally come preset at 55o

I dont think i ever seen one pre-set at 55 degrees. They should be set higher than that.

Billy Bunting

My apologies, maybe I should have said they should be preset to 55, I stand to be corrected but that’s what I was taught when I did my time, you can of coarse have them hotter, best in a soft water area, but in hard water areas we were told max 60 and now in the area I am operating you seldom see standard immersion heaters fitted, everyone now fits Willis heaters and these heaters do seem to come preset at 55 and it relays that setting in the instructions, maybe something to do with the fixed temperature on the hi limit stat but there you go. But non of this alters the fact that the OP shouldn’t be able to place their hands under a tap with 70o water coming out of it.

Carlow52

mikehunts wrote: »

It is set at 70degrees i am sure of that and also wired correctly because they said they checked all that. another thing is if i have the gas on for the central heating it also heats the water but then i have no problem having a proper bath. Thanks for your time.

:D


wrong element or faulty stat assuming correct wiring