Dangerous Immersion Timer

coldcake

Woke up this morning to a strong smell of electrical burning. Tracked it down to the hotpress.

A year ago we got a timer placed on our immersion.
At the same time we got our fuse box replaced too. All the work done by the same electrician.

When I looked at the timer this morning the cover seemed to be out of shape and when I opened it up it was totally burnt. Please see pic.

Trying to track down an electrician now but don't want to call the guy who done the job as I'm worried that this was down to bad workmanship.

Just lucky the whole house didn't go up as there was lots of clothes in the press that could have caught fire!

The timer says it's for immersions and it was only on for around 20 minutes.

Can anyone give any insight why this may have happened.

Still a little freaked out by this. Photo below

http://i1235.photobucket.com/albums/...e/IMG_4570.jpg

Bruthal

Loose connection on the timer terminal there looks like the cause. It could of been the terminal screw the electrician connected the blue wire into, or it could of been the connection of the wire going into the timer which is done at the factory. I would usually make sure the factory fitted connections are tight as well though when fitting timers, mcb boards etc.

But situations as happened here can happen even when the items are fitted properly, although a lot less likely then. I often find connections barely tightened at all, especially on DIY jobs.

2011

Would agree.

Not necessarily the electrician's fault.
Might be equipment failure.
Hard to tell.

2011

They are poor quality terminals for a load of 3kW.
Although they should be designed to take it I have seen many fail.

I often used a digital timer to switch a 25A DP contractor as an immersion timer. Works and looks much better.

Bruthal

You would think the terminals are adequate for 13 amps though, usually when its as badly burned as in this case, its because there was a bad connection which started arcing. But id agree, terminals in them items are poor at times.

M cebee

i usually tighten the lot on misc. gear-surprising how many aren't tightened at all

but it's easy to overlook it too

indie armada

have any of ye lads fitted those trac clocks and if so what do ye think of them? are they any good.

coldcake

Thanks for your help folks.

I think I'll get the electrician to check all connections when installing the new one and I think I'll go digital and spend a few bob more on getting a better timer.

Any recommendations for a new timer would be welcome.

Coldcakes

PrismES

coldcake wrote: »

Thanks for your help folks.

Any recommendations for a new timer would be welcome.

Coldcakes

The Horstmann Electronic 7 timer is well made and very reliable, also very easy to use.