Immersion thermostat probe corrosion - how fck'd am I?

Mec-a-nic

I've an Energy7 (nightime rate) electric water heating setup. It recently started to not work, it wouldn't heat at night or on manual, instead it would trip out its switch on the electrical panel.

I isolated and safely pulled the upper thermostat (photo below). It was wet and appeared to have some interesting corrosion as if it was reacting with the immersion tank tube that it normally lives in.

The tank is about 20 years old, how fecked am I? Is this condensation from cold water entering the tank or a very slow leak? Is it a matter of replacing the sensor or is a bigger job required? Not looking to do it myself obviously, just trying to figure out the urgency.

Thanks and cheers and Happy New Year.

meercat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058225571/immersion-thermostat-probe-corrosion-how-fckd-am-i

The immersion itself needs to be replaced and not the tank(cylinder). Simple and relatively cheap job by a plumber

Mec-a-nic

UPDATE: for future Googlers to know what they're dealing with

The electricity was tripping because the heating element had died. And by died I mean split along it's length and starting to conduct electrolysis inside my tank. One plumber, two new elements and 90mins later and we're all good.

greasepalm

Common enough it seems via Google and photos showing corrosion and the worst thing is getting it loosened off or it might be a new tank.

Glad you got sorted.