Checking an immersion heater.

[JohnW2]

... I was once told if the initial stat is set quite high and the water in the tank is not drawn off, although the initial stat has shut off the element, the standing water temp still increases sometimes to an unacceptable level, triggering the over stat...

That sounds pretty far-fetched to me.

I may have been fobbed off with excuses, I dont know

See above!

Kind Regards, John

 

[peweuk]

This morning I wrote to the company that sent out the engineers.

This is what I asked

Can you please ask an appropriate member of staff to forward me a detailed breakdown of your companies policy regarding the procedure that your engineers should follow to establish the problem when a hot water heating system, which uses immersion heaters on Economy 7, is failing to heat the water.

I thought this was a reasonable question but I received the following reply

Can I ask if this relates to a job you wish us to carry out? Or perhaps a job we have done?

To which I replied

I am not sure I understand why you are asking the question.

Your organisation must have a procedure that engineers are expected to follow which would have applied to past as well as future jobs.

My request is for details of exactly what that procedure is.

To which they replied

I am asking the question because if this relates to a job we have completed, I can involve the electrician who attended the property, ensuring that I have all the information to be able to provide a detailed reply.

Although we appreciate your request, we are not willing to provide specific procedure to an unknown person about a general, unidentified fault

Am I expecting too much in my request??
Why would an organisation be so defensive about outlining a fault finding procedure that must have guidelines ???

 

[JohnW2]

Am I expecting too much in my request?? Why would an organisation be so defensive about outlining a fault finding procedure that must have guidelines ???

It's for you to decide whether you are asking too much. All I can say is that if I received an unsolicited request from an unknown person about how I do things in the course of my work, I think I would ask exactly the same questions that they did (whether the request related to work I had already done or to work that they might want me to do) - and unless I was told that it related to one of those two situations, I would probably be reticent to provide any details of my working practices!

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Am I expecting too much in my request??

If you are expecting honesty, decency, trustworthiness, then clearly yes, you are expecting too much.

Why would an organisation be so defensive about outlining a fault finding procedure that must have guidelines ???

You know why.

We know why.

They know why.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I suspect that they do not indulge in such micro management.
They employ electricians, probably with some sort of qualification.

They should be able determine the location of the problem with one eye shut.

 

[ericmark]

Writing letters means written answers and any foreman worth his salt will not want to put anything in a written reply which could place his company in a poor position.

Face to face is the way so he can't put the phone down and he can be honest without have the worry about future court cases.

I had this with my mothers central heating, the shower fitted was a power shower, before the work started I pointed out that a power shower was fitted and was assured it was no problem. However on completing I found a combi boiler fitted so mains water now fed the power shower which was illegal.

I did not get exactly what I wanted but did get all the work done FOC I only paid for the new mixer tap. This did take some bargaining and some give and take on both sides but it was sorted in 1/2 hour talk with the boss.

Had I tried with letters it would have taken months.

Facts are there the electrician missed the fact the immersion heater was faulty. Clearly they should refund any charges made. However getting thermostat, thermal cut out/fuse, or timer replaced is pushing it. Maybe and undertaking to replace should they fail within the year is more realistic. But needs face to face not letters.

As to thermal cut out/fuse.
Back in 1954 when my mothers house was built we had thermal cut outs they are nothing new. However as china started take over the manufacturer the cut out seemed to disappear.

the picture shows a separate thermal fuse there has already been a picture of a reset button built into thermostat. The major problem with the thermal fuse is once it goes you need a new one they do not reset.

Where electric is the sole form of water heating having a thermal fuse built into the thermostat is good. It means if the thermostat fails then then thermal fuse opens and the only way to repair is to change the thermostat which is good. However where there are multi forms of water heating even with two electric systems then you don't want to have to change a thermostat when that item was not faulty so either the thermal fuse is separate or a cut out is used instead.

The problem with a cut out is unlike the fuse the contacts can weld together but where the fault may not be due to the thermostat we really don't have too much of an option.

However if the header tank will stand boiling water there is no problem. Clearly metal tank is OK but also car radiators are now made of plastic which can stand water under pressure at over boiling point so being made of plastic is not automatically wrong. The problem is to recognise which tanks will and which tanks will not stand boiling water. This one

clearly did not. The ones which will stand boiling water tend to be more rigid and a thicker plastic.

I looked at this advert there is nothing on the advert to say what temperature the tank will stand and the first feed back report says how it was used on an Aga cooker so should have been one which would stand boiling water.