Immersion Heater not Heating

[wfoot]

Hi

Immersion heater is not heating water at all.

Previously it had been overheating the water.

Have replaced thermostat, but no joy.

Have tested live feed and my tester lights, so presumably it is getting power.

Anyone have any ideas?

Cheers

 

[JohnD]

You're not using a neon screwdriver, are you?

 

[wfoot]

Yes I think so, why?

 

[JohnD]

No good.

Borrow £8 and walk down the High Street to buy yourself a multimeter.

Amuse yourself by searching on "neon screwdriver" in electrics UK.

 

[wfoot]

OK, will do that.

Any idea what the problem may be though?

 

[JohnD]

supply, or switch, or thermostat, or element, or the way you've connected it.

Quite likely a connection in the switch has burned out. If so you need a new switch and to cut away the overheated wires. But best not to guess. Test it with your new multimeter tomorrow.

 

[ColJack]

when you replaced the thermostat.. did you turn it up??? the come set to minimum from what i recall..

might be a silly question but it's something easily overlooked..

 

[RF Lighting]

Is there a thermal overload on the immersion heater? It will have a little button to reset it. Some are integral the the rod stat, others are seperate.

 

[breezer]

may be the heater has given up

 

[ColJack]

yup a definite posibility.. the element has burnt out...

time to call a plumber.. or upgrade your insurance to cover you for the potential flood you will make..

 

[JohnD]

when he come back tomorrow with his multimeter we can move out of "guess" mode and into "diagnostic" mode.

 

[Softus]

You're not using a neon screwdriver, are you?

Yes I think so, why?

No good.

I don't see why not. Plenty of fault conditions can be diagnosed with just a neon screwdriver.

For example, if the stat is turned to a low temperate and remains open circuit, then it's faulty. Some new ones are faulty, and yet more new ones go faulty within minutes, so the fact that the stat is new is irrelevant.

If the stat can be shown not to be faulty then a multimeter can be used to check the value of the resistance of the element, but if a test lamp (connected at the element terminals) shows that both live and neutral are intact, and the element isn't heating up, then the element is faulty.