immersion issues?

[scantronic]

hi all

recently it transpires my partner had forgot she had turned on the immersion heater, now we have never used this for longer than an hour before

unfortunately we went out for the whole day

upon returning home i was greeted to water absolutely gushing out the tank overflow from the loft, but this was absolutely scalding hot which surprised me

upon entering the house there was a lot of pipework banging around and entering the loft i noticed it was full of steam and water was pouring out what i believe is the cylinder vent pipe into the 50 gallon cold water tank

i realised what was going on and then noticed the immersion was on so turned that off straight away, i ran both the hot and cold water taps throughout the house to try and cool it and i must say i have never felt water so hot! even the cold tap was scalding

eventually after a few minutes it's all settled down, we haven't used the immersion since and been using the boiler to heat the water

is this normal? surely it can't be, no idea of age of the immersion but i'd say 80's

any way to fix this

thanks

 

[Dereekoo]

There is usually a thermostat that is incorporated in the top of the immersion heater that can be adjusted to control the water temp

 

[Johntheo5]

The control thermostat has failed, that oldish immersion may not have a Hi limit safety stat installed, if its a top mounted dual element (sink&bath) immersion then switch it off, remove the cover and post a photo, the thermostat is easily removed without draining down the cylinder as its in a dry pocket, you can then buy a new combination thermostat. (with both the control stat & the hi limit stat )

 

[ericmark]

You are lucky

this killed a baby in the room beneath it. With an immersion heater only system the cut out is not reset-able, idea is if the thermostat fails, then want a new thermostat, not worth the risk to use again, however where there is alternative heating, the reset button is required, as the alternative heating method can trip the cut out, and with solid fuel heating we use steel header tanks or at least ones not using thermal plastic.

But the repair is easy enough, as the thermostat is in a pocket, so you don't need to drain water to change it, this picture

one can see the little reset hole, today all thermostats should have the cut out built in, older types type it was often a separate device,

and it was easy to install the wrong type and for the cutout to be missing.

 

[scantronic]

there is no thermostat on the immersion heater, there's a tank stat which looks to connect to the boiler but nothing inside the immersion
i have removed the relevant fuse in the fusebox for the immersion until i can find a time to replace it

had a proper look in the loft today, the plywood sheet i had on top of the tank to cover it was on the floor, water marks everywhere around the tank

how high is the pressure the water squirts out the vent? it seems to have been enough to move a plywood sheet and splash water everywhere

using the boiler for hot water at the minute, seems to be working well enough

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

how high is the pressure the water squirts out the vent? it seems to have been enough to move a plywood sheet and splash water everywhere

No actual pressure, as such, it will just be the bubbling, from the boiling water..

 

[Johntheo5]

there is no thermostat on the immersion heater, there's a tank stat which looks to connect to the boiler but nothing inside the immersion
i have removed the relevant fuse in the fusebox for the immersion until i can find a time to replace it

had a proper look in the loft today, the plywood sheet i had on top of the tank to cover it was on the floor, water marks everywhere around the tank

how high is the pressure the water squirts out the vent? it seems to have been enough to move a plywood sheet and splash water everywhere

using the boiler for hot water at the minute, seems to be working well enough

 

[Dereekoo]

.

 

[Mister Banks]

there is no thermostat on the immersion heater, there's a tank stat which looks to connect to the boiler but nothing inside the immersion
i have removed the relevant fuse in the fusebox for the immersion until i can find a time to replace it

had a proper look in the loft today, the plywood sheet i had on top of the tank to cover it was on the floor, water marks everywhere around the tank

how high is the pressure the water squirts out the vent? it seems to have been enough to move a plywood sheet and splash water everywhere

using the boiler for hot water at the minute, seems to be working well enough

There should be a thermostat under the cap unless someone removed it for a bodged fix.

 

[ericmark]

there is no thermostat on the immersion heater

How odd, and clearly not safe. We do it seems still get independent cut outs and thermostats and there are some combination units this one shows a fuse, two contacts, with temp settings, and reset-able cut out, even a warning light connection. But I have only seen commercial immersion heaters where there is no thermostat. Never seen it with domestic. this one is designed for oil, and three phase with no thermostat so clearly you can get them, but it would be very unusual to get one in domestic situation.

 

[Johntheo5]

there is no thermostat on the immersion heater, there's a tank stat which looks to connect to the boiler but nothing inside the immersion
i have removed the relevant fuse in the fusebox for the immersion until i can find a time to replace it

had a proper look in the loft today, the plywood sheet i had on top of the tank to cover it was on the floor, water marks everywhere around the tank

how high is the pressure the water squirts out the vent? it seems to have been enough to move a plywood sheet and splash water everywhere

using the boiler for hot water at the minute, seems to be working well enough

There may not be a rod type stat but there almost most certainly will be a contact type stat in your immersion like my 52 year old top mounted dual element immersion with its change over Sink/Bath switch mounted conventionally!! on the top of the immersion.
Can you post a photo please of your one, cover removed.,