"N. Thornton" wrote in message
m...
"RichardS" noaccess@invalid wrote in message
...
Couple of weeks ago I got a phone call from our tenant who mentioned
that
there was no hot water - the flat has electric only, and all hot water
provided by an immersion heater in a direct tank.

They'd managed to leave the immersion switched on for about a day, and
it
had not only heated the 120l tank, but the large cold storage tank above
it
(I estimate it must be 250 or 300l at least) to a rather scary
temperature.
After that, they said it didn't do any better than lukewarm, and then
packed
up altogether.

Well, after spending couple of weeks phoning him to get access to the
flat
(suspect he'd been avoiding my calls, he owed us rent....) and sorted
the
problem out.

I'd been idly speculating upon what the problem might have been whilst
waiting to do the job, perhaps the thermostat had packed up, etc etc.
Heater was open circuit when tested, so drained the tank down and
whacked in
a replacement, no problems.

But, can anyone spot what could have been the problem with the
heater....

http://www.olifant.co.uk/Olifant/Pub...ks/RSAN-62XF2E


The immersion heater is now connected via a timer...!!!


so the thermostat was shorted?

Regards, NT


I dunno, but I've got it here still. If I get a spare moment, I'l stick it
in a pan of water, bring to the boil, and watch how it's resistance
characteristic changes.

I was just impressed by how catastrophically the whole thing had failed.


--
Richard Sampson

email me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk