No Hot Water- Immersion Heater

[George79]

I have a Titan Flowmaster Immersion heater in my flat. It was working fine, but all of a sudden it has stopped working and now I have no hot water.

The boiler is situated in my airing cupboard next to the bathroom and has an off peak and on peak timer. Normally these are lit to show they are on. Unfortunately they are not lit now and there is also no hot water.

A mate of mine has come out and seen that there is power in the fuse box, but no power to the timer switches. He fears I may have a broken wire somewhere and have to remove the wiring from the wall to check if the wires have snapped.

 

[gas4you]

The off peak live would only become live during off peak times as set on your electric meter, however the peak boost should be live to enable you to have a boost during the day. Have you tried operating the boost?

 

[George79]

Yes I have tried this boost, but it doesn't work. My mate an electrician seems to think there is power coming out of the RCD/ fuse box, but not at the swtich.

 

[gas4you]

You haven't got another main water heater switch, say in your kitchen, that has been turned off accidentally?

 

[George79]

no, not that we know of. The only other switch is in the kitchen and that is the boost switch. This was not on before, but we switched it on hoping it might do something but it hasn't. The boost switch is a newlec electric saver electronic timer and has three settings, 1/2 hour, 1 hour and 2 hours. It is now set to 1/2 hour.

 

[JohnD]

It is unusual for cables to go wrong unless someone puts a nail through them.

More likely a terminal in a switch or somewhere has come loose and overheated.

I hope you haven't got any concealed junction boxes under the floor or anywhere.

 

[George79]

my mate had to change the off peak swtich as the fuse on that had gone and had melted on the inside. However the on peak looks fine, with no issues, but has no power coming through to it. Any ideas. I don't think we have any other junction boxes?? I looked and can't see why or where there would be one the fuse box is opposite the airing cupboard door, that houses the immersion heater?

 

[JohnD]

If it's such a short run, you could ask your electrician friend to surface-mount a replacement cable, clipped to the wall and ceiling. That will be Ok for the moment. If you use mini-trunking it will not look too bad. Replacement of damaged cables is not notifiable in England and Wales.

If that proves the fault to be in the old cable you can chase a new cable into the wall and plaster/redecorate later.

However I am concerned that the old switch seems to have melted. This is usually due either to a significant overload, or a loose connection which has burnt out. A picture would be interesting. I would expect the fuse/MCB to be 15 or 16 Amps, and the switch to be a 20A DP with neon (only costs a few pounds).

If the off-peak and on-peak cables run together in the ceiling, it is very possible that someone has put a nail through one of them, and it has burnt out and damaged the other one. Pull up some floorboards and have a look. How old is your electrical installation?