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General Discussion Area / Plumbing help, please, my immersion heater has used up all my swear words!
« on: 05 March 2014, 15:57:18 »
It all started when the hot water ran cold. On testing, I found the thermostat to be faulty - great, I thought, an easy job and fairly cheap.
Ok, stat fitted, water heats, but only enough for half a bath before the water ran cold.
I took the cover off the immersion to check the temperature setting and found it was half full of water!!!
Switched off immediately and saw that it was coming up from the thermostat tube in the immersion.
First question; why should this be, when it had been perfectly dry up until then? Ho sign of corrosion on the old stat.
With the gate valve closed and some clear plastic tubing over the stat tube, water rises in the plastic to the level of the top copper pipe. Does this mean that the tank is full to this level and opening the bathroom and kitchen taps was not sufficient to lower the tank water level more than this?
So I DO need a new immersion heater after all, and now begins the swearing.......
I Googled ways to undo the old one without damage to the tank and got conflicting recommendations.
I have tried using a spanner made from a hexagon stamped out of thick steel, but it didn't fit my immersion hexagon very well and kept slipping off, so I plan to get one of those box spanner types, which surely must be better?
Google suggests playing a blowtorch on the immersion hexagon, but the idea frightens me - what do you think, any methods known to work?
Sorry for the length of this post, gents (and ladies?), but I want/need a bath soon!!!
Ron.
Ok, stat fitted, water heats, but only enough for half a bath before the water ran cold.
I took the cover off the immersion to check the temperature setting and found it was half full of water!!!
Switched off immediately and saw that it was coming up from the thermostat tube in the immersion.
First question; why should this be, when it had been perfectly dry up until then? Ho sign of corrosion on the old stat.
With the gate valve closed and some clear plastic tubing over the stat tube, water rises in the plastic to the level of the top copper pipe. Does this mean that the tank is full to this level and opening the bathroom and kitchen taps was not sufficient to lower the tank water level more than this?
So I DO need a new immersion heater after all, and now begins the swearing.......
I Googled ways to undo the old one without damage to the tank and got conflicting recommendations.
I have tried using a spanner made from a hexagon stamped out of thick steel, but it didn't fit my immersion hexagon very well and kept slipping off, so I plan to get one of those box spanner types, which surely must be better?
Google suggests playing a blowtorch on the immersion hexagon, but the idea frightens me - what do you think, any methods known to work?
Sorry for the length of this post, gents (and ladies?), but I want/need a bath soon!!!
Ron.