Central heating timer blowing fuse every few minutes. Help!

kittykat500 · 30 October 2012 at 3:26PM

Calling any electricians or heating engineers,

For the last week, when I put the timer on for hot water/heating, the fuse in the plug blows after a few minutes. I have gone through about 4 different fuses to date of varying strengths. I have also used an extension lead to another plug source to check if it is the socket, but the same thing happens. The boiler fires up (although when I listened to the boiler it did seem to keep clicking for about 30 secs to a minute before it fired up) the pump works and it stayed on long enough for some water to heat up one time. However more recently, it is blowing after a relatively short time and I am now struggling to stay warm! Would anyone have an idea what the problem might be?

Thanks

southcoastrgi · 30 October 2012 at 4:12PM

sounds like you have a dead short somewhere but it could be any number of things causing it, boiler, pump, timer, mid postion valve, does it do it if you switch hotwater on independantly from heating & vicky verki ? or is it only when you have them both on ? try turning the boiler stat down to the lowest setting does it still do it ?

kittykat500 · 30 October 2012 at 5:16PM

Thanks for responding. I have turned heating only on and it has blown and vice versa - it blows!

daveyjp · 30 October 2012 at 5:27PM

Its not a good idea to vary the 'strength' of the fuse either. It is blowing or a reason and needs sorting. Put in a fuse which 'survives' and you are in danger of burning your house down or killing someone with an electric shock.

kittykat500 · 30 October 2012 at 5:50PM

The plug originally had a 13 amp fuse and when I consulted the internet to check, it was suggested that 3 amp was what was needed, so these are the two 'strengths' I used. Also, a plumber friend said that 3amp is the correct one to use.

southcoastrgi · 30 October 2012 at 5:56PM

yes your friend is right it should be a 3 amp fuse, can you tell what is happening when it blows ? ie has the boiler just fired or has the pump just switched on ?

kittykat500 · 30 October 2012 at 6:56PM

It's hard to tell as I can't be in two places at once, but I believe it is when the boiler actually fires or shortly thereafter. I would imagine that the pump has to be working in order for the boiler to go on and once the boiler fired, the boiler died and when I got upstairs I saw that the timer was no longer on.