iBoost acting up - soloution found

ely_ellis

Hi all,

Every so often my iBoost failed to work correctly. We would have a sunny day and not think anything about it, but next day upon checking, I found vertually nothing saved and sometimes even though the sun would be shining, discover that nothing is being diverted.
I would turn off the power, give it a few minutes and then turn back on again.
This was a very occasional thing, maybe once or twice a month.
Anyway, the other day, sun blazing away, just over 3kW available, water cold and nothing being diverted, indicating a hot tank!
First I suspected the iBoost, doing the 'off and on' routine and still nothing.
So, suspecting the immersion heater element to be defective I though I would just check under the cover only to find that the negative wire had melted and become detached.
It appears that for some reason the connection to the immersion hater element had become a little corroded, this in turn would limit the amount of current supplied to the element for heating AND also cause the wire to heat up, melting the plastic and eventually becoming detached.
I cleand the contacts, stripped the wire back and re-attached. Seems to be working better than ever now.
There happens to be a cardboard ring inside the immersion heater cover, this cover is earthed, but the cardboard prevented the negative cable making electrical contact with the earth, if it wasn't there then the immersion heater trip would have gone to, this would have given an earlier indication of a problem.
So, if anyone is having similar problem, then maybe get the immersion heater wiring checked.
These cable carry high current for longer periods than most other things, any high resistance in the cable or at the connections will cause heat which could lead to all sorts of problems.
Until I had my iBoost and SolarPV I NEVER used the immersion heater, now it is in use almost every day and on a good day could be on for hours (intermittently).
WARNING - DON'T DO IT YOURSELF IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING - GET SOMEONE IN THAT DOES KNOW.
BETTER TO BE SAFE THAN SORRY!
Cheers