Immersion heater advice needed please

knightstyle

Just went back to a supplier I used to use, titanium 27inch immersion heater is under £40 including VAT.

jackieblack

knightstyle wrote: »

Ok, I would pay the extra but I am sure you could get a better deal.
I used to replace immersion heaters in a block of all electric flats on a regular basis and would recommend titanium ones which never needed replacing, there was also a cheaper one called incaloy which also lasted a lot longer than the standard ones.

Thanks, yes I’ve been quoted for both incaloy and titanium.

knightstyle wrote: »

Just went back to a supplier I used to use, titanium 27inch immersion heater is under £40 including VAT.

Thanks
I know the majority of the cost will be the fitting but it’s not easy to get anyone to do small jobs here and this firm were recommended to me by several friends/family who’ve used them before when my previous regular heating engineer/plumber moved 250 miles away. People tell me that their prices are reasonable and not significantly different to other quotes they’ve had.

But I could always try asking around...

Out of curiosity, what would you consider to be a reasonable charge to supply and fit a titanium element? (I’m about half an hour’s drive from their office, in case that makes a difference)

Belenus

jackieblack wrote: »

Came home a couple of nights ago to a tripped RCD. Tracked down the culprit - immersion heater. (Not good timing as my boiler had been out of order for two weeks and I had been relying on the immersion for hot water)....

Are you and/or the repair man certain that it is the element that has failed and not the thermostat?

It is a lot cheaper and easier (most people can DIY it) to replace a thermostat.

jackieblack

Belenus wrote: »

Are you and/or the repair man certain that it is the element that has failed and not the thermostat?

It is a lot cheaper and easier (most people can DIY it) to replace a thermostat.

How would I check that please?

Because we have such hard water here, I was told it would be the element and when this has happened previously it has indeed always been the element.

Would a failed thermostat trip the RCD?
Every time I plugged it back in it tripped again, I tried it several times to make sure.

ThemeOne

In a previous property in London (hard water area) we used the immersion heater all the time. The cheapest immersion heaters lasted very little time - barely six months I think in most cases.

We then switched to a type suitable for hard water (sorry don't recall exactly what it was called but probably one of the types you're talking about), and it was a dramatic improvement - lasting for years.

knightstyle

Sorry no idea of costs at the present time. I guess about £50 and hour, £250 a day. But they will need money for traveling as well.

Belenus

jackieblack wrote: »

How would I check that please?,,

You could ask the repair man, although his answer may be affected by his desire to sell you and fit a new heater element.

Or you could read up here but please don't do anything that you are not fully competent to do.

Do you have a friend or relative who could advise or help you?

jackieblack

Belenus wrote: »

You could ask the repair man, although his answer may be affected by his desire to sell you and fit a new heater element.

I asked the engineer who came to fix my boiler on Friday to have a look, but after I’d repeated what had happened he just said “that’ll be the element blown, you’ll need a new one”

The water is so hard here (just over 400 mg/L according to local water company) that I think it’s just generally assumed that’s what the fault will be. Although he did unscrew the cap and peer at the inside bit so I wonder if he was checking to see whether the reset button had popped up? I’ve just been to try and have a look myself, but he’s done the screw up so tight I can’t undo it

Belenus wrote: »

Or you could read up here but please don't do anything that you are not fully competent to do.

Thanks for the link, I found the videos really interesting (I love learning how things work!) but got lost when they started talking about ohms(sp?) and don’t own a multimeter, so that’s definitely way beyond my abilities TBH anything to do with electrics scares me

Belenus wrote: »

Do you have a friend or relative who could advise or help you?

Unfortunately not
Which is why I thought to ask on here, I’ve generally always found most people here to be very helpful

jackieblack

knightstyle wrote: »

Sorry no idea of costs at the present time. I guess about £50 and hour, £250 a day. But they will need money for traveling as well.

Thanks, so assuming it would take about an hour (?) the prices I’ve been quoted sound about right

Belenus

jackieblack wrote: »

I asked the engineer who came to fix my boiler on Friday to have a look, but after I’d repeated what had happened he just said “that’ll be the element blown, you’ll need a new one”...

He may be right or he may be wrong.

It could be the element or it could be the thermostat or it could possibly be something else such as a fault in the wiring somewhere.

In my opinion, an instant diagnosis of a failed element without doing some basic and easy checks is a bit worrying. It would have taken him just a minute or two to check the element and thermostat for electrical continuity etc and eliminate one or the other from being the problem. You have seen how easy that is in those videos.

Perhaps you should get a second opinion from someone else although not many may be interested in such a small job as a thermostat check and swap

Or you could ask the original repair man to bring a new element and thermostat and start with just swapping the thermostat and seeing if that does the job. If it does, he can either take away the element and not charge you for it or leave it with you for possible future use.

Good luck.

Please note that my comments are those of an amateur DIYer and not a qualified professional and should not be taken as gospel. Perhaps one of the latter will comment.