Hot water tank not keeping heat

Section62

Bendy_House said:

Some element of mystery remains.

*Groan*

Bendy_House said:

The most common cause of a burnt cable is a poor electrical connection at the screw terminals - that becomes high resistance, overheats, and it's this that 'burns' the cable from that point. But, if it's a screw-terminal, then in theory the immersion element itself should be fine, so no drain-down required.

That could well be the cause, but if so it is the worst case I've seen. I'd still want HS to have a look and comment.

The problem now is the terminal and casing have been damaged, so simply remaking the connection isn't going to be a satisfactory repair IMV.  There's also a question of what additional (possibly hidden) damage that amount of heat might have caused.

neilmcl

ForestBluebells said:

Hope you can see clearly how much it’s burnt?

The parts itself doesn't look that expensive - https://www.unventedcomponentseurope.com/heatrae-sadia-megaflo-thermostat-11-rod-type-tse-tsr-95612026-95612599-2.html/

ForestBluebells

That’s reassuring, maybe it won’t be too expensive to replace it 🙏

neilmcl

ForestBluebells said:

That’s reassuring, maybe it won’t be too expensive to replace it 🙏

That's if it is indeed just the thermostat and not the entire heating element that it feeds into. You'll need an electrician or heating engineer that's qualified to work on unvented systems, sounds to me that you're current electrician is not.

ForestBluebells

neilmcl said:

ForestBluebells said:

That’s reassuring, maybe it won’t be too expensive to replace it 🙏

That's if it is indeed just the thermostat and not the entire heating element that it feeds into. You'll need an electrician or heating engineer that's qualified to work on unvented systems, sounds to me that you're current electrician is not.

So it’s not a plumber I need? It’s so confusing 🙈

neilmcl

ForestBluebells said:

neilmcl said:

ForestBluebells said:

That’s reassuring, maybe it won’t be too expensive to replace it 🙏

That's if it is indeed just the thermostat and not the entire heating element that it feeds into. You'll need an electrician or heating engineer that's qualified to work on unvented systems, sounds to me that you're current electrician is not.

So it’s not a plumber I need? It’s so confusing 🙈

No, you need a heating engineer, and one that's qualified to work on unvented systems.

ForestBluebells

neilmcl said:

ForestBluebells said:

neilmcl said:

ForestBluebells said:

That’s reassuring, maybe it won’t be too expensive to replace it 🙏

That's if it is indeed just the thermostat and not the entire heating element that it feeds into. You'll need an electrician or heating engineer that's qualified to work on unvented systems, sounds to me that you're current electrician is not.

So it’s not a plumber I need? It’s so confusing 🙈

No, you need a heating engineer, and one that's qualified to work on unvented systems.

There’s a heating engineer in the village so I’ve asked his wife to find out if he can work on this type of system 

Bendy_House

neilmcl said:

ForestBluebells said:

Hope you can see clearly how much it’s burnt?

The parts itself doesn't look that expensive - https://www.unventedcomponentseurope.com/heatrae-sadia-megaflo-thermostat-11-rod-type-tse-tsr-95612026-95612599-2.html/

That would be the ideal scenario. It also means no drain-down will be required - just a 30-minute job for a sparky.

But, only if it's the top 'thermostat' assembly wot's at fault.

ForestBluebells

Plumber popped over after all his contacts are too busy and he’s going to have a go at replacing just that element. If it needs more I’ll still need to get a qualified engineer to do that 

Bendy_House

By 'element', I presume you mean that top 'thermostat' section, which is what appears to be at fault - fingers crossed.

The actual 'element' - the immersion part that's screwed into the tank - will hopefully be still ok.