Hot water too hot

[Bart]

My friend lives in a rented house with hot water from a cylinder with an electric immersion heater.

There is no programmer and no thermostat, the element is wired to a fused outlet and is on all the time (although there is a switch on the outlet)

The water is dangerously scalding hot.

What's the simplest way to fit some sort of temperature control?

Thanks.

Bart

[Owain]

Tell the landlord to sort it out.

There should be a thermostat as part of the immersion heater. These can fail to continuously on. The thermostat should be adjusted or replaced.

Owain

[Peter Scott]

So far as I know all immersion heaters have a thermostat built in. There should be a small rotatable control on top of the round housing for the thermostat. Perhaps this has failed? Its usual not to have a programmer.

Have another look. I'm afraid that if the temp can't be turned down it looks like a replacement. Scalding water is wasting money as well as being dangerous. I love those hotels where it says, 'Caution. This water is hot for health'. Hope the landlord is not one of those slow types.

Peter Scott

[Dave Baker]

Any immersion heater should have its own built in thermostat, usually under a plastic cover held on by a couple of screws. There won't necessarily be a stat on the side of the tank if that's what you've been looking for - those are used for controlling a boiler system. The immersion I fitted a year ago had a max temp of only 60C which is just about hot enough for a bath or dishes but nothing like as hot as the boiler used to get the water if I wanted it to. Maybe older immersions have a higher temp, I think my previous one did anyway, but should never get the water scalding. If the stat on yours has broken then a complete new immersion is the only cure but they are only £25 or so. Of course that's if you can get the old one out. They tend to corrode into the thread in the tank and sometimes won't budge even at levels of force which are starting to buckle the thin metal of the tank itelf.

Then I'm afraid it's new tank time which ain't cheap.

[jgh]

And if they run continuously with no control, can be interestingly dangerous:

-- JGH

[Bartc]

Many thanks for all the replies.

I managed to find a temperature control of sorts, under a metal cover (about

7' off the ground). The range was 50-80C and appeared to be set to 65C. I will try 50C later and see what happens.

Bart

[PM]

Are you sure that's right? ISTR the stat on mine was a long tube that slid down inside the element housing. A replacement was about £6 and didn't require the element to be moved.

[Dave Baker]

Yes my bad - you're correct on the modern elements if the stat is available separately.

[mark.hannah]

Fatally dangerous too :-

[Bob Mannix]

unvented system with no safety features - hardly typical of a normal domestic installation. The second reference is far more unnerving. The combination of a permanently on immersion filling the header tank with boiling water and that tank being (a) plastic not able to withstand boiling water and (b) suspended over the bed is the stuff of nightmares! Not nice :o(

[John]

See this:

[Stuart B]

I think the OP has now found the stat control on the Immerser . As an addition someone mentioned that these can sometimes fail "On" .I believe that new ones have a safety cutout to prevent this and this needs to be reset by pressing a small button on top Stuart

[The Medway Handyman]

I've had three 'no hot water' calls in the last 6 months which have all been the cut out tripping. No apparent reason, they just seem to trip.

Resetting the red button sorted all three.