Faulty Quooker

[Tim+]

A friend has one of these fancy Quookers that provides hot, cold and boiling water all from one tap.

The other day something tripped a MCB in the fuse box and when she reset it she realised that her Quooker would no longer provide boiling water.

It?s NOT the heater element though as it is still heating water, it?s just not delivering it in response to the fancy jig you have to do with the control switch (a double press followed by a rotation).

Anyone come across this and know where the fault might lie? I suspect there must be some ?smartness? in the switching mechanism but I?m wondering what could have gone wrong (with a high enough fault current) to trip the MCB. Sadly it?s out of warranty

Tim

[Tim Streater]

She may need to go through the reset procedure. I've done this a couple of times when we have short power breaks, nothing to do with the tap.

Try the FAQ page at

A hint regarding the reset process - when they say unplug it from the socket, do just that. Seems to need that rather than just turning the switch off at the wall.

Ours only does boiling water, so in our case it's press and turn to the boiling water.

[Tim+]

Thanks. I?ve forwarded your message to her. Will let you know if it works.

Tim

[harry]

Such devices are just a status symbol. It's technically very difficult/complex to make such a thing work satisfactorily and safely. Hence they are inherently unreliable and therefore best left alone. Only idiots buy them. The simplest solutions are always best.

[Roger Mills]

A a proud owner of a Quooker, it's comforting to know that you regard me as an idiot. It reinforces my feeling of mutuality!

[Tim Streater]

I agree it's prolly overpriced, but we still like it anyway. We use it quite a lot (it doesn't just sit there).

[Roger Mills]

Yes, so do we. Ours provides all the hot water for the kitchen sink (avoiding a very wasteful long run of pipe from the hot cylinder in the airing cupboard) plus boiling water for tea and coffee. Wouldn't be without it!

[Tim+]

If Harry thinks it?s complex I would suggest Harry hasn?t an ?effing clue.

Tim

[Tim Lamb]

Ours is installed but yet to be used (still trying to clear up the farmhouse sale:-(

Moment of hilarity though. Boss insisted on a costly Corrian (sp?) worktop and sink. (stainless sinks scratch)!

Fitter told her that you can't use a Quooker with a Corrian sink so the bottom had to be cut out and replaced with..... stainless steel:-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Interesting. I thought they just provided the hot water from the domestic heating system.

[Roger Mills]

No, they sit under the sink and heat several litres of water (depending on model - ours is 7litres) to above 100 degrees under pressure, using a

3kW internal heater. The boiling water can be used directly from the boiling water tap for tea or coffee, or can be blended with cold in a mixer valve to provide 'hot' water (at around 60 degrees, but adjustable) to the sink's hot tap. Although using electricity to heat the water is more expensive than gas, you don't waste a lot every time you run the hot tap, like we did when feeding it from the hot cylinder on the other side of the house.

[Scott]

How can that be so, unless your polarity is reversed?

[Chris J Dixon]

:-)

Is the worry that the Corian would be damaged if you ran boiling water into it?

Chris

[harry]

Any device that generates boiling water/steam in a pressure vessel has all sorts of safety issues that have to be covered by costly devices. Only the really dopey won't understand this.

[Tim Streater]

Search me. All I know is that that's what it says in the reset instructions. If I left it plugged in and just switched off at the wall, it didn't seem to want to reset (although it's possible I was just being impatient). If I unplugged it and left it alone for a while, then it was OK on being replugged.

[Scott]

I suspect the instruction to unplug is to cover situations where there is no switch on the plug. I suspect not counting to 10 before switching power back on may have prevented the reset taking place.

[Tim Lamb]

Apparently. I missed the discussion.

[Tim Streater]

That's entirely possible :-)

I'm sure it will happen again, as we get 5-sec or so cutouts from time to time, being on the end of a rural line. Next time I'll experiment a bit more carefully.

[Andrew]

What happens to the limescale ?.

[Andy Burns]