Immersion Heater thermostat issues.

[Brian-Gaff]

I think I have an immersion Heater thermostat on the blink. I awoke this morning to a bit of a gurgling and hissing, and the hot water tank was very hot as was the expansion pipe in the back of the airing cupboard. I of course manually turned it off to save the power and hopefully the heater. Its been a while since I changed this item, back when I could see enough. Am I right in thinking that the long rod simply pushes down the long rods centre that is on the heater fixing? I assume the wires are just in series with the heater and the thermostats are pretty standard so they break connection when hot enough? Before I actually get one and attempt to fit it, how are the ends terminated and would you think, given a power off situation one could do it by feel. I've no trouble with connection blocks and other forms of connector. However I cannot solder obviously! There is as I recall a small screwdriver slot on the top of the unit which one supposes one turns to the point where the heater goes off at the desired temperature. This would be by guess work I'd imagine

Ignore elf and safety, I'm pretty careful! Brian

[Bob Minchin]

Brian, The stat is wired in series with element and adjusted as you describe. Two terminals, on is live in and the other goes to one end of the element and the other end of the element goes to Neutral.

Once disconnected, the stat pulls out of a sealed pocket by hand (no water seal involved. They come in different lengths so you need one the same length and certainly no longer. 7" and 18" are typical Toolstation and similar sell them £8-£9. Modern ones are likely to have two stage operation one normal up to your chosen temperature and another fixed over temperature safety (fixed) setting which once exceeded needs manual reset. This is to avoid the situation you found yourself in this morning. Rather than lots of hot water, you now get no hot water! Safer but less convenient. Good Luck

Bob

[Michael Chare]

There should be two cables to disconnect. Not a particularly difficult job, just undo the screws, the cable ends may be folded and/or twisted.

The cables should be of a heat resistant type, and the insulation should be inspected for cracks etc.

My advice would be to remove the old one as the first step. Then order a replacement of the correct length.

In our house there is lots of stuff in the way!

I have seen ones like that.

[Roger Mills]

I have to admit to being a bit worried about this whole thing.

I greatly admire Brian's determination to lead as normal a life as possible despite his sight impairment, but I do feel that you really need to be able to see what you are doing if you are going to do this job safely.

[Harry Bloomfield]

It happens that Brian-Gaff formulated :

Yes, it should be a simple straight forward job. Modern stats are two stats in one, designed with a second tripping stat to prevent what happened to you, happening again.

The stats come in a variety of lengths and you MUST get the correct length to match the element length. There is a sealed at the base pocket for the stat to slide into, so no need to drain. Just take of the lid of the element, disconnect the two wires and tug the stat straight out. You will maybe need some clearance above the unit, to slide it all the way out.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Brian. If you can't see, how can you do the job?

[tony sayer]

In article , Harry Bloomfield scribeth thus

But beware that if the heater is of some age it might well be corroded and the thermostat be stuck. Had this happen usually the immersion trips off the RCD fist. Not a big problem here as it only backs up the gas heating....

[Tim+]

Well the term "blind" covers a lot of variation. Brian may have some residual useful sight. Even if he hasn't, if you have a good spacial awareness and memory, I'm willing to bet that most of us could change a stat if we really tried.

With the power off and taking time to feel all the connections before disassembly, reassembly shouldn't be too hard. That said, if the new stat has significantly different terminals, that might throw a spanner in the works.

I dare say though, that if faced with that problem, Brian can always call on someone to lend him a pair of eyes.

At the end of the day, Brian's smart enough to know what might be just too dangerous and is probably the best judge of his own capabilities.

Tim

[ARW]

FFS There is NO way a blind man can rewire an immersion heater stat.

Brian is not serious about doing it himself.

[Tim+]

Maybe, maybe not but don't underestimate what non-sighted folk can do.

Tim

[Harry Bloomfield]

ARW a écrit :

It will be less difficult for Brian who is used to doing such by feel, than it would be for you or me sighted, but working in poor light.

[ARW]

So do it and put a video on YouTube of you doing that whilst wearing a blindfold.

£100 to the charity of choice for the winner.

[ARW]

Is it f*ck.

[Brian-Gaff]

I do not agree in fact after reading this, I have had the lid off the heater and yes there are two solid core wires one either side of a roughly triangular device with rounded corners, and the item is quite loose in its little hole.

The insulation seems to be good too, as I can feel its not cracked and its certainly not bare wire.

What I have done is the old screwdriver handle fix. I put it on at the time switch and when it was obviously not working gave it a couple of sharp taps and it did disconnect. This morning its working again, so I guess its on its way out as suspected. I'll get some sighted help to look at it in the next week or so and see if we can get a new one ready for when the thing finally dies.

might I say that if you consider what most people do, a lot of it is by touch. You may need to look for wire colour or placement of screws etc, but many people rely on tactile imaging. Surely you have had to locate nuts on screws in places where you need an extra pair of hands to hold a light or whatever? the old classic use of tactile imaging was the old changing the film in the camera inside a bag. Obviously nobody does this any more, but in the days of roll films, it was a common need.

I do agree that electricity has to be treated with respect, but making sure things are isolated and not liable to turn on unexpectedly, then its pretty safe. Oddly of course the one thing I cannot do is wire a plug due to lack of sight. In those cases, a sighted person is required to cut the cable ends to the right lengths and secure them without whiskers hanging about inside.

Just saying. Brian

[tabbypurr]

I bet if I had to I could wire a plug blind

NT

[Peter Andrews]

... and how would you correctly identify the colours?? I'm sure that I could put three wires on the terminals but in the right order probably not!

Peter

[tabbypurr]

3 core: use a beepy meter to id earth 2 core: don't worry about it

NT

[tony sayer]

In article , ARW scribeth thus

Yep.

OK how do you get around identifying the wires and thats done by their colour?..

[Fredxxx]

By which wire bites??

[Michael Chare]

In this case, I would think one wire would go to the element and one would go to the supply cable, so you could tell by feel. Further I doubt it matters if they were the wrong way round.

There is always the option of asking a sighted person to check.