We have a hot water boiler at Church which is used about twice a week for tea/coffee. When we turn it on we get a "fishy" smell emanating from it. We used to leave the boiler full but from time to time it would leak and flood the kitchen (never worked out whether it was the tap leaking or the inlet valve sticking occasionally). We then started leaving it empty. The smell seems to occur with either it left full or empty.
Any suggestions as to cause/remedy or is it time for a new unit?
rotting seals - both for leak and smells.
IMLE the fishy smell is often caused by melting/degrading through heat of plastic due to a dodgy electrical connection.
Jim K
I was going to say, some synthetic seals make a smell like that when they start to fall apart. Might be a simple remedy if you can locate them and change them. Tea earns have this issue as well, as where I last worked had one you could smell at the other end of the corridor.
I'd have thought though, that modern materials would have banished this by now. How old is this thing? Brian
In message , JimK writes
Yes. Particularly '60's/70's 3 pin wall sockets. Poor electrical contact leading to heat degrading the plastic insulation.
When the thermostat went faulty on my immersion heater & it melted the housing, it smelled fishy.
I had the same smell from a socket switch for my shower when I opened it up it was charred inside.
ewwwww. i thought it bad enough for someone to have put a dead fish in it, but a seal..... yick :)
Overheated melamine - the amine bit is fish smell. Good early warning/diagnostic aid of fault developing.
Burning plastic. Fix the bad electrical connection causing it
NT
You can get fishy smells from over heating light fittings so the smell may not be from the water - it may be the electrical connections to the boiler have become loose leading to high resistance connections/overheating electrics.
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