Smell from hot water boiler

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?

Reply to
John Alexander
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rotting seals - both for leak and smells.

Reply to
charles

IMLE the fishy smell is often caused by melting/degrading through heat of plastic due to a dodgy electrical connection.

Jim K

Reply to
JimK

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

Reply to
Brian Gaff

In message , JimK writes

Yes. Particularly '60's/70's 3 pin wall sockets. Poor electrical contact leading to heat degrading the plastic insulation.

Reply to
Tim Lamb

When the thermostat went faulty on my immersion heater & it melted the housing, it smelled fishy.

Reply to
Huge

I had the same smell from a socket switch for my shower when I opened it up it was charred inside.

Reply to
ss

ewwwww. i thought it bad enough for someone to have put a dead fish in it, but a seal..... yick :)

Reply to
Gazz

Overheated melamine - the amine bit is fish smell. Good early warning/diagnostic aid of fault developing.

Reply to
PeterC

Burning plastic. Fix the bad electrical connection causing it

NT

Reply to
meow2222

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.

Reply to
alan

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