My undersink heater failed and started tripping the RCD GFI for the house. It appears to have a faulty heating element.
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I still have an antique Sadia point of use water heater which is in service to provide a constant source of hot water. I think it's about fifty, or sixty years old. Heats two gallons (UK) inside a copper cylinder, insulated with glass fibre, with a steel jacket.
It's brilliant old thing, and can keep the water hot for about eighteen hours with the power off.
The unvented sort will just blow the incoming mains water back down the pipe if it boils, so not a problem in terms of pressure.
It looks like an emergency sausage and chips tray that you hide under the sink!
Odd! No sacrificial electrode? I know, AC, but they seem standard in the water heaters in my country. And, AFAIK, THAT MIDDLE SUPPORT SHOULD NOT BE THERE!
WOOFS is it code in the UK for a whole house GFI ??That sounds like a real pain in the butt ! we here in the US just have them on circuits to wet areas Bath room laundry room and out side out lets Do you guys have to use arc guard breakers ?? they now require them here for bed room circuits and are recommended for older homes there has been instances of arcing causing a fire that never tripped the breaker saw that here when I was a member of our VFD .
I hated these things, after you turned them off there was always water came out the pipe to burn one skin. Fine once you got used to this, but when I visited my Granny who had one, I didn't know this and her being used to it never thought in saying. So I ran the hot water through the heater, then went to wash my hands, only to find while doing this boiling hot water came spurting out in very hot spurts. Very painful it was! As soon as I saw the insulation I thought, poor choice being so combustible, Saying that I have not known of one causing a fire, but then houses are usually burned down arn't they?
What kind of power does that consume? Did you need to run it off a dedicated high current line?
Any comments on whole-house natural gas tankless hot water heaters? I finally decided to get rid of my old 70-gal hot water heater as I live alone and couldn't see having it heat the water all day and night when I only needed it at particular points during the day & night. I haven't had any problems with mine and haven't heard of any problems with the brand I had installed. And it comes in handy when I want to take extra long hot showers from time to time…there is never a shortage of hot water now. And my natural gas bill is much less now.
I'm curious as to what is the cost for that type of water heater? Here is America the small tanked (2.5 gallon) water heaters run you around $250 dollars they operate off of 120 volts at 30 amps the tankless versions operate off 240 volts 4 wires ( 120 volt x 2, Netural and Ground) and widely vary in temp depending on current water temp versus the flow rate. On average the temp of the water here is 55-65 degrees F and flow at 1.6 GPM which means the hot water will be ~90 degrees F at a lower flow the water can reach a scalding 120 degrees F so it becomes frustrating at mixing the water to get the right comfortable temp. There are smarter units available that can auto sense the temp but the price doubles automatically.
Did you end up getting a new one under warranty?
I'm surprised the pressure relief valves aren't connected to the outdoors. The US is a bit odd, in our massive consumption of electricity, we generally have whole home water heaters (in the 40-80 gallon range,) though whole house demand water heaters are starting to get a bit more popular, though the initial cost is higher, so folks still tend to avoid them. But the pressure relief valves have to be piped to somewhere outdoors, or at least to a drain, just so that water doesn't flood one's home.
the water where i live in oban is the same as yours 🙂 and the oban malt tastes lovely with it 🙂 i repair appliances here and i see emersion elements fail all the time, because theyre poorly made, yours has water inside between the coil and outer theres white heat proof powder its wet now, hope they give you a new one. if they do put a little silicone around the post to stop water getting at the weld
Clive the joint between the cut out sensor tube and the heating element is brazed (or possibly silver-soldered) not welded. (Both lower temperature processes, but nevertheless with increased chance of causing a weak spot in the element tube) As a young worker I brazed some hundreds of these things.
A few years ago I moved to a house with vented under-sink water heaters. It took me a long time to figure out how the taps worked. Once you know, of course it is obvious.
Not sure if you ever mentioned it, but did they send you a new element?
I never did hear the word "faucet". Is it a French word?
I know this video came out a year ago, but I can't help but feeling like the UK is doing something backwards with domestic power. Having total source for a home triggered by a single RCD seems like an over-simplified solution to a problem that rarely happens.
First, despite overall line losses, I think that the North American standard for residential of 115V split-phase makes sense. Devices that use a lot of power get 230V at manageable currents, but everyday devices only receive a non-lethal potential.
Second, while RCD or GFI protection is important in any circuit in which failure is likely to cause serious injury, a single protection circuit for the entire home can't be a good thing. It means you have no idea what circuit is faulty, and makes it harder to detect because all your lighting will go down at the same time. Light fixtures (especially overhead) are rarely contacted when live, and don't necessitate any earth-fault protection. How much more expensive is it to specifically protect the circuits that need it and leave the rest alone?
Final note: As a Canadian, I do understand that the CEC is influenced by equipment manufacturers, and some standards (such as a separate arc-fault breaker for each bedroom) are more influenced by the sales of equipment and slightly less by the safety of consumers. I still like the idea of safety, I just think it needs to be well thought out and reasonable.
Also, I don't want a UK vs. NA fight about power standards. We all know the benefits of each. I'm mostly just curious how an electrical code can justify putting an entire living space's supply on a single prime failure point.
I had a friend who used to install water heaters kinda like these, but they just worked on demand without a reservoir. I asked her why she quit, and you know what she said?
"It's a tankless job."
Sorry.