Why does my immersion heater keep tripping

Could a faulty immersion element be the issue? As far as I can tell there is no separate "stat" on the immersion element itself, the safety stat is only part of the normal stat which is housed in a sleeve and not touching the water itself.

Even wondered if the electic meter switching rates might be causing a spike, but dismissed this a highly unlikely as nothing else is affected.

I had a similar problem boiling sounds , what I figured out was happening - as the temperature was approaching 60deg the element was boiling the water near it, in my case it didn't trip the over temp but it did make a boiling sound.. Never did sort it properly in the end,,, but maybe it's too many "amps per inch" as someone once said regarding NSH elements?? As stated previously the immersion heater and stat are both manufactured by Tesla UK Ltd.

After searching with Google found numerous forum posts where people are having exactly the same problem. I am due to visit friends for a few days later this week don't have much time to make much more investigation. However, after reading all the posts there does seem a case for thinking there are issues with the safety trip or the immersion stat not reading the temperature correctly. This could give rise to the situation where although set to 60C the "satisfied" water stat the actual water temperature is mugh higher.

Likewise, if the safety trip is set to trip at 90C but is in fact tripping at a lower temperature then if the water temperature is higher then the safety trip could be activated earlier then necessary. As a short term test I have reinstalled the original Tesla thermostat as this doesn't have the silicon blob and can therefore be adjusted and I have set this to 50C and left mains power on.

I can then test whether the temperature of the water is OK for normal use and also see if the safety trip is activated as before with the stat set lower.

In theory with a lower stat setting the water temperature should not get anywhere near the safety trip setting of 90C. I am now convinced that the theory given by Tesla that it is being triggered by the ambient temperature in the airing cupboard is inplausible because I cannot see how any device enclosed within the cap of the immersion heater which gets quite hot could possible detect any temperature outside of the cap.

Also, despite a detailed search I can find no evidence anywhere that the ambient temperature, which is around C, affects the stat in anyway. I assume there must be an industry standard for the tolerance of both the "satisfied" water thermostat and especially the safety trip but don't know what these are. If anyone can help would be obliged. I wouldn't tolerate this in a new set up. How many people live in the house? If you need the immersion on in the day then you don't have a big enough tank.

We are 2 adults and we can have 4 showers in a day and still have hot water spare, just leaving the tank on permanently on the eco 7 l tank. Have kept retailer in the loop and they are happy to go along with whatever I decide even if it takes a couple of weeks or more. Is your comment on returning the Tesla based just on my posting or have you come across similar problems with the product in the past?

Immersion is on all the time just to see if the safety trip activates. Was previously only running it periodically, see my original post.

As for the tank, the one I have was the maximum size Gledhill I could fit in my airing cupboard and is approximately the same capacity as the old copper one litres which was more than 25 years old. There is only my wife and I and we generally only have 2 showers per day and use little hot water in between. Not really had any problems with lack of hot water in the past.

If other people have had similar problems, the kit had an inherent design fault - send it back. Yes the immersion top is clear of any obstructions and has nothing immediately above it, the shelving is cut back. Initial tests with the lower stat temperature setting suggest this may be the issue as it ran for 4 days with tripping out. I am away for a few days now so will have to see what happens when I get back. Since coming back from my break it looks as if setting the stat down to 45 degrees instead of 60 has settled things down as it has now been running for 5 days without tripping plus the 4 days before I went away.

The water is still hot enough for everyday use. I have not had any further correspondence from Tesla since telling them that their suggestion to do a test run with the airing cupboard door open hadn't worked. It is now my firm believe that my problem was nothing to do with the ambient temperature in the airing cupboard and can't think why this was ever suggested, perhaps that is why Tesla have gone quiet. Still can't work out why 2 different makes of stat should exhibit the same problem but provided the system keeps working I can live with that.

I have just had a new bathroom fitted with a power shower and new hot water cylinder, immersion heater element and thermostat. My cylinder stat also trips the over heat button on the thermostat and needs resetting. I have had three new thermostats fitted and the problem still persists.

The problem has to be that the over heat trip is measuring over 90 deg C. Phuong Offenhaus Reviewer. What causes a heating element to burn out in a water heater? This happens because the installer fails to open a hot water faucet while the heater tank is filling with water and therefore purging or bleeding air from the system.

Steffanie Marroig Reviewer. Is it cheaper to leave immersion heater on all the time? It's better to leave the hot water heater on all the time , rather than turning it on and off. But in fact, you really don't need to be heating your water all the time.

Your immersion heater or boiler will heat up hot water which is stored in a tank. Sergia Kalambetov Reviewer. Are immersion heaters expensive to run? Heating water using electricity is more expensive than heating water with gas. A typical immersion heater uses three kilowatts of electricity an hour, so it will cost the average house about 50p an hour to run. Evangelos Gualpa Supporter. Can you adjust the temperature on an immersion heater?

Isolate the immersion heater from its power supply before removing the cover. If necessary adjust the control thermostat setting by turning the dial with a screwdriver blade until the arrow points to the desired temperature. Andreea Podstavka Beginner. How do I test my thermostat? Thank goodness it is much less expensive to replace a thermostat than your central heat and air unit. Check your thermostat to make sure it is in the "On" position.

Stand at the thermostat while an assistant stands at the furnace. Raise the thermostat heat settings slowly.

Turn off the breaker to your furnace. Odelinda Buerger Beginner. How do I drain an immersion heater? How to drain the hot water cylinder. Turn off the immersion heater and the boiler.

Isolate the cylinder from its supply. Run the kitchen hot tap until it stops. Called the plumber back and he replaced the thermostat on Wednesday believing that to be the fault. Same problem Wednesday night. We have an electronic timer set to on all the time at least until this problem is sorted , and all the wiring, fuses, etc are fine.

Current is getting to the heater no problem. The thermostat is set to about 63 deg. It seems to me that the answer must be that the heater itself is faulty, that the 'pre-set' 95 deg cutout in the heater is operating in error I'm a bit hesitant to just replace the heater myself if it's not very likely because each time I undo the heater boss I'm scared of ripping the tank!

It's now 4 days later, no hot water and I'm starting to smell pretty bad! I am on my second thermostat but this one trips out like the previous for no apparent reason. Any advice appreciated Chris L. It would seem possible the element itself might be heating the thermostat causing it to trip. I do point out this is only an educated guess, but it may be well worth removing the whole assembly just to check that this is not happening. Turn the stat down another five degrees.

Pay no attention to the figures on the dial in terms of desired temperature but see if that cures the problem. If it doesn't cure the problem, then turn down another five degrees and see if that does the job. Continue the process until the cutout stops operating randomly. But sometimes, the heating element casing can split and expose the electrical components directly to the water or tank. On an electric water heater, only one heating element is on at a time.

However, when a thermostat goes bad, it can create a problem where both heating elements run at the same time. This draws more electricity than the circuit can handle, causing the circuit breaker to trip. If a plumber has checked out your water heater and everything seems to be working fine, you should have an electrician check the electrical connections. George Brazil Plumbing and Electrical can help you fix your electric water heater if you live in the Phoenix area.

Contact us today.