General Chat

All this trouble I have been having with the new hot water heater which has left me with intermittent hot water for over two months now would appear to be because I have been leaving one part switched on when it shouldn't be so it is tripping the thermostats.

An electrician who came to do something else has just explained this to me. He has untripped or whatever you call it, the thermostat too.

Well, silly me, not understanding the water heater without the aid of instructions!

The perfectly good one they took out didn't have all these complications.

you mean it works when it's switched OFF????

That's obvious.

NOT!!

:-(

Not that simple.

Top bit, bottom bit. One for all the water, one for some other water when the other one isn't applicable and your tarrif doesn't let you have any of whatever it lets you have when you have it and then you switch it on if you need some but don't leave it on because it trips out the other one and then it doesn't work and then the engineer comes out and says he doesn't understand why it doesn't do it and then it is your fault after all and what is it you are making all this bloody fuss about.

See, simple as that!

Did you ask him to write it down in case you forget?

No,I forgot.

Shouldn't they have left instructions?

I had to call out an emergency plumber one evening about 2 weeks ago.
A new washing machine was arriving at the crack of doom the next day, so I glibly pulled out the washing machine, went to turn off the inlet valve - it fell off in my hand, and water started gushing!!
Okay, thought I, I'll turn the screw underneath the valve. No, didn't work.
Right, isolation valve under cold tap. Wouldn't move.
Main stopcock - jammed.
Plumber came out (at 23:45) and changed the valves over. Machine Isolated.
Plumber came out to fix main stopcock.
It worked, turned off. He then pointed out that when I turn it on, I should turn it back one revolution to stop it jamming.
'Okay', I said, could you tell the other plumbers that? The last person to turn that stopcock was a plumber, 2 years ago, when it jammed!!!'
I also pointed out that, whenever a plumber did any work, they seem to be under the illusion that 'tightest is best' - which (my brother once being a plumber) I know not to be true, (hand tight plus half a turn) but it means even changing a washer requires a swift thump with a hammer for anything to move :-|

Google the heater and hopefully you will get a manual. That's what daughter had to do when she moved to her house as no instructions for use left.

It was installed January 29th.

Can't help thinking there should have been some instructions with it.

Always get a SureStop fitted in a convenient location. It will allow you to easily turn off the water supply inc emergencies.

http://www.surestop.co.uk/owners/

They are not expensive and work without electricity.
If you have social housing some will install these for free esp. if you are reg. disabled.

Copper is now obsolete for domestic water systems inc. hot but it is still used as an ez (?) cheap option. For that reason regulations about earthing to water pipes have also radically changed.

When the plumber came the other week, he was meant to fit a Sure Stop, but as he had the brute force to turn the stop-cock, he didn't :-|
As this is the second time in 2 years the darned thing has jammed, I will be informing the council......