Hello there,

Can anyone help us?

A few days ago our immersion heater stopped working. We have no idea why.

No problem we thought. We will pop the central heating on and then get our 
hot water that way.

The radiators came on and the house got very warm but still not hot water.

Six hours of Googling later we now know we have a vented indirect hot water 
cylinder (and not much else).

There is a hot pipe leading to the top of the cylinder. This heats up when 
the central heating is on.

Other than that we are baffled.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance - April

Whenever we lose heating or water or both together, its normally down
to the electrical side of the installation - specifically the motorised
valves.

In our system, one boiler heats both hot water and the radiators.

To make them independant (so that the heating comes on when we need it
and the water comes on when we need the water heated and not
necessarily at the same time) the controller (the beige box that allows
us to specify what time things come on and off - ours is a Honeywell I
believe) controls two electrical valves.

These are plumbed into the system pipework but the electrical motors
that operate the valves are external.

They are easy to replace for anyone confident with electrical work
(someone who would know how to install a plug socket for example).

It could be that one of these motors is shot - maybe it happened at the
same time that the emersion went pop.

Trace the wiring from the control box, this will go to two
tin/aliminium coloured boxes about 2 inches square on different legs of
the pipework - mine is near to the system pump (a large red block with
an arrow on the front indicating direction of the pump action).

You should be able to detect a noise as the working one shuts off and
on if your listen carefully.

I am not a plumber so this is not professional advice !

I am lucky that all my pipework is easy to get to.

I hope that helps.

jON

April Woods wrote:

> Hello there,
>
> Can anyone help us?
>
> A few days ago our immersion heater stopped working. We have no idea why.
>
> No problem we thought. We will pop the central heating on and then get our
> hot water that way.
>
> The radiators came on and the house got very warm but still not hot water.
>
> Six hours of Googling later we now know we have a vented indirect hot water
> cylinder (and not much else).
>
> There is a hot pipe leading to the top of the cylinder. This heats up when
> the central heating is on.
>
> Other than that we are baffled.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> Thanks in advance - April

"$Y06.3557@newsfe2-win.ntli.net...

> April Woods"  wrote in message news:7KpTe.7087
> Hello there,
>
> Can anyone help us?
>
> A few days ago our immersion heater stopped working. We have no idea why.
>
> No problem we thought. We will pop the central heating on and then get our 
> hot water that way.
>
> The radiators came on and the house got very warm but still not hot water.
>
> Six hours of Googling later we now know we have a vented indirect hot 
> water cylinder (and not much else).
>
> There is a hot pipe leading to the top of the cylinder. This heats up when 
> the central heating is on.
>
> Other than that we are baffled.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks in advance - April
>
>
>
>
>
> 

"April Woods"  wrote in message 
news:7KpTe.7087$Y06.3557@newsfe2-win.ntli.net...

>
> Hello there,
>
> Can anyone help us?
>
> A few days ago our immersion heater stopped working. We have no idea why.
>
> No problem we thought. We will pop the central heating on and then get our 
> hot water that way.
>
> The radiators came on and the house got very warm but still not hot water.
>
> Six hours of Googling later we now know we have a vented indirect hot 
> water cylinder (and not much else).
>
> There is a hot pipe leading to the top of the cylinder. This heats up when 
> the central heating is on.
>
> Other than that we are baffled.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks in advance - April
>
>
> Im not a plumber either but have you checked that there is a coil from 
> your heating system in your hot water tank.You should see pipes going in 
> and out of the tank separate to the hot water system of the house.
>
>
> 

April

In my (limited) experience, the motorised valves can be opened manually. If 
you open the valve and your water starts to heat up, then that will help 
with the final answer

I had the same problem, and it was the motor on my valve that had gone. I 
bought a new one from B&Q (about 18, 3 years ago) and fitted it myself. Not 
too bad a job.

Neil


 wrote in message 
news:1126117703.352845.68360@g47g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...

> Whenever we lose heating or water or both together, its normally down
> to the electrical side of the installation - specifically the motorised
> valves.
>
> In our system, one boiler heats both hot water and the radiators.
>
> To make them independant (so that the heating comes on when we need it
> and the water comes on when we need the water heated and not
> necessarily at the same time) the controller (the beige box that allows
> us to specify what time things come on and off - ours is a Honeywell I
> believe) controls two electrical valves.
>
> These are plumbed into the system pipework but the electrical motors
> that operate the valves are external.
>
> They are easy to replace for anyone confident with electrical work
> (someone who would know how to install a plug socket for example).
>
> It could be that one of these motors is shot - maybe it happened at the
> same time that the emersion went pop.
>
> Trace the wiring from the control box, this will go to two
> tin/aliminium coloured boxes about 2 inches square on different legs of
> the pipework - mine is near to the system pump (a large red block with
> an arrow on the front indicating direction of the pump action).
>
> You should be able to detect a noise as the working one shuts off and
> on if your listen carefully.
>
> I am not a plumber so this is not professional advice !
>
> I am lucky that all my pipework is easy to get to.
>
> I hope that helps.
>
> jON
>
> April Woods wrote:
>> Hello there,
>>
>> Can anyone help us?
>>
>> A few days ago our immersion heater stopped working. We have no idea why.
>>
>> No problem we thought. We will pop the central heating on and then get 
>> our
>> hot water that way.
>>
>> The radiators came on and the house got very warm but still not hot 
>> water.
>>
>> Six hours of Googling later we now know we have a vented indirect hot 
>> water
>> cylinder (and not much else).
>>
>> There is a hot pipe leading to the top of the cylinder. This heats up 
>> when
>> the central heating is on.
>>
>> Other than that we are baffled.
>>
>> Any ideas?
>>
>> Thanks in advance - April
> 

"April Woods"  wrote in message 
news:7KpTe.7087$Y06.3557@newsfe2-win.ntli.net...

>
> Hello there,
>
> Can anyone help us?
>
> A few days ago our immersion heater stopped working. We have no idea why.
>
> No problem we thought. We will pop the central heating on and then get our 
> hot water that way.
>
> The radiators came on and the house got very warm but still not hot water.
>
> Six hours of Googling later we now know we have a vented indirect hot 
> water cylinder (and not much else).
>
> There is a hot pipe leading to the top of the cylinder. This heats up when 
> the central heating is on.
>
> Other than that we are baffled.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks in advance - April



http://www.diyfaq.org.uk/plumbing/plumbingpage1.html

HTH

Adam