Water supply interrupted & now immersion switch not working?

G

gianni

Registered User
Messages
691
Hi all,

as the thread title suggests I have a problem with my immersion switch. The on / off switch is suddenly not working. By not working, I mean that it can't be put into the on position - it will only go about half way before meeting some resistance and reverting to the 'off' position. The Bath / Sink part of the switch is working as per usual.

There was an interruption of the water supply to the house for the guts of a day and I'm wondering if this would have caused the problem ? Is it possible that the immersion switch can't be switched on if the cylinder is virtually empty ?? If so, is it just a case of waiting for tanks & cylinders to refill ?

The house is relatively new and the immersion is only used moderately, probably only every 2nd day for about 20 mins a go, so I don't think it's an excessive use problem... as always any advice given will be greatly appreciated
 
gianni said:
There was an interruption of the water supply to the house for the guts of a day and I'm wondering if this would have caused the problem ?
Click to expand...
Very much doubt it.

Perhaps the spring mechanism in the switch is broken and it's just a coincidence that this happened when the water was off? Either isolate it from the mains and investigate for yourself or get an electrician on the job.
 
gianni said:
Hi all,

If so, is it just a case of waiting for tanks & cylinders to refill ?
Click to expand...


The cylinder will not empty when you have a mains water shut off. Clubman is right. Very unlikely the two events are connected - unless you hit the switch in a rage at having no water.
 
dmkelly said:
The cylinder will not empty when you have a mains water shut off. Clubman is right. Very unlikely the two events are connected - unless you hit the switch in a rage at having no water.
Click to expand...

I guess it's just a coincidence then. No rage/heavy handedness was involved ! Unless Mrs G had a go at it...

I'll have a look at the switch later this eve...

Thanks all for your input
 
Don't know if this is relevant but when my water goes my pump shuts off (dry-run protection!) to reset I have to turn off the electricity for 10 seconds. I don't need to turn off all the electricity just the fuse that controls the pump.

Worth a shot maybe?
 
Any signs of faint brown staining on the switch. Immersion switches carry a lot of current and I've had to replace mine twice due to switch overheating and jamming. Must buy the highest quality switch and avoid cheap versions. Some builders put in the cheapest.
 
Thanks for the advice cian8 & Gulliver - will bear it in mind this evening when investigating!
 
I bought a new switch and tried to wire it in... I presumed that I could replicate the wiring that was on the dud switch but when I took off said switch the set up was slightly different between old and new...

The Old switch's 5 connections were labelled:
N Supply/L Supply/Bath/Sink/Output

and wired as follows....

"N Supply" - Blue wire from mains cable
"L Supply" - Brown wire from mains cable

"Bath" - Black wire from cable to immersion
"Sink" - Brown wire from cable to immersion
"Output" - Blue wire from cable to immersion

The Earth's from both cables are wired to the box...

The New switch's 5 connections, much to my disappointment, is this format.

and labelled as:
L1/N1/1W/2W/L2

I wired it in a similar fashion to the photo

"L1" - Brown from mains cable
"N1" - Blue from mains cable

"1W" - Brown from immersion cable ("Sink" in old set-up)
"2W" - Black from immersion cable ("Bath" in old set-up)
"L2" - Blue from immersion cable ("Output" in old set-up)

I thought this would have done the trick but, alas, no. No sign of life from the immersion... has anyone successfully done this before ? If so, I'm all ears!

Many thanks.
 
If your new switch is like the one in the photo, there is a red wire linking the two switches. Have you got that in?
Your description of the connections looks correct.
 
Hoagy said:
If your new switch is like the one in the photo, there is a red wire linking the two switches. Have you got that in?
Your description of the connections looks correct.
Click to expand...

The red wire was pre-installed in the switch and is connected as per the photo. I guess the fault must be somewhere else...

Thanks for the feedback Hoagy
 
Is there a light on the switch. Does this come on when you flick the switch.
If the light comes on , you have power to the switch and that always helps.
Can you check the fuse box. I assume you turned off the power before doing any of this work. But is there a trip switch down or a fuse blown.

Apart from that it seems that everything should be okay from what you described.
 

Unfortunately the switch doesn't have a light.

Power was turned off during the work but there is no evidence of a trip switch down or a fuse blown..

Might go out and get a switch with a light and eliminate that problem.
Thanks beldin.
 
gianni said:
Thanks bledin.
Click to expand...

Language, please.

Before you buy another switch, would you not get yourself a phase tester and try and isolate the problem, ie. is there power to the switch on the incoming brown wire, is there power going out on either of the two brown and black switchwires, and lastly is the the blue neutral wire ok (no light)
 
Just in case anyone else ever has this problem, this is how I fixed it:

--------------------------------------------
Using the switch from the picture in one of my earlier posts - which is configured as below

1W COMM1
2W COMM2

N1 N2
L1 L2
------------------------------------------


Mains in:

Earth - to earth on the switch
Blue - to N1
Brown - to L1

then moved the red comm wire to L2 (it's in N2 in the photo)

Feed to immersion:

Earth - to earth on the switch
Black - to 1W
Brown - to 2W
Blue - to N1

-g
 
Last edited:
ClubMan said:
So - what was the problem and it is fixed now?
Click to expand...

This was the problem

and this was how I fixed it:

 
You mean that the heating element was at fault and once you figured out how to properly wire a new one you were back in action? It's just not clear from the earlier posts.
 
ClubMan said:
You mean that the heating element was at fault and once you figured out how to properly wire a new one you were back in action? It's just not clear from the earlier posts.
Click to expand...


My apologies, just to clarify...

The original problem, in the first post of the thread, was the switch mechanism breaking.

I replaced it with a new switch unit but it was a different type of unit so I now had a new problem of how to wire it properly.

My first attempt at doing so was incorrect - (first block of text quoted) - leading me to think that the problem was with something else.

Had a think about it... and had a second attempt at wiring it. This time it was correct. (second block of text quoted)

Everything is now fully functioning.


I just wanted to post the correct wiring scenario so that others who find themselves in similar situations can use it as a guideline. However I am by no means a DIY expert and don't know if my solution is a universal one. All I do know is that it worked for me.
 
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