Immersion switch on Oceanis 311

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hoped4

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Immersion switch on Oceanis 311

We recently bought a 7 year old Oceanis 311. Whilst we can get hot water after using the engine we cannot find the switch to turn the immersion heater on to get it from shore power. The sales literature showed that there is this option, and the hot water tank in the cockpit locker has a 220v cable ruinning from it. Can anyine advise where the switch might be?
 
Re: Immersion switch on Oceanis 311

Can you not just follow the cable back from the immersion and see where it goes? Appreciate might have to rummage in a few lockers/remove a bit of trim but..... should find it eventually?
 
Re: Immersion switch on Oceanis 311

I agree with chasroberts; trace the cable back. Remove the shore power cable first, just in case you come upon a bare connection somewhere. Make sure first that the calorifier actually has an immersion heater fitted in to it, and that the thermostat is set to a suitable temperature (70C is normal). I cannot help with your boat's wiring layout, but on my Jeanneau the shore power is first fed to a distribution panel with the RCD, a voltmeter and switches for the battery charger, immersion heater, and mains sockets. This is located above the chart table, which is a common arrangement. If your boat does not have an immersion switch then the only course is to trace the cable. It is just possible that your immersion is always "on" when shore power is connected (i.e. no separate switch, but switched with the same switch that isolates all mains equipment) and relys on the thermostat to turn it off, and possibly a thermal cut out to save it if the water is drained. IMHO that would be a bad arrangement, but it might be worth checking to see if a thermal cut out is fitted to the immersion heater, and the button has popped up.
 
Re: Immersion switch on Oceanis 311

Phone your local Beneteau dealers, and ask for the Commissioning bloke. He will know instantly.
I use the guy who does Jeanneaus in our area, and he knows a lot about his products!
 
Re: Immersion switch on Oceanis 311

The only 311 I know has the inmersion heater wired into a circuit breaker on a Mains Control and SM Battery Charger unit mounted on the forward bulkhead of the cockpit locker. It is the outboard of three breakers on the unit. The breaker nearest the cockpit (most inboard one) is the main breaker, and also seems to be an RCD. It and the most outboard breaker should be in the up position.

If with both up the heater still does not heat water, it could be:
- There is no water supply to the heater.
- The heating element is fried.
- The wiring is somewhere disconnected or wrongly connected.

Check that, with mains cable plugged in, you have volts on the input side of the RCD, then on output side, then on output of the inmersion breaker, etc. But do be careful -- it is all 230V -- a short-circuit by careless handling of the voltmeter probes is only too possible. If you are not sure you can do these tests safely, get a qualified electrian to do them.
 
Re: Immersion switch on Oceanis 311

The Beneteau After Sales telephone number is 02380450010
 
Re: Immersion switch on Oceanis 311

Thank you for your suggestions. Guided by these I have got down deeper into the cockpit locker and located a trip switch on the unit which must have been activated when at some time in the past the tank was emptied. So I have sorted out the reason it was not working. Ill now try to find out about an on off switch or if it is on all the time. Thanks again !
 
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