Immersion taking forever!

[Cashbuyer]

Hi All. How long should the 240v immersion take to heat the water in the hot tank? Ours seems to take forever, ie 4-5 hours at least. Is that normal? 20 year old Pedro - could the element be scaled up? Difficult to replace?

 

[joejo]

Mine takes about 30 mins, not a big tank though. Would suggest 4 hours plus indicates scaled up or other problem

 

[blueglass]

definitey should be quicker than that so a problem of some sort indicated. If just scaled up the performance fall off would have been very gradual not sudden. 20 year old element well up for renewal anyway and not expensive. We had a 10 year old one replaced recently which had completely corroded through and tripped out.

 

[MYAG]

If everything else in the system is working as normal then it strongly suggests scaling of the element. Easy to replace, if you do, try to find one with an external manual thermostat dial and set this to under 60. This will help in preventing the element from scaling up in the future.

 

[kashurst]

easy to change and usually quite quick too
try ASAP supplies for the immersion heater and make sure you have an immersion heater spanner too (B & Q do a cheap one)

 

[nedmin]

What wattage is it,some of the marina,s in Holland used to only let you have about 500-600 watts,so heaters used to be about 500 watts which can take a while to reach temperature. Mines 1000 watt and takes about an hour.You can find the wattage stamped on the metal flange.

 

[Cashbuyer]

Thank you guys

I'll take a look at the element. Ta very much

 

[JKay]

http://www.diy.com/diy/jsp/bq/nav.jsp?isSearch=true&fh_search=immersion+heater+elements&x=18&y=16

spanner and element in link above

 

[stefan_r]

4-5 hours at least

Sounds like scale...easy to replace.

If there's scale on the element there may also be scale up the pipes, too, resulting in a lower flow rate from the tank, too.

I have a 500W model to avoid tripping the marina power, heats my 20 litre tank in an hour, maybe two....definitely no longer than that.

As a different idea you could also take a feed off your engine heater circuit and run it through your calorifier to heat the water whilst underway so you can have a shower when you come in after a run.

 

[mainshiptom]

before changing an element!

Just check for an airlock?

The element could get hot but no water around it?

Just a thought, happened to me once..


Tom