Water heater help!

[Lyndsey Brown]

Not sure if posting in the right place - but I'm a newbie and going out of my mind! 5 weeks with no hot water in our rented apartment - finally got a new cylinder fitted today , which was a Tristor Thermal Store. All seems to be linked up fine but still no hot water!

I don't know the first thing about heaters, or any of this - so I don't know if the tank itself is supposed to feel warm to the touch, or if the hot water pipe is supposed to feel hot - as neither do.

It's linked up to the main switches, so it's on a timer, the timer has been running for the last 90 minutes and still no hot water.

Is this normal? Do we need to leave it on for 24 hours etc to heat up - the team who installed left no notes on anything we had to do so I'm at a loss. It's been 5 weeks now and all I want is a hot bath!

Any light anyone could shed I would be eternally grateful!!!

 

[townfanjon]

Hi lyndsey, does the cylinder feel warm even though you have no heat through the hot taps ?.

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

Thanks for the reply - no it feels cold to the touch, our old heater (which was a big box) was always hot , this one is freezing cold no heat at all coming from it.

Do you think maybe we need the heating on, in order to heat the water?

I'm clueless at this stuff! lol

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Thanks for the reply - no it feels cold to the touch, our old heater (which was a big box) was always hot , this one is freezing cold no heat at all coming from it.

Do you think maybe we need the heating on, in order to heat the water?

I'm clueless at this stuff! lol

could you take a pic of the cylinder and worth a try (but should work independently)

 

[townfanjon]

Is the store heated by immersion heaters or your gas boiler ?

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

Its this one -

 

[stani]

Is it on off peak electricity

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

I don't have gas in my apartment - all electric. previous boiler didn't need any electric heating on to work, we just had it on a timer and if we needed more hit boost. it was leaking and tripped electrics hence the new heater - boost button doesnt trip electrics anymore, but no hot water as of yet

 

[lame plumber]

has the installer turned on the mcb on your consumer unit/fuse board

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

we don't seem to have an option to have off peak with this - it's plugged into the wall into a socket and is connected to the thermostat.....if that helps?

no idea, OH is literally spoon feeding this to me

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

has the installer turned on the mcb on your consumer unit/fuse board

I would assume so - but how could I check this?

 

[townfanjon]

If they have used the original programmer that you obviously know how to work , and it is turned on, after 90 mins it should Defiantly be hot. As Stani suggests , if its on off peak elec it will warm up over night. However it has a boost immersion heater (the top one ) that should heat at any time you select it , but they are only a boost , it will not heat the whole cylinder

 

[SimonG]

Might not get anything until cheap rate electricity kicks in tonight. I would expect the boost to work on demand though.

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

I guess we'll have to let it run and check in the AM? Pain in the backside!

Stupid question but does that mean it will only permit hot water when the off peak tarriffs kicks in? That kinda invalidates the timer on my theromstat no?

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

Ok so I knocked our heating on about 20 minutes ago and there seems to now be hot water...... does this mean they are linked or just a massive co-incidence!!!

 

[SimonG]

Should be able to boost, could have wired it wrong?

Do the immersions have their stats set correctly and are you getting power to the heating elements. Only check if you have the testers and feel comfortable to do it tho.

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

I would be less than useless at this - going to leave it to the experts, seeing as it's only newly installed I don't want to risk any damage poking around. To the tank or myself lol!

I've emailed the letting agent to ask what the "rules" are around the new heater - if there is any. Maybe it just needed to "warm up" as it was newly installed.

Either way , yesterday the only water I had access to was freezing cold today its warm so this is progress

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

Update - bloody thing is leaking , which we have only noticed when the water started running towards the front instead of behind! massive amounts of water!!!! I've had to switch off the mains water supply so sitting here with zero water at all!
Not amused one bit!!!!

 

[ShaunCorbs]

Update - bloody thing is leaking , which we have only noticed when the water started running towards the front instead of behind! massive amounts of water!!!! I've had to switch off the mains water supply so sitting here with zero water at all!
Not amused one bit!!!!

wheres it leaking from one of the pipes?

 

[Lyndsey Brown]

It's the hot water pipe that comes from the front of the tank into the wall - it's been connected to another piece of pipe with metal sealant but obviously not well enough as its all over my floor so not my day!

 

[joni os]

Ring your landlord and say property is getting water damaged.

 

[ShaunCorbs]

It's the hot water pipe that comes from the front of the tank into the wall - it's been connected to another piece of pipe with metal sealant but obviously not well enough as its all over my floor ���� so not my day!

there should be a valve by your cylinder so you can turn it off and then you can have your mains water back on

 

[s.hemming]

I would assume so - but how could I check this?

your fuse board hopefully the switch for cylinder will be labeled