Stainless Boiler - 3kW Immersion elements

[Garth]

John, were the elements you ordered the ones for 'very aggressive water'? I take it this means stainless?

[buzzrtbi]

Just received 2 x 11" 3kw stainless steel elements from BES: £28 including overnight delivery, back nut and a couple of spare washers.

The thermostat is as Andy suggests and is easily ignored.

The only problem I can see so far, is that the "back nut" is actually BES part no. 6912 (Immersion heater ring/flange). It fits, but it doesn't have a hexagonal area to get a grip on - it's totally round.

Steve Flack, it this the part you use and hence why you're suggesting an oil filter chain?

john - can you please let me have the parts list for the kit listed above (including the backnuts etc.). I want to make an order for 2 elements and I dont want to miss anything from the order (due to postage/hassle etc.)

much appreciated

Tim

[johnmac]

John, were the elements you ordered the ones for 'very aggressive water'?

Yes. The label on the box says "Banico HS11 Stainless steel 11" www.banico.co.uk"

can you please let me have the parts list for the kit listed above

PN 16656 11" for very aggressive water (inc.7" thermostat)
£8.22

PN 6912 Immersion heater ring/flange £1.18

If you haven't one, a spanner may be useful:

PN 6914 Cranked Plated Steel £1.08

[edit1now]

The flange thing is supposed to be silver-soldered to a boiler made of copper - the cunning would presumably think up a way of brazing it to the shiny?

[Aleman]

Looking at the stats spec sheet on the Banico website I noticed this

All new heaters produced must have a secondary safety cut-out fitted to prevent the water boiling in the event of thermostat failure. these heaters meet this requirement.

hope this means that they don't have a silly fail safe.

[johnmac]

It looks like 1920's technology to my untrained eye. The thermostat just pulls out of its tube and is shown sitting to the left of the element. If there's anything else, it's totally embedded in the element.

[Graham]

Looking at the stats spec sheet on the Banico website I noticed this

All new heaters produced must have a secondary safety cut-out fitted to prevent the water boiling in the event of thermostat failure. these heaters meet this requirement.

hope this means that they don't have a silly fail safe.

Fraid they do, in some cases. There are some complaints on the Interweb of them typically tripping as low as 65 Degrees C. The rules say that they can not be auto-resettable, so you have to manually reset the things, which often means that people have to dismantle their airing-cupboard to get at the cut out. They are not popular among householders. They must all trip before 95 degrees by law.

In the photo above, it looks as if the safety cut out is built into the thermostat itself. The little black dot next to one of the terminals looks as if it is the reset button.

More modern ones, however, have a separate safety cut-out, as shown in this photograph HERE
(the round thing at the top). It is straightforward to bypass that, probably needs the aid of a soldering iron.

[johnmac]

The little black dot next to one of the terminals looks as if it is the reset button.

It is.

[Chris B]

I did wonder why screwfix no longer listed bog std elements and only had the re-settable ones. It looks like another victory for the safety nazis!

[johnmac]

I think a baby girl was scalded to death as she slept, when a tank of boiling water came through her bedroom ceiling. The Safety Nazi's don't get it wrong every time.

[Garth]

John, our elements seem to be the same brass housing as in Graham's picture, just minus that new round new thermostat thing, although if you look ours do have the mounting for it.

[johnmac]

Yes. Since what we have is going to be cheaper to produce that what's in Graham's picture, I hope that was only an interim solution and that what we have is the modern version.

[buzzrtbi]

Thanks John for the info.

Well thats mine ordered. Shame I didnt need anything else to save the postage.....

[russt1969]

Hi all,
I like the look of these heaters. May give it a go. Being a novice in the world of electrics. Can you wire these up to normal 13 amp plugs or do you have to get a dedicated power supply??

[sparky Paul]

It's not really recommended, ideally they should be on an independant 16A supply. However, they can be used from a 13A socket if care is taken.

3KW 230V immersion heaters will draw about 13A, so you are really on the limit. If you wish to use two together, they must be on separate sockets, and not a double socket as these are not rated to supply two 13A loads together.

Also, it is absolutely essential that you used heat-resistant butyl cable for immersion heaters, not standard PVC 3 core flex. If you need to make any connections on the immersion heater itself, e.g. after removing thermostat and overtemp. trip if fitted, use porcelain or other heat-resistant connectors.