Thank you to all who replied to my question yesterday and today on my immersion heater problem. I would like to take the opportunity to inform you people that all I was asking for help for was because I am a qualified Approved Electrician and not a plumber (everyone to their own trade guys) and have no intentions of attempting to repair or replace the tank myself. I do not want to call a plumber in to tell me it’s a direct or indirect or pressurised system (which I think it is) and get charged £100 for that. I want to purchase the replacement tank and element/s and then call the plumber to remove and refit the new tank all at the same time. Thereby not incurring an extra cost as in most of you said get a specialist in to tell me. The reason I call it an immersion heater is because years ago when you switched on the immersion to have hot water for a bath the switch had a label on it saying Immersion which some of you obviously have never seen before. Is a kettle also an immersion kettle cause it also has an element.
I wrote an additional description of what I found after checking the tank out last night and I apologise for not giving all the info yesterday.
The tank is fed from the main water supply whic is coming down from the top of the apartment block to a tap which closes off the water supply to all taps and immersion. At the top of the tank is an outlet marked hot water outlet (which I know it would be as the hot water rises to the top of the tank). There is an expansion vessel on the top of the tank marked 12 litre, 6 Bar Max and 3% average pressure. Question now, must I also buy a new expansion vessel or will it come with the new tank or should I stipulate that at time of purchase.
The cold water input comes into a pressure relief valve marked 3 Bar and is a sealed unit. From the other side of the pressure relief a pipe Tee’s and one goes to an inlet about 8 inches from the top of the tank and out to an overflow I think it looks like, then it also carries on to an inlet at the bottom of the tank obviously the inlet for the tank. It is marked as a Protea 210 litre capacity. If anyone can picture this and then tell me is it a pressurised system or direct / indirect I will be grateful. I was not being cheeky with my comments at the start of this I was merely stating that should someone ask for electrical assistance I would only treat them as I’d like to be treated myself, not as a complete imbecile, but to offer assistance to whoever, but I’d also expect everyone who are the plumbers amongst you to call for assistance from the appropriate tradesman i.e. Electricians, Joiners, Motor Mechanics etc.