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Dustydazzler

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got a phone call from my brother at about 1.30pm to say his immersion timer had caught fire and completely melted.
I thought he was exaggerating so popped round to take a look.
And yep it had completely melted into a big ball of moulded black sticky plastic...:eek:
This timer was fitted when he had a new immersion fitted about 2 years ago (all electric flat).
I have replaced plenty timers that have given up the ghost , but never seen one completely melt like this.
Thought ....?
 
Loose connection or poor quality/worn contacts, it doesn't take long for a continual 13a current to build up a lot of heat. Any idea what make the timer was?

L
Any pics?

Unfortunately not , as we were both in a hurry to go places so I just cut off the melted timer and connected the immersion directly to the isolation switch
 
Loose connection or poor quality/worn contacts, it doesn't take long for a continual 13a current to build up a lot of heat. Any idea what make the timer was?

It was a LAP model timer

It was installed by the plumber and had worked for about 2 years without issue

Then just caught fire and melted today
 
Who or what to put your money on?

Plumber fiddling with electrics. Did he tighten up the terminals with the end of a spoon?

or

Cheap materials - LAP. Possibly the biggest load of sh*te ever made.

Impossible to check terminations as the whole thing was a melted big ball of black plastic

I just cut the abomination off and threw in the bin
 
LAP, possibly plumber.

Timeguard are quite good, but in one place with quite a dark cupboard, there was an alarming spark from the switch when turning it on.

PS, its quite quiet on here today, not stirring things @Dustydazzler against plumbers, juts to gets some posts :D
 
Nope

I don’t mind plumbers to be fair

Apart from the dipstick who I paid to fix a leak in my bathroom that still leaked after he supposedly fixed it

He took my money and refuses to come back meaning I had to get another guy in
 
Who or what to put your money on?

Plumber fiddling with electrics. Did he tighten up the terminals with the end of a spoon?

or

Cheap materials - LAP. Possibly the biggest load of sh*te ever made.
Did he tighten up the terminals with the end of a spoon?

How come I'm getting the blame???....
 
Impossible to check terminations as the whole thing was a melted big ball of black plastic

I just cut the abomination off and threw in the bin
Seriously man, first thing you do is take a photo to show the forum, if you’re going to stick around you’ll need to change that mindset - ‘just threw it in the bin’ - tuh, heard it all now!

Can anyone recommend a decent digital timer for immersion heaters ?
Horstmann make a range of good and easy to fit timers, digital as well.
 
I've found that you can't go far wrong with the old school Timeguard mechanical timers with the little silver pins to set on/off times with. [Used to be branded Smiths]. Although I've known the motors refuse to overcome the resistance of an 'on' pin and a number of years use.
 

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