Urgent. Immersion heater problem

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1

Kind of need an electrician here.

This morning. No hot water. Immersion controlled by a WiFi tuya 20a switch running on the smartlife app. Set to run at 6am for 45 minutes.

Test switch on the app. It's up and running fine, it triggers the warning lamp fine but no power to immersion. The switch in smartlife is reachable, switches on and off in the app. Is acting completely normally.

Pull the switch and the load +ve contact has unsoldered itself and partially fried the case. It's slightly melted the relay casing (from the heat, not from the inside out (not a relay failure).

I looks like the load +ve and the load neutral wire were touching (insulated) downstream of the switch. Would this cause a induced current short that would cause the issue I see?

I'm not exactly happy this doesn't have an earth on the switch but the earth is connected through snap style connectors and is secure.

Its been working perfectly for almost a year without missing a beat. I just want to be sure its not the switch. I have a zigbee replacement to slot in (or have slotted in) but I just want a second opinion before my dad's pet electrician turns up and starts whining like an Austin gearbox about how manual switches were good enough for Edison so their good enough for me...

In my case automation isn't a fun project, I've limited mobility already and its only going to get worse - Fibromyalgia among other things..

Rosie

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Heat in a circuit like that will generally indicate a loose/bad connection. When you have high current and some resistance, and it doesn't take much resistance,, you get heat.

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Having looked it over I know what happened. Wiring was bodged before I fitted the switch, someone knocked it yesterday and that was enough to melt the contact when it fired up this morning. I think you're right that it was knocked just enough to be loose and cause the heating issue.

Of course my dad's pet electrician who caused the issue by bodging the immersion heater and hot water pump wiring in the first place is claiming zero responsibility. I absolutely loathe people like that..

Luckily I have a replacement switch (the zigbee version) but too ill at the moment to do it myself so will have to get someone else to do it.. Before monday :face_with_symbols_over_mouth:. Have managed to reroute the cable from the switch to the Immersion so it can't get knocked about, but exhausted myself doing it..

Rosie

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Just yesterday I was reworking something on old wiring in a box where there was just enough wire length to do make the connection.... I DID take the time to sand the copper down to shiny again.

Your comment is a good reminder that "making good connections matters".

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