Air valve leak and general operating question

Mike,

I have an electramate 2000 which is approximately 2 years old. The automatic air valve was leaking from the cap, and upon inspection the gasket between the cap and the brass casing had perished. An engineer appointed by the developer replaced this with an o ring, which resolved the leak. Opon closer inspection, the thread in the cap had split, and the leak resumed due to the lack of a good seal.

I was supplied with a replacement cap, of a different design with no apparent provision for an o ring and which has a vent hole in the top. Obviously, due to the vent hole, the new cap does not prevent the leak. The original cap was smaller and with the o ring created a complete seal.

I look forward to recieving any advice you may be able to provide.

Additionally, I note that you state on your website

"If during the day the core temperature falls below 55 degrees C, the board turns the heat on again and warms it to about 60 degrees using day-rate electricity, to avoid the user losing heating and hot water services completely"

My electricity tariff is the off peak 7 hour tarif (although I actually get 11.00pm until 7.30 am) and I have noticed that if I run a bath in the morning after 7.30, there is often insufficient heat to provide hot water and heating for any length of time later in the day.

Could this be becasue the board is not turning on the heat, or simply that having turned on the heat, it takes some time to reheat the water to 60 degrees?

Many thanks

Scott

Hi Scott,

On the first question, the auto air vent should not be leaking in the first place. It needs dismantling and cleaning or better, just replacing. They are 'Flamco' brand and cost about £15. If you get a new one it will come with a new manual-closing cap too. Auto air vents are very unreliable and the manual cap is there so you can seal it off if/when it starts leaking - so needs to be in working order!

Second question: If the heat eventually comes back this sounds to me as though one of the two heater elements has failed causing it to take a long time to re-heat. If it doesn't heat up again until the next Off Peak period, that sounds like a control board fault to me.

Cheers, Mike

Scott wrote:Mike,

I have an electramate 2000 which is approximately 2 years old. The automatic air valve was leaking from the cap, and upon inspection the gasket between the cap and the brass casing had perished. An engineer appointed by the developer replaced this with an o ring, which resolved the leak. Opon closer inspection, the thread in the cap had split, and the leak resumed due to the lack of a good seal.

I was supplied with a replacement cap, of a different design with no apparent provision for an o ring and which has a vent hole in the top. Obviously, due to the vent hole, the new cap does not prevent the leak. The original cap was smaller and with the o ring created a complete seal.

I look forward to recieving any advice you may be able to provide.

Additionally, I note that you state on your website

"If during the day the core temperature falls below 55 degrees C, the board turns the heat on again and warms it to about 60 degrees using day-rate electricity, to avoid the user losing heating and hot water services completely"

My electricity tariff is the off peak 7 hour tarif (although I actually get 11.00pm until 7.30 am) and I have noticed that if I run a bath in the morning after 7.30, there is often insufficient heat to provide hot water and heating for any length of time later in the day.

Could this be becasue the board is not turning on the heat, or simply that having turned on the heat, it takes some time to reheat the water to 60 degrees?

Many thanks

Scott