According to BusinesStat estimates, about 22 million domestic water heaters are currently in use in Russia, and by 2014 their number will approach 25 million. That's a lot, isn't it? Many of these water heaters have been serving for more than a year, and sooner or later the owners will face the issue of repair. What, then, to do? Call the technician from the service center? Perhaps this is the easiest and most expensive way.
You can go the other way, i.e. repair the water heater with your own hands. How can this be done? Not so difficult as it seems at first glance, carefully read the purpose of the main elements, arm yourself with the necessary tools and, following the recommendations from the article, proceed with the repair.
Construction and main elements of water heaters
Let's look at the main elements of electric water heaters, both storage and flow type. Let's make a reservation right away that we will not repair the gas water heater - the cost of an error can be very high. Therefore, it is better to entrust the repair of gas water heaters to authorized service centers.
So, if we are to, for example, repair a storage-type Ariston water heater, we need to know its main components. The picture above will help us with this, on it all the elements are indicated and named. To repair the Termeks water heater with our own hands, we will take a closer look at their purpose in the boiler:
- A thermostat or sensor that indicates to us the temperature of the water in the tank, it serves more for the convenience of using the unit, because using the arrow it is always easy to determine how much hot water we have. It can be made in the form of a scale with an arrow, and in the form of a digital indicator. There is no difference, it's not for everybody. If this part fails, the boiler will still function as before. Unless we can determine the temperature of the water.
- Thermal insulation, its purpose can be seen already by the name - it keeps the temperature of the heated water. It cannot fail, therefore we will not focus on it.
- Hot water outlet. There are no problems with it, even if the water heater is not serviced, it is unlikely that it gets clogged. Its top fence edge is high enough.
- The outer shell is either plastic or metal. The body can also combine elements of both types in its design. The body can only be rendered unusable either intentionally or by dropping the boiler.
- Internal tank made of stainless steel. Its thickness is 1 - 2 mm, i.e. thin enough. The main cause of failure is electrical corrosion. If the tank is of high quality, maintenance with the replacement of the magnesium anode is regular, then, as a rule, it lasts a long time and does not cause any complaints.
- The heating element is a heating element, the rate of heating the water in the tank will depend on its power. Due to a number of reasons (constant work, electrocorrosion), this element fails the fastest and requires repair of water heaters.
- Magnesium anode, located next to the heating element. The main function is to protect the tank and heating element from corrosion. Its periodic replacement is required, if it is carried out regularly, your boiler will last much longer.
- The cold water supply pipe, everything is clear here too, does not cause problems.
- The thermostat allows you to automate water heating. There are three types of thermostats that are used in domestic water heaters, they are rod, capillary and electronic. Their principle of operation, despite the different design, is the same. The thermal sensor reacts to the water temperature and turns on / off the thermal relay, which, with its contacts, closes or opens the heating element power circuit. The user carries out the temperature regime manually, using a handle or a button. Usually, two thermostats are used, one regulates the heating of water, the second controls the operability of the first thermostat. In more expensive water heaters, three thermostats are used, the third controls the health of the heating element. In the event of a malfunction, this element changes completely.
- Insulating gaskets are not indicated in the figure, but, nevertheless, they are a very important part of the design. They have two functions: sealing and electrical protection. It is located at the junction of the storage tank with the flange on which the heating elements and the anode are located. For trouble-free operation, the boiler must be replaced with a new one at every maintenance or repair of the water heater.
In addition to the above, some water heaters are equipped with electronic monitoring and control circuits. In the event of a failure, the boiler will not work, but at least basic knowledge of electronics is already needed to repair it. If they are, then in most cases, you can repair the Ariston water heater with your own hands. The description of the operation of the electronic circuit and the methods of repair is not included in the plans of this article, perhaps in the near future we will consider this too.
Schematic diagram of switching on a "conventional" boiler
If the problem is in the electronic board, it can be circumvented and the boiler will work. As you can see from the schematic, the board is connected in parallel with the heating element power circuit. If you want and have basic concepts in electrical engineering, you can turn it off and connect the circuit as in conventional water heaters. But if you do not have such skills or you doubt the success of your plans, you should not start experimenting.
The circuit for switching on a boiler with an electrical board is indicated by number 6.
Other designations: 1 - control thermostat; 2 - control thermostat; 3 - indicator of turning on the heating element, a light that glows when water heating is turned on; 4 - heating element; 5 - grounding.
The device of instantaneous water heaters is practically identical to that described above. The main difference is the absence of a storage tank and more powerful heating elements. Therefore, we will not consider the units of an instantaneous water heater and will not repeat ourselves.
Repair of heating elements
Heating element for repair of water heaters Real
The water heater is included in the network, but the indicator lamp for the heating element does not shine and the water does not heat up? Then the procedure for determining the malfunction is as follows:
- We take a combined measuring device (tester), set it on the voltage measuring scale of 220-250V and make measurements at the terminals of the cable and thermostat connection, if the voltage is normal, we measure the potential directly at the heating element terminals. If the voltage at the terminals of the heating element is normal, most likely the heating element itself is out of order.
- We disconnect our water heater from the electrical network and put the tester on the resistance measurement scale (Ohm), disconnect our heating element from the thermostat (in most models, a rather simple procedure - we remove the terminals with wires so that the ends of the heating element are "bare"). We measure the resistance at the contacts of the heating element, while accuracy is not important to us, this is not a motor winding. If the element is working properly, the device will show us a certain amount of resistance, if there is no indication, we remove the heating element and go to the store for a new one, it cannot be repaired. You can find out in more detail how to replace the heating element in a water heater from the article on our website.
This procedure for determining a malfunction of a heating element is identical for all types of water heaters, both instantaneous and storage.
Faulty thermostat and thermostat
Signs of a malfunction of the thermostat and thermostat are the absence of the heating element turning on in the presence of voltage, as well as if the control thermostat is triggered. To check the operation of the thermostat, we will have to remove it, how - you can find out from the article, which describes the procedure for installing and repairing water heaters, it is on the website.
So, the thermostat was removed. We take the device, put it on the measurement of resistance (Ohm). Set the position of the adjusting knob to Max and measure it on the thermostat contacts (input / output). If our tester does not respond, the element is defective, it cannot be repaired. It will be necessary to purchase and install its analogue.
If the control thermostat is triggered, then the procedure for determining the malfunction is as follows. We put the removed thermostat in the Min position and fix the measuring probes of the device on the contacts, if you are not alone - let someone hold it. Take a lighter and heat the thermostat flask / rod. If it is working properly, the picture will be as follows: the thermal relay is triggered and opens the circuit, the resistance on the contacts should tend to infinity, i.e. such as if the test leads of the device are spread apart. If this does not happen - the thermal relay is scrapped, we go to get a new one, because this item cannot be repaired.
Other types of malfunctions of electric water heaters
The most common malfunction, in addition to the electrical components of the boiler, is a leak. There may be two reasons:
- tank leak;
- leak from under the flange, which secures the heating element.
The reasons that caused the tank to leak can be: lack of grounding (which accelerated electrical corrosion), lack of proper maintenance, natural wear and tear.
It is not possible to repair the tank for the following reasons:
- the outer casing and the tank are practically inseparable, dismantling, so that it is almost impossible not to damage the shell;
- the inner tank is usually made of stainless steel with a thickness of 1 - 2 mm or in more expensive models made of copper, in rare cases it is made of plastic. There is very little you can do with the latter. You can still tinker with a copper tank and try to solder it, but, as a rule, such tanks are very durable due to their increased resistance to corrosion. Welding such a thin stainless steel at home is not realistic, so you should not waste time and effort.
- to everything else, the modern coating of tanks in storage water heaters is glass enamel, which is damaged during welding. It is not realistic to restore it at home, which means that the leak is inevitable in the near future.
The only way out of this situation is to replace the internal tank with a new one if your model allows such a replacement and, moreover, if you find an analogue. But it will be easier to buy a new water heater.
If a leak is detected from under the flange, then there are no particular difficulties for repairing the Termeks water heater, or any other. It is enough to drain the water from the water heater, remove the gasket and visually determine its wear or damage. We take it with us and go shopping in search of a similar one. Changing and using the boiler further. By the way, Onyx offers pipeline parts, including steel flanges, at reasonable prices.
These are the main malfunctions of electric water heaters. As you can see, flowing ones will have less of them, but it also costs more.