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In-Sink-Erator resurrection

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awemawson:
When we had the recent water main burst and the ensuing high pressure surge when they fixed it, one of the many things that failed was our 'Magic Tap' at the kitchen sink that delivers boiling water ready for a cup of tea or coffee - a WONDERFUL device  :ddb:

Now the failure timing may have been co-incidental as these work by having a small well insulated tank whose output is always vented to the tap spout, and when you operate the lever cold water enters and displaces the hot. So in theory the tank is never under mains water pressure.

I pulled it apart, found that the tank is two stainless pressings bolted together, with a special odd shaped seal between them retained in a groove. This had failed, and I was able to replace it with one I made up from 'O ring' cord. The repair was a complete success in that the leak was fixed, but in either dismantling or re-assembly the centre of the temperature setting potentiometer disintegrated leaving it fixed at 90 deg C. OK for coffee but very marginal for tea. No markings on the pot and measuring it in circuit was inconclusive  :bang:

No pictures taken at the time as  things were a bit fraught however a few days later one popped up on eBay "Spares or Repairs" and declared leaking and limescaled up - all for £9.99 plus postage. I thought even if it's not repairable it's worth getting to be able to positively identify the value of the pot, or maybe use the pcb.

Well it duly arrived and the following dismantling, repairing and reassembly pictures are all of this second device.

But first, to set the scene, here is the original and it's tap:

awemawson:
It was immediately apparent to me that the faulty In-Sink-erator had been opened up, as normally there is a small rivet holding the two halves of the case together - this had been replaced by a self tapping screw.

awemawson:
Now a quick 'blow test' on this one implied that the main tank was OK but the plastic balance tank on top was leaking at it's seam - but I needed to open up the main tank anyway to de-fur it with citric acid (marvellous stuff!)

awemawson:
Now the furring was not the usual hard scale that I'm used to, but quite soft and could be wiped away. I do wonder if it had been used in a house equipped with a 'magnetic de-scaler' as I understand that these keep the lime stone suspended rather than let it deposit - just a theory - no proof  :scratch:

However with citric acid it came off beautifully, leaving the tank and heating element sparkling  :thumbup:

awemawson:
So next make a new gasket - well I'd done this previously and developed a technique so that presented no real concerns  :thumbup:

The main problem is accurately measuring the O ring cord to have the same length as the original squarish gasket, and keeping it in place as the two flanges were bolted back together.

.... but I had a cunning plan ....  :ddb:

It turns out that cable mounting 'P-Clips' are just the job  :lol:

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