Mad Modding on your toes.

[Stot]

This one I think propertly comes under the title of Mad Mod.




So the situation is its 28 degrees here in London and the heater in our jacuzzi is playing up.    So here I am looking on ebay for a new heater.  They are basically 2-3Kw submersible heating elements.     I know where else I can find one of them!

Found an old kettle in the shed and removed the element, 2.2Kw Perfik.  Cut an appropriate hole in the bottom of an old saucepan and mounted the element in it.    I had to pinch off the steam valve that nomally turns off the kettle when its boiling but I didnt think that would be an issue with 3000liters of water.  

Floated the pan to make sure it was water tight for 15 mins and all was good.    We dont want any  



I tied it off to one corner in front of some jets and plugged it in via a trip switch extension.  Took the jacuzzi up from 25 degrees to 33 in about 2 and a half hours.  

Turned it off and took it out before we got in of course, but a good temporary fix in a pinch.  

Cheers
Stot

Disclaimer: I did this at my own risk and took necessary precautions.  I take no responsibility for any one else trying this or anything else I post up!  You do so at your OWN RISK.

[raynerd]

Nice madmod but that has  written all over it! Certainly not for the clumsy, i.e me but very clever fix.

[Stot]

Yeah I agree,  the lip of the pan is a good 4" above the waterline when its floating though so as long as it didnt leak from the seal it would be ok and the electrical connectors are kept well clear of the water.  Plus I put it through a protected extension just in case. 

Cheers
Stot

[Divided he ad]

Stot,

I'm not sure if your barmy or brilliant? 


Well it works and your taking all the precautions (protected extension, on your toes ready to leg it  ) I love the disclaimer too 


I think it does and will probably work really well for quite some time. Why not? It's the same kind of thing you buy anyway! well, maybe not in a steel container?

Here's hoping the bit of kettle does not turn the pot black    (did you see what I did there???? Genius ehh!?!      already got me coat    )





Ralph.

[Stot]

I'm not sure if your barmy or brilliant? 

You pays yer money, you make your choice. 

well, maybe not in a steel container?

oh contrare Rodney, oh contrare.



It was one of them kettles, so all ive done is turn a kettle inside out.    ;)

Cheers
Stot.

[Bernd]

Interesting thing about water heaters. I have electrical instant on electrical water heaters for my house. The water is run right through the electrical element to heat the water. Now I believe the electrical hot water tanks, the elements are also surrounded by water. Remember you need to be grounded to get electricuted.

Almost the same thing as a bird sitting on an electrical wire of several hunderd or thousand volts. He dosen't get electricuted because the bird is not grounded. Now touch him with a ground wire and you'd have instand cooked bird, defeathered too, I would assume.


Bernd

[Dean W]

Bernd, water can surround the elements because they are not actually the electrical conductor.  What we look at as electrical elements are tubes, and inside the tube is a wire surrounded by a medium, kind of like a of clay or some sort of granular insulator.  Similar to the elements on a hot plate.  They have no current at the surface.  The wire inside heats it from the inside out, and is only conductive at the two ends that plug in.  Pretty smart, the guy who thought that one up.

Dean

[Bernd]

Have to disagree with you on this one Dean. The elements of my instant water heater are nicrome wire I believe and the water surrounds them. No clay or anything between the water and the element.

So as the saying goes  Here are some pics of my water heater.

Here's what the whole unit looks like. Two elements for heating the water as it flows through the plastic tubes, plus the assorted electronics to make sure the water is at the right temp.



Here's an end view looking down one of the heating tubes (with out the element).



Here are two elements. The one on the left is the old style with a crimp connection. They kept breaking there. The one on the right is the newer style with a screw holding the lelement.



This shows how they are installed. Simply slide them in and fasten the two screws on top.



A bit of a better view showing how they fit.



Upside down, but shows the water connection. Plus shows the tubes were the elements are in plus the water tubes on both side. There are internal holes where the water flows through. Third picture you can see a little white spot in the tube without an element, on the right side of the tube.



And here are the specs of the heater.



So, water can flow over a wire with electric in it. As long as you don't complete the circuit to ground you won't get electicuted. Next time you see a lineman work on a high voltage power line, notice the the bucket he is in is a fiberglass bucket and not sheet metal or aluminum.

Bernd

[Dean W]

Have to disagree with you on this one Dean. The elements of my instant water heater are nicrome wire I believe and the water surrounds them. No clay or anything between the water and the element.

Perfectly good reason to disagree, too, Bernd.  We're talking about different types of heaters, so we can both be correct.  In my previous post, I was referring to the kind of element that Stot shows in his teapot, which is similar to one in a tank type water heater.

Now I believe the electrical hot water tanks, the elements are also surrounded by water. Remember you need to be grounded to get electricuted.
Bernd

In the kind used in a tank or that teapot, there is no current at the surface of the element.  It's made differently than your tankless heater.  I took one apart years ago because I couldn't figure how it could work.  If you put an ohm meter on the two terminals it shows a closed circuit, but if you put the meter on a terminal, and on the outside of the element right next to it, it shows infinite ohms.  An open circuit.  So I pulled one of the terminals out, and out came a zig-zag piece of thin wire with the clay type stuff.

I didn't take any pictures of the one I pulled apart, but found a shot of a burned out one on the interwebs.  You can see the outside tube, which is insulated by the white stuff inside it.  About the middle of the picture, you can see the coil of wire that goes through the middle of the insulator from one terminal to the other. 

Dean

Photo credit to Country Town Maintenance.

[Bernd]

Looks like we've solved another one of those lifes mysteries. 

Nice to know that we are both right. Let's see two rights equals a left, right? 

On to new subjects then.

Bernd

[Brass_Machine]

...
Nice to know that we are both right. Let's see two rights equals a left, right? 
...

Only in New Jersey does 3 rights equal a left 

For those don't know, google New Jersey jug handle

Eric

[75Plus]

This discussion reminds of the electric water heaters that were around back in the 30's and 40's. They consisted of a ni-chrome coil mounted inside a perforated metal enclosure.  You dropped the heater into the container of water and plugged it in, usually in the socket that the one light in the room was screwed into. The container was most often a #2 or #3 wash galvanized wash tub. This was the standard way of heating bath water for those who had electricity. (we didn't) Looking back I am surprised any of us survived the 20th century!!

Joe

[Bernd]

...
Nice to know that we are both right. Let's see two rights equals a left, right? 
...

Only in New Jersey does 3 rights equal a left 

For those don't know, google New Jersey jug handle

Eric

I've driven in New Jersey and got lost many a times because of such turns. I'm staying out of the state.   

Bernd

[swhite]

Nice feature about your heater is the ability to make pop corn in it while the water is getting hot..