On Monday morning 11th May at 9.00am, Mrs XXXXXX of XXXXXXXX, Taunton called your company and reported that her hot water was not heating, and arranged for one of your engineers to call and deal with the problem.
The engineer arrived at (4.30pm) to investigate. He left at 4.55pm saying a part was needed. He also stated that as he was going on holiday that evening, a colleague would come at 4.30pm the following day (Tuesday 12th May) to replace the faulty part.
At 4.30pm on the Tuesday the other engineer arrived to replace the faulty part. On looking at the hot water tank he grumbled that he had been supplied with the wrong part and would have to travel over town to get a replacement.
As it was late in the afternoon Mrs XXXXXX said it would be OK if he left it until Wednesday. The engineer agreed but pointed out that it would have to be early as he also was off on holiday that day.
On Wednesday 13th May the engineer returned arriving at 7.50am. He spent a few minutes working on the hot water tank and inspecting the timer and then told Mrs XXXXXX that he had done all he could to try and rectify the problem, but she now needed a plumber. He then proceeded to pack his tools to leave.
Mrs XXXXXX had to ask why a plumber was needed, so the engineer then offered to leave her a note which simply read;
"IMMERSION HEATER – element does not work. Needs changing with new Stat + Timer.”
Mrs XXXXXX said she did not know of any Plumbers so the engineer added the name and telephone number of a plumber to the note.
The engineer left at 8.00am, presumably in a hurry to get off on holiday.
Mrs XXXXXX called me (I am her son) later that morning and explained what had happened.
I was confused as to why after diagnosis and replacement of a part the hot water was still not working.
I rang your offices and explained to the receptionist that I would like more information about the visits. She put me through to a manager who she stated was 'more technical' than her.
This gentleman explained to me that the engineer had called and diagnosed a faulty immersion thermostat, but when the second engineer called and fitted the thermostat he found that the element was also faulty when power was applied to it, and that this had resulted is blowing the replaced thermostat.
There was no mention of the timer.
I asked why only the thermostat had been replaced when in my experience most immersion faults result in a complete immersion replacement rather than just a thermostat replacement. The answer was that the engineers are 'not trained to drain hot water tanks' and a calling a plumber is normally suggested to the customer when this is required.
That afternoon I visited Mrs XXXXXX flat to investigate further.
On inspection the first thing I discovered was that the Horstmann Controller was completely blown on both the off-peak and boost circuits (which I would imagine was the result in the surge of current after fitting a new thermostat to a faulty immersion element).
I also noticed that neither of the immersions on the tank had been replaced since the tank was installed, which was over 20 years ago – both immersions were visibly very old.
I drained the tank and removed the bottom immersion to find that it had 'exploded' i.e. the copper tube was split for about an inch exposing the inner element. (see attached photo).
At this point I decided to replace the immersion and timer as it was late on a Friday afternoon and Mrs XXXXXX (age 87yrs) had now been without hot water for a full week and was getting desperate.
This episode has given rise to various questions;
- What tests did the first engineer conduct and what results did he find to conclude that it was the immersion thermostat, and only the thermostat, that was faulty. (e.g. continuity test, earth leakage test, etc)
- How did it transpire that, on his first visit on Tuesday, the second engineer arrived with the wrong part?
- Why did the second engineer rely totally on his colleagues diagnosis and not, either on his first or second visit, re-check the other parts (e.g. the element), before fitting the replacement thermostat and reconnecting supply to the system.
One other point worth raising here is that the timer was obviously working before the second engineer fitted the new thermostat, otherwise there would have been no power to surge and damage the replacement thermostat when he turned power back on.