Ideal Classic Sealed System Tripping Electrics

I was called by a customer because his electrics kept tripping off, and he had isolated the problem to be with his central heating system. He suggested that the consumer unit tripped off whenever the heating came on. I decided to test the system to narrow the fault down.

Firstly I switched the boiler off on it's power switch before turning the fused spur back on. The electrics stayed on and so I switched the hot water on. The system has two zone valves and so after a few seconds the valve opened and powered the pump. As soon as the pump started I could hear that it was making an unusual noise but still sounded as if it was working, then after five seconds the power tripped out. I reset everything and decided to try the central heating, and everything tripped out in exactly the same way about five seconds after the zone valve opened.

I removed the casing around the sealed system unit and then altered the position of the pressure vessel to enable access the electric of the pump. After removing the electrics cover form the pump I could see that there was quite a lot condensation within the pump electrics and this was without doubt the cause of the problem. I replace the pump and set the system going again, and all was working correctly.

Disclaimer: The works described in this blog are a record of work undertaken and should not be taken as guaranteed to solve your problem. Work should only be carried out by persons qualified and competent to do so.