Hi everyone
hope someone can help me. anyone know what this timer is for which is connected to the megaflo hot water cylinder I have.
it's been on the middle option for as long as I can remember but curiously I clicked it to the bottom option (off I think).
heating system is connected to nest and I've noticed for some time that even though my hot water was not being heated, I could hear a humming noise from the cylinder, even after the heating of the water was switched off.
my hot water is heated between 3am and 5am every day and this morning, even at 7am I could hear the cylinder making a light humming noise, like it was still heating the water.
I checked nest and the pump connected to the cylinder and it was off. so I decided to take a closer look at the timer and then clicked it down and the humming stopped.
anyone know what the timer is for please?
thank you. There may be follow up questions depending on the answers
hope someone can help me. anyone know what this timer is for which is connected to the megaflo hot water cylinder I have.
it's been on the middle option for as long as I can remember but curiously I clicked it to the bottom option (off I think).
heating system is connected to nest and I've noticed for some time that even though my hot water was not being heated, I could hear a humming noise from the cylinder, even after the heating of the water was switched off.
my hot water is heated between 3am and 5am every day and this morning, even at 7am I could hear the cylinder making a light humming noise, like it was still heating the water.
I checked nest and the pump connected to the cylinder and it was off. so I decided to take a closer look at the timer and then clicked it down and the humming stopped.
anyone know what the timer is for please?
thank you. There may be follow up questions depending on the answers
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26 Comments
sorted bytested and all water flowing fine, as before. Stuck on both showers, plus a tap in the kitchen and water flow was normal.
Usually the timers themselves hum but if you want to know if the immersion heater is working get someone to switch it on while you watch your electricity meter. If it's a smart meter the consumption should show about a 3kw increase with a single immersion heater.
Google "Optimum OP-IHTGPT user instructions" (edited)
I would just turn this pump off and see how things work. The zone valve connected to the pipework should control the tank to heat up. I would really need more details of the whole wiring setup to know how everything works on this setup.
Does that black pump feed into the megaflo's heating coil, or is it connected to its cold water inlet? I'm wondering if it could be to boost the mains water feed pressure although I would have thought it is the wrong sort of pump for that job. Looks like the timer could be set for morning and evening. (edited)
It looks like you are right. It does seem like a hot water pump. But normally these would be fitted on a flow switch to operate automatically. Unless it was a on a loop to circulate the hot water. But to boost the pressure I don't know if this is correct in boosting the pressure ?
You suggestion would make a lot more sense.
My speculation does seem unlikely as it would clearly be a bodge. I only suggested it because it seems odd to have a pump on a separate timer and googling suggests a megaflo requires decent mains water pressure and flow rate, and some people try to resolve it with a booster pump on the supply, which as you say, would have a pressure switch, rather than wasting power running constantly. I guess if used that way, that pump might have some effect on the flow rate, rather than pressure, although probably not much. (edited)
If it's on the same floor it would probably been put in to supply a designer shower with a very big head.
It would have been wired permanently but someone moaned about the noise so they timed it to only come on when the water in the house might be on max usage. Eg when everyone is getting ready for work and school or evening. (edited)
Depends what "switched off" actually means. Off as in switched off the timing device leaving a permanent live to the pump or Off as in switched off power to the pump.
Also, if the device if also connects to the pump & the pump is powered off then it wouldn't add to any extra sound to the tank.
However, if you get rid of the sound of the pump you may hear sounds from the tank that were there before.
It is possible that with the pump off then the cyclinder could be heating to a higher temp but that would be minimal.
As for normal, what is normal? To get the best results on a shower like this would mean having a pump fitted.
The problem is no one knows the layout of your system. Would need to know what floor the cylinder is on & where the baths & showers are & how many.
Normal in a house is one bathroom with maybe a gravity shower & possibly one electric shower (mains feed).
My guess is your house has more than that.
If the flex from the timer definitely goes to the pump, then it is likely that that timer turns that pump on and off.
If that pump is pumping water through either the heating coil, or the cold water inlet of that tank, then the noise you are hearing could be caused by that or by the vibration of the pump travelling along the copper pipe connecting them.
The noise could also being made by bubbles forming on an immersion heater element, the tank could have either one, or two.
Another possible cause would be vibration from a motorised valve connected close to the tank, they have a synchronous motor to drive the valve and hold it open working against a return spring. (edited)
Its a hot water pump, also looks like its 22mm.
So that doesn't quite fit with either.
It is more than likely a pump to ensure the showers work to the desired effect.
To prove this the OP should turn the showers on at the same time with the pump off & see how rubbish they are, then do it with the pump on. (edited)
will test that mate, hopefully this evening.
My guess if it doesn't affect the power to your central heating, it might be for the electric immersion heater for the cylinder, or possibly even to operate a motorized valve to supply hot water from your boiler to a heating coil in the cylinder, although that should be controlled by your hive. 2 and 3 port valves can make a slight noise from their synchronous motor. (edited)
the switch to the electric immersion is switched off. That's there for emergencies if the boiler stopped working we would still have access to hot water.
I'm thinking the timer controls something to do with the tank separately from the nest control.
when I switched off the timer toggle, the humming coming from the tank immediately stopped.
so in effect I may have been heating the water with the nest control but then this timer is also used to heat up the water independently on the set timer dials.
Some hot water cylinders do have two immersion heaters, one for economy 7 at the bottom and one nearer the top for heating a smaller amount of water. (edited)
Middle would be on the timer clock settings
1 would be constantly on..
You shouldn't need this on unless you boiler or another issue has caused the tank from not heating up.
Normally timers like this would be installed to tanks that are only use electric itself to heat the water.
I would suggest you turn the switch off that controls this timer as if the immersion heater was to burn out you would not know until it came to use it. Also it's more expensive to run.
I would suggest turn it off from the immersion switch and set the switch on the timer to 1 or in the middle so when you do need it it can function as it needs to. (edited)
the switch to control the immersion heater in the tank is permanently off.
as soon as I switched off the timer in the morning, the humming noisee coming from the tank switched off straight away. so from that I can tell there's a link between the two.
maybe the timer is there if my nest fails I need to stick the cylinder on a timer.
what I don't understand is the humming noise from the cylinder when the main switch to the immersion heater in the cylinder is off.
It would really needed to be checked by a component engineer if there was a fault with any incorrect wiring. Sometimes it can be the another issue which maybe causing the problem. Without inspection it's very hard to diagnose the exact cause of these problems.
I've got another one of those grey boxes at the top too.
the timer is connected to this black pump like item, and that is connected to a copper pipe leading into the tank, on the front but towards the top end.
photo showing pipe connected to the black pump, pipe then leads to the top of the cylinder
I've got 3 pumps which are red. they control the ground floor heating, 1 controls the upstairs heating and the 3rd pump controls the hot water which is stored in the megaflo cylinder. I've got a boiler connected to the cylinder. I forgot what mines called, vented or unvented system boiler.
essentially I've got a boiler and a cylinder. I just think the times on the timer were set from midnight to early part of the morning. so it was a schedule set to do something.
just not sure what as my nest system takes control of everything. heating and hot water is scheduled on the nest app so not sure what this manual timer was set up to do.
well I've switched off the manual timer anyway so we'll see how the water works out in the next few days.
my set up
I think I had the nest schedule set up to heat the water but it was also being heated by the manual timer independently.
system boiler! that's it. yeah, the guy who installed it was a belt and braces type of guy so probably went ott. he's since retired and moved to another part of the country.
We do have multiple bathroom but I wouldn't say overtly large shower heads, standard size really. With the flow, i'll have to see if anyone complains if the flow of the water has changed when multiple showers are in use at the same time. Kids will probably scream 'wheres the water'
Doesn't explain why the humming stopped from inside the cylinder as soon as a clicked off the manual timer.
Thanks everyone for taking the time to look at my question. I'll keep an eye out to see if anything happens over the next few weeks. Especially when multiple people use the bathroom and see if water flow has been affected.
I suspect i had 2 schedules running for the hot water. One on my nest and the other from the manual timer but we shall see what happens during the coming days.
Thanks again everyone
just switched off the timing device. got 3 options on it (always on, timer and off) didnt notice any humming noise in the morning and no one has complained so far of water or temp so im just going to see how it goes.
I have no idea how I would switch off the pump and I wouldn't want to do that (lol).
The photo you posted, we have 2 of those. Very similar in style.
Its not the pump making noise, its the inside of the tank, like it was heating the water or keeping it hot or something.
im sure the tank does have a immersion heater within it and the noise i hear is from the tank as i can hear it even more when i press my ear to the the tank. definately not from the pump or anything outside the tank as that would be clear for me to hear. Its like something is heating the water in the tank, or doing something to keeping it warm etc but definately from inside the cylinder. Going by what you say, i think the timer is connected to the immersion heater inside the tank and its that which ive been hearing.
Again, my guess is that its been set to manually come on at certain times independently along with what ever schedule i have set up with the nest which is pointless.
Again, thanks for all the advise and help everyone. I'll keep my eye on for the coming days and see what impact it has (hopefully nothing negative)
Odd.