Old Copper Water Boiler

[Jesmol]

I managed to pick up a farily old piece of washing equipment yesterday, its an old copper, with two electric elements on the base. I checked out all of the wiring this morning and it looks fine.

However just looking at the details on the base , and its 4Kw total power :blink:

Which from my basic knowledge equals 16.7 amps at 240v.

It keeps blowing my circuit breaker. Do I just need to bump up the circuit breaker amp rating ?

I'm not sure if it would be better to completely forget about the electrics, and pull the tank out and use it on my gas burner ?

 

[jgriffin]

can you split the elements into two circuits, then run it off two different house circuits?

 

[Jesmol]

Unfortunately its not that easy. I'd like to use the unit up in my shed, which is about 30m from the house, and only has one circuit leading up to it.

 

[vincent_vega]

Unfortunately its not that easy. I'd like to use the unit up in my shed, which is about 30m from the house, and only has one circuit leading up to it.

[post="64110"][/post]​

If the shed was wired fairley recently then the cables should easily take 20A, common household sockets are only designed for 10A. It's a good idea to install a 20A socket. You could probably run it through the current socket but its not recomended . 20A sockets have different plug so you would need to have the cord on the unit changed as well. If you want to trust the socket and plug (and if its been run like that before then why not) you can use a higher ampage circuit breaker and there shouldn't be a fire risk (again assuming the cabling isn't old). Just be careful and watch it at all times. The safest way is ofcourse to have a licensed electricion install a 20A socket and cable.

If you do seperate out the elements and connect them both to the same circuit but via different sockets it should be safe as the cables and circuit should take the ampage.

FYI I am not an electricion, I am however an electical engineering student in my final year.

 

[Sean]

Unfortunately its not that easy. I'd like to use the unit up in my shed, which is about 30m from the house, and only has one circuit leading up to it.

[post="64110"][/post]​

If you do seperate out the elements and connect them both to the same circuit but via different sockets it should be safe as the cables and circuit should take the ampage.

[post="64172"][/post]​

That's assuming, of course, that there is nothing else significant running off the same circuit.

 

[GMK]

u should be easily able to disconect one of the heating elements.

I have with mine and use an immersion element on another circuit to get teh rolling boil.

 

[Jesmol]

I have decided to bit the bullet. I've ripped all of the wiring out, and am going to mount my "Nasa" burner in there somehow, should give me a lot more adjustability over the boil rate.

I just need to get my old man to help with welding up the holes on the base, and cutting a new pick hole.

I Figured that since my shed is god knows how old, and everytime a sparky comes out and looks at the wiring they just shake their head its not worth the cost and effort to get it working electrically.

 

[vincent_vega]

I have decided to bit the bullet. I've ripped all of the wiring out, and am going to mount my "Nasa" burner in there somehow, should give me a lot more adjustability over the boil rate.

[post="64182"][/post]​

If you want to offload the elements I'd love to purchase them from you.

 

[Jesmol]

The elements were buggered, and shorting out, might have been the problem in the first place. Sorry vincent_vega.