Is Brass suitable

As almost everyone has noted, if this system was ever used, it was 'old' or 'early' designs - ask yourself why it is not still in use?

Never saw one of these heaters in 35 years residence in Germany, and fitted several 'instantaneous' heaters myself in rented apartments in Germany - of course, this is no evidence that they do not exist.

Very strange statement from geechr - The products are safe because the design makes sure the electrical current, flowing from the bare wire heater to earth, is so low that it is safe. The whole point of any 'safe' system is that current is kept to a 'safe' level - the problem is, how do you ensure that? - a simple wire becomes lethal if it carries too much current (overheats, insulation melts, etc, etc) - so how do you guarantee that the current is kept low under all conditions - including potential faults? Surely no-one deliberately designs things so it is not safe (on second thoughts....) Seems like a good reason to me for not using this system.

As for 'strategically placed earth contacts....' - presumably both at the same potential, so no current flow?

Some interesting design possibilities though......

Many of the instantaneous water heaters on the market today use 'bare wire' technology where the water passes over a bare wire element. They heat the water much quicker than an insulated element. Just Google for 'bare wire instantaneous water heaters' and you'll find loads of them for sale in the UK.

John

Edited By John Baguley on 02/04/2012 20:43:59

As they say. "Well I'll be bu****ed ". They must be isolating the mains voltage from the water somehow, possibly some fancy switched mode system, otherwise losing an earth would potentially, no pun intended, make the system live to mains voltage. Ah well I think I will wear rubber boots in the hotel showers in future however shocking it may appear , pun intended.

Cheers and thanks for the heads up on this.

Martin

I had a bare wire immersion heater - at least it ended up that way and boy did it boil the water right into the header tank (galvanisd, thank goodness).

I replaced it with an inconel clad one.

Neil