ZZZ

Sheryl, looking at your flow rates it looks very strange that the flow from the hot water system drops by more than half when the cold water is on. That looks like your pump is very under dimensioned. What happens if you open other taps in the house? If the pump is good you should really not get much of a drop.

What kind of pump setup do you have, normally there would be a small pressure container on or just after the pump that will supply the house with enough water even if several taps are opened. This pressure container should have a lot of air in it to work properly, if all the air is gone it will not function as intended and the flow could drop the way you now see.

These pressure containers will eventually fill up with water as the air will be absorbed in the water when under pressure. You need to periodically drain the pressure container from water completely. Some pressure containers have a rubber membrane inside and then you will probably have something that looks like a bicycle tire air valve that needs to be pumped up to a certain pressure while the pressure container is empty.

Picture of the pump setup could give us an idea.

Now for what makes no sense to me:

When I disconnected the outflow hose (D) from the wall, leaving it connected to the heater and turned the power back on, I was expecting that either (1) there would be no water coming out since hot water tap still turned off (assuming that the hot water tap has to be turned on to send water through the unit; I am not really sure at what point in things the water tap comes into play) or (2) there would be a flow of hot water since, disconnected from the wall and the tap, there was now no flow resistance (assuming that the weater tap comes into play only in allowing or not allowing an outlet for the heated water).

To my surprise there was instead a low flow of cold water -- lower flow and pressure than the incoming pipe has by far but maybe a little more than I get from the hot tap when turned on. It did NOT heat up with time. So somehow, with both taps off, the incoming cold water entering via Hose A was getting over to the outflow hose D even though both taps were turned off, but either without going through the heater or with the heater elements not working. I tried turning on the cold tap in the tub to see if that affected things, no change.

Sheryl, I was checking back on earlier posts and in the above post you say that the incoming pressure to the heater was very good but out going pressure, directly from the heater NOT going through the wall pipe was very low so there still seems to be a problem in the heater?

Stupid me, just realized that since I have a good flow of water coming in via the cold water peipe, all I need do is exactly what I did before using the flexible hoses with heater out of the loop, except remove the tap so there is noweher for dirt to get stuck. And if that fails, do it in reverse i.e. connect down at the tub taps and let it shoot out the wall where it would notmally connect to the heater, etc.

this is what comes of battling the IRS, kitchen re-modelers and the hot water problem all at once...!

Anyhow will try this tomorrow and report back

Sheryl, looks like you have it narrowed down to the pipe in the wall between the heater and the tub. What you suggest to do sounds good. First you should try and snake a wire, stiff electric wire, old coat hanger, in to the wall from both ends. You will probably not get very far but with a bit of luck the blockage could be in the first bend.

Then flush the pipe from both ends as you suggest.

Failing that you could get some kind of chemical pipe cleaner, suited for the kind of pipes you have. Drain the pipe and try to pour the chemical in to the pipe from the highest point. Be careful and follow safety instructions as these chemicals can be very nasty.

Good luck

There could be a few reasons for the water coming out cold from "D" when you did that test. If you had the cover off there could be some kind of breaker switching power of when the cover is of. The most likely reason is that as you switch on the power with "D" open the pressure will be low in the heater when the power comes on and the pressure sensor will then not apply power to the heater elements. Anyway this is not important as the test was to check the flow and it seems to confirm that the flow is good coming out from the wall, before the heater, and bad after going through the heater.

I still thing the flexible hoses are suspect. It would be good if you could 100% confirm that they are both good by connecting each one to the water outlet in the wall, or any other outlet in the house where they will fit, and check the flow. They look like they are a bit twisted in your picture so make sure you bend and twist them a bit when testing them to see if that makes a difference.

Like you say the inlet valve is a ball valve but even so it will not just be on or off, just a few degrees off could severely restrict the flow. You have to turn it around with the water pressure on and adjust for maximum flow, turn it all the way off and then on until you get the best flow.

Another thing you could do is to connect hose "A" to "D" and leave the connection at "A" open, this will reverse the flow trough the heater and flush out anything that could have been stuck in the heater during installation.

Sheryl, disconnecting at "D" will be the same thing as opening the hot water tap at the tub so you should get a normal flow of hot water coming out from "D". It's strange that you only get cold water but then get hot water out of the tap when you reconnect "D", this makes no sense.

For the low flow I still think it may have something to do with the flexible hoses. When you checked for washers did you completely remove both the hoses from the heater and the wall and checked both ends? I have never seen these hoses without rubber washers before as the would normally leak without them. The picture attached show two washers, the one on the right caused a very low flow out of my heater, the left washer is the right size.

Another cause of the low flow could be the inner diameter of the hoses, it should be about the same size as the washer on the left hand side.

When you do the test suggested by LB you should do it twice, once with each of the flexible hoses to confirm there is no blockage in any of them,

When you checked the inlet valve "B" did you just open it to max or did you turn it around checking if you could increase and decrease the flow, you need to be careful doing this as you need the power on and connection "D" open and will work with a screw driver near the wires.

Sheryl, you can do as you suggest, just be very careful to not connect/disconnect the pipes while the power is on.

My concern is that when you switch on the power there will be high pressure from the pump with water going everywhere. If you have a valve somewhere between the pump and the water heater it would be an idea to close this when you switch off the power and then slowly open it again when the power is switched on so you don't get a sudden burst of water.

As you are doing this kind of things you really should get yourself a voltage tester to make sure there is no power in the wires you are working on. The cheapest and easiest to use look like a small screw driver. Just touch the live wire with the tip of the screw driver and and then touch the metal end at the red tip of the screw driver with your finger, if the wire is live the center of the screw driver will glow orange. Remember to always test both wires as one will be live and the other neutral, only the live wire will make the screw driver glow.

Bless you LB and zzz, instructions are clear and I'm enthused to try. The only limiting factor is that I think (not sure) the heater may be connected to the main power supply rather than on a circuit and if so I will have to disconnect the power by taking off wires as opposed to just shutting off a circuit (can't shut off all power as then the water pump for whole house won't work and this is up on 2nd floor, no pump power = no water).

Can you walk me through how to disconnect the wires safely (I know to turn off the main power first, of course.)? Because even if experimentation leads me to think it is on a circuit and that I know which one I wouldn't want to risk being wrong on that. The unit does not have any sort of light to indicate when power is on. So I think best course is to shut off main power supply, disconnect the wires which power the unit, then turn power back on and proceed with the various steps suggested. I am suspecting it is the 2 white wires in the upper right corner?

Mucho thanks

I would advice against doing this as water and bare cables is a bad mix. The best would be if you could find the breaker for the power line leading to the heater or switch of the main breaker for the time it will take to check the heater. Maybe get an electrician to do the checking with you telling him what to do. If you do the main breaker make sure no one can switch it on while you are working on the heater.

Anyway, just in case you decide to do it yourself. The power is coming in to the heater from the two lead wire marked "1" on the drawing. You need to follow these two wires and disconnect them, to me it looks like they are connected to the white plastic contact strip in the lower right corner, it looks like it is the two wires labeled "2", one black and one grey.

MAKE SURE THE MAIN POWER IS OFF BEFORE DOING THIS AND EVEN SO BE CAREFUL AND DONT TOUCH THE BARE WIRES. MAKE SURE NO ONE CAN SWITCH ON THE POWER WHILE YOU ARE WORKING ON THE HEATER.

To get the wire out of the way you should remove the wire from the clamp holding it to the heater and secure it away from the heater where there may be a lot of water while testing it. Make sure the wire is secured and make sure that no one can accidentally touch the bare leads while you work on the unit. Make sure the wire is off the floor or anywhere else that could get wet in the process of checking the heater.

MAKE SURE YOU SWITCH OFF THE MAIN POWER BEFORE YOU RECONNECT THE WIRES.

Again I suggest you get an electrician to do all this or at least to locate the breaker for the heater.

zzz: which part of my unit do you think may be a valve, to me none of it looks what is in the drawing?

Ah so "bushings" are what in the US we call washers? The black rubber things that help to provide a secure seal? I'll check them.

Sheryl, it looks like you could have two problems, one is the poor flow and the other that the heater shuts of when the cold water is on. I suggest you do following:

First check if the small valve on the input side of the heater is fully open. The valve is located on top of the fitting "B" in the attached picture. It looks like a nut with a screw in it. I'm not sure how the valve works but most likely you will need to line up the screw head in the water flow direction to get maximum flow. What you need to do is to make sure that electric power is disconnected, water pressure is on and the hot water tap in the tub is on, then slowly turn the valve with a screw driver until maximum flow.

If that did not fix the problem, try this:

(Have a big bucket ready)

1. Make sure the power and water supply to the unit is off.

2. Remove the flexible hose at connection marked "A" in the attached picture.

3. Let the water drain out.

3. Have someone slowly open the water supply to the unit. If there is water from hose A it's all connected correct. If there is water coming out from the heater where the hose was connected, the unit has been connected backwards and the two flexible hoses (A and D) should be switched around.

4. If it was connected correct, fully open the water supply and check so the flow looks good.

5. If the flow is good, check the rubber washer in connection A, if it looks like the orifice is big enough for a good flow reconnect A.

6. If the flow was bad, open the connection in the other end of flexible hose A and check the rubber washer.

7. If the flow is still bad, sorry but your flow problem is inside the wall

With the power and water mains off:

To clean the input filter; open connection C, remove filter screen and clean, reconnect.

To check the flow trough the heater:

1. Open the bottom connection of flexible hose D.

2. Have someone open the water supply to the heater slowly up to maximum and check so the flow from the bottom of hose D is good.

3. If the flow is low, open the connection at D and check the rubber washer.

4. If the flow is still low, some problem in the heater, get a new heater.

5. If all good, reconnect hose D, open the water supply to maximum, with the electric power off, open the hot water in the tub or shower, let the water drain until all the air has been expelled from the heater. Check if the flow is good.

3. If the flow is still low you need to check the connection where the hot water is coming in to the tub, if accessible, if no problem there it must be in the wall.

4. If the flow is good, switch on the power and check if it's working.

There are worse places in Thailand but CM is one of the worst for pollution:

You can monitor many locations in Thailand at the PCD site:

http://www.pcd.go.th/AirQuality/Regional/default.cfm

Correct Sheryl the bushings, or rubber seals, will be at both ends of the hoses going down from the water heater. In longballs drawing, post#14, they look like gray rings, they are made of rubber and are usually red or black. These comes with different size orifice, if this is to small it will restrict the flow.

Looking at your picture and at longballs drawing there is one thing you should check first. On the drawing there is a small valve on top of the fitting (no 6). There is also a magnified view of this valve. On your picture it looks like you have something like that on your heater. Make sure that this valve is in the fully open position, you probably need to get in there with a screwdriver or something, hard to see on the picture.

Obviously the power must be disconnected at all times when the cover is off the heater.

I'm in a custom built house, not an apartment. The heater is a Stiebel Eltron DHA 4/12T, type #2 as described by Mosass69 i.e. it is for hot water only. There are separate hot and cold lines altho they bifurcate off the same initial line, i.e. one side, controlled by the cold water knob on the faucet, goes straight into the shower or tub while the other, controlled by the hot water knob on the faucet, goes through the heater and comes out hot.

So I do have both hot and cold. My problem is getting them to mix as having the cold on seems to shut off the hot or at least slow it down to an imperceptible flow. It is not a new problem, has been the case ever since isntalled when house first built. So whatever it is due to, it's not something wearing down.

Local electricians utterly unable to do anything with it (they fall far short of much simpler tasks than this, to put it mildly). I would at minimum need to be able to tell them exactly what needed to be done and virtually draw them a diagram. I'm out in the boondocks and quality of "electricians" is abyssmal beyond words.

I can't identify anything inside that looks to be a flow meter or other control, but I have not looked inside the large cylinder that occupies most of it, is that where it would be? I'd post picture but am not at home now.

Thanks all....

Possibly a flo9w meter and other controls are located inside the cylinder? I have not ventured to open that as I don't know what I am doing.

I was just referring to what Sheryl said. Agree, it should have been fixed years ago!!

Ok Sheryl, I thought that may be the case, that's why I said "if possible".

I think all you can do is to check the bushings in the short connecting tubes connecting the water supply to and from the heater to the wall. Remove the tubes completely, from the unit and the wall, and check so the bushings are big enough and that there is no other blockage.

Also check the water pressure coming out of the wall when you have the water heater disconnected from the supply, if this is good there will be no need to dig into the wall.

Don't think is a corrosion problem as you have had this problem since installation.

Sorry, thought it was hooked up to the sink as well. Anyway, if possible let the hot water run in the tub at the same time as you are using the shower and see if it works. If it works then to problem is what longball suggested and there is not really any other solution than having the hot water running in the tub while using the shower. In the colder season it may not be a problem as longball suggests.

Some heaters are connected to the water supply via flexible hoses but it sound like yours is connected directly in to the wall? If that is the case you have to remove the unit from the wall to check the bushings.

The bushings you need to check are the grey round things in longballs drawing, they are made of rubber and are usually black or red and are there to prevent leaks in the fitting. Check so the orifice in the bushing is large enough, if it's smaller that the fitting it will restrict the flow.

Your main problem is most likely what longball says. To confirm this turn on the hot water in you wash basin while you have a shower and see if that works. By doing that there will be a flow trough the heater and it will not switch off.

The flow rate problem could be due to a too small rubber bushing. I guess that the heater is connected to the water pipes with two flexible hoses, one from the water supply and one going out to the faucet and shower. Remove these and check that the rubber bushings are big enough and that there is no blockage. In my installation they had used a bushing that was very small and restricted the water flow, after changing this everything worked fine.

Normally when returning to Thailand, I bring 4-8 bottles of wine and don't declare it. I've been lucky so far, but I'd prefer to just declare it and pay the duty.

I'm returning in August, probably with about 12 bottles... but I can't determine how much the duty will be...

I've poked around http://www.customs.go.th/Customs-Eng/Trave...?menuNme=Travel and can only see the standard information (1 liter allowed duty-free).

Can anybody tell me how much they'll charge me if I take my wine through the Red channel at BKK instead of the Green channel? Does Customs need to see the receipts for my wine when I bring it in?

I asked customs and their reply was that the only way to bring in cig and alcohol is to stick to the duty free limits, 200 cig and i litre of alcoholic beverage ( it's ONLY 1 litre no matter what the alcohol contents is).

If you want to bring in more you need to obtain an import license before coming in to Thailand, you can not just show up and declare 12 bottles and pay the duty as you can in some other countries.

For engine wash you need a place with a steam cleaner .Off hand i do not know of one .

That's the kind of place I'm looking for, don't care if it's going to cost a bit more than the normal splash and dash jobs.

Can anyone recommend a good car wash that can do a good job cleaning, waxing, engine cleaning .....

Where I normally go they just do a high pressure spray and clean, normally good enough but I would like to have a complete clean up job done a few times a year.

but the thai people are one of most honest people on the planet on my experience. i cannot compare the LOS from south america, china, philippines,malaysia, indonesia, nigeria, south africa, etc. if i were to choose, i'd better choose thailand.

What a remarkable statement to make? So, how come the Thai jails are completely overcrowded? Are they full of honest Thai people? Or are they full of dishonest foreigners who steal from KP shops and don't have the money to pay the bribe?

In Thailand, if the item isn't bolted to the wall or floor some honest Thai person will steal it or shall we say relieve you of the responsibility of owning it any longer.

I find most people in Thailand to be very honest but even if 99% are very honest you still have 700,000 dishonest and many of these are people in power as proven with court cases against many influential persons.

To fill prisons is no problem, the case described in this thread is just one way of putting people in prison. There are plenty of people who can not afford to, or refuse to, pay their way out of a scam.

2.)It may be possible to trace the Sri Lankan, if he gave his “real” name, or whatever name is in his passport. Of course, what are the chances that the airport immigration police will scrub the Immigration, AOT, and PISCES-Image records before the DSI’s can review them?

Judge Dredd

As far as I understand all this happened inside the security area as they were about to board the plane. The only way to get access to this area is to be a passenger or have a security pass for this area.

Pretty scary if crooks like the Sri Lankan can get a security pass for the purpose of extort money from unsuspecting travelers.

Thats not the object of this exercise

BR>Jack

Sorry, I thought the object was to free up some space on the C: drive, this could give him several Gb.

1Gb restore space is enough for 4-5 restores and you hardly ever go back more than one restore if you have a problem.

With only 8Gb left on the C: drive this will fragment very fast and slow down everything.

Open "Control Panel" , "System" and then click on the "System Restore" tab . High light the C: drive and click on "Settings". This is defaulting to something like 20% which was ok for the old 20Gb drives. What you need is about 1Gb of restore space and that would be about 1% on your disk, move the slider until the reading is about 1000MB. This could give you an extra 15-20Gb if you are lucky.

this service will end up like the last time they tried it approx 15 years ago......no demand, will last few months tops.

who wants to go to Hua hin.......not many

who wants to go to hua hin daily ....even fewer

wh wants to risk life going to hua hin.....

Maybe the greatest demand for this service is in the other direction, people living in Hua Hin going to Pattaya for a day or two

If the USD fall what would it fall against? All other countries and currencies are in one way or another tied to USD and their currencies would fall as well and if all currencies fall there will be no change in exchange rates.

Besides, all this billions of new money printed by the fed will merely replace the money everyone thought existed before the crisis started.

Yes, this money never really existed but the economy worked on the premises that it did exist. So in the end there is no new money.

Whats is being printed is just making the previous perception reality and the economy should fairly quickly get back to normal, hopefully with some regulation preventing the same thing from happening again.

I'm using a 12Call SIM card in my lap top to access internet. My question is how can I check the balance without having to remove the SIM, insert it in a mobile and call *121#

Is there any way to get the balance sending a sms or any other way?

Thanks all, that makes sense.