Switch rating.
Good Evening everyone.
A non functioning "instant" water boiler came into my 'shop today. Basically it's a flash boiler, it has an on/off spst power switch and a spst "heat" switch. The fault was found to be the on/off switch gone o/c. The switch is only used to "enable" the heater and actually passes no current at switch on, the "switching being done by the large 10A heat switch, effectively the on/off switch is only used to enable the boiler.
The defective switch is rated at 6.5A 240v, putting my multimeter in leu of the switch, i find the boiler consumes 10.7A when it's doing it's job and while the "heat" switch is actually switching the current, the on/off switch is rarely used, being maintained in the "on" position.
Is this just a case of the "bean counters" at work using a 6.5A switch (that never switches) or does anyone think it is adequate considering it only passes current and never switches a load?
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worried about the electrons entering the circuit and the smoke leaving 
Andrew
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