Shower problems

[dean]

Hi, not sure if anyone on here as any experience with showers but my girlfriend got out of the shower today, turned it off on the shower unit and the water still came out. The power light turned off and there is a funny burning smell. The water turns off when i switch the shower off at the mains. Any ideas? I have taken the unit lid off and cannot see any evidence of water leaking into it.

The shower is getting a bit old now anyway so we may just replace it. How easy is it to do it yourself? There are an awful lot of wires in the unit but only the standard live/neut/earth going into it from outside. Do they usually come prewired when bought from somewhere like B&Q?

Thanks for your help in advance

Dean

[Lobster]

Turn the thing off at the main switch and don't use it again till it's sorted.

Any electric shower you'll buy just needs connecting to the mains via a cable entering into the back; you don't need to mess about with any of the wires or connections inside the unit any more than you'd expect to do so when fitting a new washing machine. But with the greatest of respect, from what you write are you sure your level of knowledge is up to this job? There's not exactly a lot of scope for error when water and electricity is involved. You'll also have to do some plumbing - it's not likely that the existing feed pipe will be in exactly the right position for a new shower. (Are you 100% sure you can do that without causing leaks inside the unit?)

David

[dean]

Thats my only real worry about fitting the system. Getting the pipe into the right position other than that it looks like it would be a breeze to do. I just don't wanna be charged =A3100s by a plumber to fit it if I could do it myself.

[Stuart B]

What you could do is get a quote for supplying + fitting or just fitting a new shower to see how much it is going to be .Remember that if the new shower has a higher KW rating than your existing one then new cable might well be required and that will be additional expense.. If the new shower is the same make then chances are that the water connection will be in the same place . The pull cord switch or wall switch should be looked at as well to make sure it is still OK .

Replacing an existing elec shower isn't really difficult but I'm saying that as someone who has replaced three and I guess you don't feel confident to do this job ..

As someone else said the only wires you need to worry about are the ones in the supply from your consumer unit or dedicated switch fuse unit .None of the internal wires should be touched AT ALL Can you tell us what rating your existing shower is ..It'll be marked on a label on the unit in KW.

[dean]

It an Aquatronic 2 and from what I've read it is from Wickes and is a rebranded triton (may be wrong) on the bottom it says 8 5 KW. I guess it is 8.5 and the . has worn away.

I have had a quote for a Redring 500 8.5kw with fitting for =A3250 or =A3180 if bought without fitting.

[John]

It is quite scary that very powerful units are sold to people who may not realise the significance of cable sizes.

[Stuart B]

Aquatronic ARE rebadged Tritons . I have the Aquatronic 3 which is

10.5 KW and the water inlet is in the same place as my prev shower which was a Triton .

Might be to your advantage to go for a higher rated shower but ,as I said, that will mean new cable .

[dean]

measurement is based on the size of one of the cables in the covering and not all three? If so the live one (and the rest) are 5-6 mm each, hard to get an exact measurement as I can't get my ruler in and can't for the life of my find my tape measure.

[gort]

Cable is measured by cross-sectional area of the actual core(s) ie 10mm sq. Best way to do it is go to somewhere like B&Q, Wilkinsons who sell cable by the metre and measure the live cores, coloured Brown, in say 6mm and 10 mm T&W ( twin and earth) size cables. Then you can compare those sizes to what you have. This will then enable you to find out roughly what current your cable can carry, I say roughly as there are other factors which detemine cureent capacity of cable such as wether it is buried in plaster etc which will derate it.

HTH

Dave

[The Medway Handyman]

Hmmmm. £100 or possible fatality? Seems like £100 well spent to me.

I have fitted several electric showers for myself, but I wouldn't fit one for a customer.

[Owain]

It's just as easy to kill yourself with a 60W lampholder.

Owain

[dean]

Well I bought a Triton Passion from B&Q for =A380. It runs at 9.5 KW which I was told from a few sources is the maximum I can run on 6 mm cable. Luckily the water feed was just about in the right position. I did have to lossen a couple of joints in the pipe and move the olive a bit to line it up but nothing that was an issue. All I had to do then was drill new holes put it in and make sure it was sealed properly. Works A ok, was a lot easier than I thought it would be.

Thanks for all your help

Cheers,

Dean

[dean]

FYI I think the Passion is a T80si, well it looks like the one in the pictures. I guess it was end of line stock as there is a replacement model out now. Don't mind though as looking on the internet, a few places are selling the 9.5kw ones for about =A3140.

[Tony Bryer]

"We often see undersized cables coming in to our units, the most common is

2.5mm2. This is dangerous because the cables could overheat."

[Guy King]

The message from gort contains these words:

I think you mean 10 sq mm. 10mm square would be 100 square mm.

[gort]

OOPS, Bugger, Yes Sorry to OP. Thanks

Dave

[dean]

[Guy King]

The message from [e-mail] contains these words:

Worth burgling, for sure!

[Alex]

Would this work not be covered under Part P and thus require inspection by the council?

Alex

[Owain]

No, because it's like-for-like replacement of an appliance, not work on the installed wiring.

Owain