Duff Wickes 45A shower ceiling switch

Get your money back and get one of a decent make.

Owain

Seems to be the norm for all the cheap ones. I found dismantling it and fettling the plastic plus some grease worked for one of mine.

Yep.

I hate Wickes rebadging stuff - I want to know what I'm buying.

So no different in this case to buying Newlec or Denmans electrical wholesalers rebaded stuff then?

Wickes used to (they might still do) use GET for their rebadged stuff.

A shower switch is a case where you really do need to get a good quality one which doesn't self-head to destruction. However, even a good one will self heat to destruction if the workmanship of the wiring connections is anything less than perfect.

....but aren't they intended for occassional use to isolate the shower and not for routine switching? I would think you could pull them off the ceiling if used frequently.

DerbyBorn wrote in news:XnsA4C7862254625TrainJPlantntlworldc@81.171.92.236:

Rightly or wrongly, in my previous house, I used to use the isolation switch to switch the shower on and off every time! My rationale was that it's cheaper to wear out an ?8 isolation switch than the rotary switch on the shower unit, which, if broken, would probably require the replacement of the entire shower unit. I also liked doing it that way because by the time I got into the shower cubicle the water was already running at the desired temperature.

Apart from shortening the life of the isolation switch, is there any known reason why one should not do this?

Anyway, I took the duff Wickes' switch back and got one from B&Q instead. The B&Q one cost ?1 more, but it works perfectly. The B&Q switch looks identical to the Wickes one (apart from the packaging), so it may even have come from the same factory.

Jim

For some particular design you might deprive the shower of a controlled cool down cycle - but this is likely to be a feature of a modern computer controlled unit, not an older simpler shower.

In short, if the water runs with the power off, it's almost certainly OK.

I've been doing it, with an MK switch, for several years and the switch seems to be OK.

Turn to Cold just before the end of the shower, switch off by pull switch. The switch is just outside Zone 1 and round a corner - within reach of a long arm but away from spray.

When I had an electric shower, I really wished I could buy a unit that I could install in the loft or under the bath as it would have made installing a lot easier and such a unit wouldn't need to compromise robustness by trying to look stylish and compact. I believe you can get them now.