Electric shower leaking - pls help!!

wimbleQ

Hello,

Ever wish you had left something well alone....

Today we decided to change the shower hose and shower head on our electric shower. (Had a nice, new shiny one lurking in the cupboard for months).

Seemed simple enough, unscrewed the hose from the shower and screwed the new one in its place. Turned on shower to check - it started off okay but then water started spurting out from the bottom of the shower unit, where the hose screwed to it.

Am dead nervous now about touching it. I took off the cover (electrics were off at mains!) and unscrewed the new one and put the old one back on.

Whilst doing this though quite a lot of water was still dripping out - there is a sort of a copper cylinder (heater?) directly above where the hose screws to the unit and the water seems to be coming from there.

I've put the old one back on but am worried to test it now incase there is water inside the electrics and I electrocute myself....

Any advice please.... wish I could turn the clock back, I'd have left well alone....it's pretty dire because that's our only hot water at the moment as our boiler is out of action.... it never rains, but it pours...

Ta muchly.

EliteHeat

Did you remember to put the 1/2" washer in the hose connector?

Canucklehead

Hi


Do you have a Triton shower? Some or them have a pressure relief device which,once blown , will need to be replaced.
Or it might be what EliteHeat said.;)


Corgi Guy.

wimbleQ

Hello,

Thank you for the replies.

Yes, the washer was in okay.

It's a Gainsborough (not Triton).

I've now read the packaging that came with the shower head and it says it is only suitable for pressure systems and not suitable for non-pressure systems. I think this is the problem because the shower head works such that you can vary the flow of water and also stop it. I think when I turned it on, twiddled the selector about it must have stopped the water and maybe it built up inside the shower unit somehow....does this sound plausible?!

I've put the old one back on but dare I switch it on? What would happen if it is water damaged on the inside - would it just cut out or not come on at all? Don't want to electrocute myself....but have no boiler at the moment so this is the only hot water source...

Yours, ... cold and needing a wash....

jockster211

Sorry, but sounds like you need a competent person to come in & take a look. There defo shouldn't be any water leaking inside the unit! As you rightly suspect this can be dangerous....water + electrics:eek:

If you can isolate the shower electrics by switching off at the fuse box.

Good Luck

Janie2008

Thats exactly it. When you twiddled it to stop the water coming out it blew the pressure relief device. I know because my husband did the exact same thing. It has to be replaced. We managed to find one on the internet and it was quite easy to do. Try www.showerdoc.com

wimbleQ

Hi Janie 2008,

Thank you very much for that really helpful link - I've identified the part for my shower which is only around £8.00 - does it come with instructions to replace it or could you explan roughly what is involved in replacing this - is it easy to get to the part inside or is there dismantling to be done .... if the part is easy to reach and doesn't involve lots of wiring and fiddling then we should be up to it...

Just one other question, how could I check it is the pressure relief which has really "gone" - is it safe to turn it on just to see what happens? At this time I have put back the old hose and the dripping seems to have stopped. Not sure whether there was just a build up of water in the copper cylinder thing which has now released itself and maybe it might work (oh optimism) - just a bit "chicken" to try it...

It has it's own major switch which is in another room, could I switch shower on at unit and then operate the major on switch from a safe distance so I could just flick it back off immediately it things don't seem right... Don't think I'll stand under it for testing purposes.....

Janie2008

It was very easy to replace the PRD, my hubby and I are both useless at diy and if we can do it so can you. It came with instructions, You take off the shower cover then there is a bit where the hose goes into that you have to take off I think (no wiring just unscrew and take old one out and pop new one in). I can't quite remember but its more obvious when you get the part. Honestly it was easy.

I'm not sure how to prove its the PRD for sure. It just sounds the same as what happened to our shower. We got a new shower head and my husband was messing around with it, he turned it to the off position and the water stopped coming out of the shower head but came out from underneath the shower instead.

Janie2008

Don't want to advice you about trying the old hose (don't know if its safe or not), but if you did it wouldn't work if the PRD had gone so it would give you your answer.

duncan32

Hello all, hope it's ok to jump onto this thread with my own (very similar) problem.

I notice the amount of water and the power coming out of the shower head has fallen in the last few days. Just this morning I noticed that quite a bit of water was coming out of the actual shower unit itself (on the wall), so dripping down behing the hose, down the tiles. Its not a massive amount, but quite a bit and there is obviously a problem that needs resolving before I use it again, I think. Does it sound like the same issue as this thread deals with? The shower that I have is an GAINSBOROUGH 9.5 DL.

Thanks in advance!

Duncan

fiddiwebb

duncan32

The same thing happens with our Gainsborough 10.5 shower, there is a pressure relief valve located at the bottom of the shower unit, you should see a small pipe pointing against the back of the wall/tiles.

We find that when there is a buildup of limescale in the shower head and the nozzles start to block up a small plastic rubbery ball valve located in the pressure relief pipe pops out and water escapes.

What you need to do is remove the cover of the shower unit making sure you have turned the power off first at themains for the shower and cover the drain hole of the shower basin.

Locate the pressure relief pipe and unscrew it (two small screws), you will find the ball valve loose, just press the ball back into its seating, I use the blunt end of a pencil and screw the pipe back into place.

Clean the shower head of any limescale making sure the nozzle holes are unblocked before turning the shower back on.