Extractor fan installed, shower now not working

BlackBird

This was my original thread forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?p=60724095 (won't let me post direct links) but for some reason no matter how many times I received an email with new password it won't accept it when I enter it! So I've registered again.

Anyway extractor fan is now fixed, disconnected from shower feed and wired into the light.

Now I don't know what the electrician did (with the old wiring from the old extractor fan) when he disconnected the old extractor fan from the shower circuit but I do know before it was done we had no issues with the shower at all for the last year and 3 months.

The new extractor fan (wired in so when you turn bathroom light on, fan comes on) works fine (apart from lights suddenly flickering all over the house other morning at about 9.30am and then whole electrics tripping out! linked or not I don't know? But that had also never happened before..) the fan hasn't even been installed 1 week yet!

Anyway all the above may or may not be linked? But I was in the shower earlier on today and I could smell burning, strong rubbery type burning but couldn't tell where it was coming from (I thought neighbours burning rubbish again!) anyway eventually smoke started coming out the shower unit (shower still worked, until I turned off the power as soon as I saw the smoke!) so I rang the electrician who installed the fan and mentioned it to him and told him I'd noticed since he'd disconnected the old extractor fan from the shower that the shower seemed to be getting hotter than it used to on the same setting, so I moved the dial to the cooler setting and it still was hotter there than it used to be, as I say it may or may not be linked to him having disconnected the old extractor fan from the showers circuit but it just seems odd that less than a week later electrics trip out all over house and shower cables melt on the inside of shower unit (see pictures attached) anyone any thoughts? As electrician thinks the shower was probably on it's way out anyway but I'm not so sure, as I say it worked fine until the old extractor fan was disconnected..

If you think it was the heating element on the shower has just gone then I'll accept it, the electrician did say it will have been that but I don't know for sure, coincidence that it was after the work had been done or just bad timing?

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imageshack.us/photo/my-images/17/20130605190439.jpg

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Can't post direct links or links to photos unfortunately, and the post pictures option for me isn't working so to view the photos just copy and past the above links into your browser please.

Also the shower is an 8.5kw one on a 40 amp fuse.

I posted this in house buying renting and selling as well but no reply there..

Cheers

Wywth

Again, it's your landlords responsibilty to sort it out
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4555999

molerat

Unless the fan wiring was connected to that point on the shower or the electrician worked on that connection at the time I very much doubt there is any connection.

WestonDave

Not an expert so would defer to better opinions than mine but for what its worth those pictures look to me like the red wire has come loose in the terminal and started to arc across with the high current. That will pretty quickly build up enough heat to do what you've encountered.

Struggling to see how that is connected to the other work especially a week later.

I suspect the shower water getting warmer is simply the effect of warmer ground water meaning that the shower starts from warmer water so its heat ends up hotter. Ours has the same effect - in winter you end up screwing it right round to the top to get it warm enough - in mid summer its halfway round.