Bit of help needed with shower fuse

louisews

Hi

I'm hoping someone can give me some advice on a problem I'm having with my shower.

A week or so ago, hubbie was in the shower and it just cut out. Pushing the on button didn't bring it back and pulling the cord behind the bathroom door doesn't do anything anymore, the red light doesn't go on at all.

Someone suggested it could be the shower fuse, but there's nothing labelled Shower in the fuse box (cooker, immerser, lights, sockets) and I'm not sure where else to look. I tried to unscrew the box with the pull cord to see if there was a fuse in there, but the wires inside it are preventing me from pulling the front off and I don't want to cause any damage.

I'm really hopeless with this sort of stuff, and if there's a simple solution, it would be a lot easier than shelling out for an electrician. Is there anyone on the boards who could give me a bit of advice on what else to try?

Thanks for your time, I do appreciate you reading this!

Lou

DTDfanBoy

louisews wrote: »

I tried to unscrew the box with the pull cord to see if there was a fuse in there, but the wires inside it are preventing me from pulling the front off and I don't want to cause any damage.

Please don't mess about with the isolation switch, there could be live wires in there :eek:

If you can't work out how to isolate the supply at the mains you'll probably have to get a sparky out

louisews

I know, I'm a silly cookie, I was just determined to try and solve it myself lol!

Thanks for your reply, will have a call round some electricians tomorrow.

Lou

escapee

The pull cord should be a 45amp socket, if this trips out then it would require replacement of the entire unit as there is no internal accessible fuse (unit is approximately £6 from CPC Farnell online). To replace, the wires feeding the pull switch would need to be isolated as it uses extremely high voltage to power an electric shower.

A competent person could do this if they know what they're doing but I would advise you to call out an Electrician because if you fail to carry out the task properly it could result in a serious electrocution risk or even death.

I don't know when your shower was installed but it should be on it's own ring main at the fuse box within your home, I'm very surprised to hear that it isn't. Do you have an RCD circuit breaker in your fuse box? has this tripped out?

louisews

Hi escapee, nothing in the fuse box looks like it has tripped; all the wee levers are in the ON positions.

I thought there would have been a particular fuse for it, but I just can't see it, there's nothing marked for the shower at all tried to paste a photo of my fusebox on this post, but not having much joy.

Lou

Mankysteve

There should be a 45ampish circuit breaker for the shower one the main fuse box. If not its properly not been wired properly, in which case my guess is that its burnt out a cable somewhere.

Myser

The shower may be faulty, the wiring may have burnt out, there may be a loose connection. The shower may be wired to the fuse marked Immersion if that circuit is no longer used or there could be a separate mini consumer unit for the shower.

It's probably time to call in an electrician .

Crinkmeister

The pull cord operates a double pole isolator. These do fail, but often the cause of failure is down to the terminal screws working loose over time. You will get a characteristic smell as the plastic around the terminal overheats and you may see some discolouration of the switch casing. Eventually, continuity is lost and the shower gets no power.

I'm concerned that you appear to have no separate fuse. The circuit should be a radial from the CCU (not a ring main as someone said) and will be run in 6mm2 or 10mm2 cable depending on the shower and fuse/mcb rating.

As you are unsure and because there seems to be something odd about the installation, I suggest you leave it alone and get a qualified electrician to look at it.

dj1471

Crinkmeister wrote: »

As you are unsure and because there seems to be something odd about the installation, I suggest you leave it alone and get a qualified electrician to look at it.

Absolutely. You can't do anything with the shower, switch or circuit unless you can be certain you've isolated it, which you can't be because you can't see how it's fed. You'll survive paying the cost of an electrician, but not mains voltage at 45A.

louisews

Hi, Thanks to everyone who replied to this, I really appreciate people taking time to help/respond.

In the end, I did manage to fix it; the shower had its own little fuse bit separate from the other bits I had mentioned. All sorted now and shower back in use

Thanks again!

Lou

Ainsley1

Some responses worry me. These do seem to be from people with good intentions and have some good advice but it is clear they do not fully understand!
In the UK nearly all domestic electricity supplied by the mains is nominally 240v, showers inc!uded and it only takes 50 millionths of an amp current to stop the heart-much less than 45 amps quoted as being a higher risk, so electrocution risk is there for all appliances.
Posters can rarely be competent to advise unless they know your wiring etc. A shower (electric) will not be (or should not be) on a ring main but like other high power devices have its own supply wiring and protection from the consumer unit (used to be known as the fuse box).

If you are not competent then do call someone who is. You may well be competent to change a user accessible fuse provided it has been isolated, follow the manufacturers instructions. Electricity in wet areas such as with showers is of particular concern owing to higher risk of conduction so needs protection via an RCD as well as an MCB/fuse.
In case of some comments I have nothing to gain from this post......but you may have! As has been said life is of more value than a few pounds.

It still remains as to why the fuse failed. It may be just age (it can happen) but there may still be an underlying problem. A competent person should still check it out!