Burnt wiring in shower.

[amcewen]

Hello folks, looking for a little advice.

There was a noticeable burning smell in my electric shower this morning and opened it up to find this:

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/687/img0336iea.jpg/

Before anyone jumps on me i didnt install this shower, but to me it looks like the contacts on the blue cable arnt fully seated into the connector strip, and its possible the screw which holds the front plate on the shower shown just above the blue cable, has penetrated the sheath partly or totally. Hard to tell now since its all melted.

Bascially is this the cause of the problem and therefore a basic repair or is there something fundamentally wrong with the wiring? (Before i get spun a story by a local spark) The cabling is 10mm twin and earth, over a distance of less than 10m, through a pull cord switch and back to at 45A fuse at the fusebox. The wiring on the other side of the connector strip is undamaged, and there was no heat anywhere else along the cable length.

Any help appreciated.

 

[ricicle]

That is a symptom of a loose connection. If you feel competant and with safe isolation it should be possible to cut out that one block and replace it with an appropriately sized one ensuring that the terminations are sound.
The neutral will need cutting back to clean bright copper and I would check the other connections as well.

Out of interest, is the shower protected by a 30mA RCD ?

 

[amcewen]

Thanks ricicle, thats exacly what i thought the problem was, loose connection increasing resistance and therefore heat at the contact point.

Before posting here(Edit: Before posting this reply i mean, not the original question) i contacted the contract company who installed the shower and that was his assessment as well, they are going to take exactly the actions described below as well as checking the pull cord connections.

And yes, theres a 30mA RCD in place i made sure of that before installation Amazing what you can learn on this here interweb.

Anyway, thanks again. Reassuring to have the same assessment from multiple sources !