Hi everyone, I need a little help with my electric shower, please bear with me, as I don't know much about electrics or showers.
Since living in this house it had a 7.5 kw shower fitted. This worked fine for many years then something in the shower failed and it stopped heating the water. We bought a new 10 kw shower and an electrician who my girlfriend knows, fitted this for us.
This shower worked fine for a while and one day the power in the house went off while I was in the shower. We had to call the emergency helpline from our provider and an electrican came out, the main 3 inch long house fuse had blown. This person said he thought the shower cable we had would only be suitable for a 7.5 kw shower and not the new 10 kw one.
I shut the mains off myself, and removed the 10 kw unit. It took quite a bit of work searching the shops, as they are no longer popular but I found a new 7.5 kw unit that would be suitable for the existing cable. I had watched the other unit being fitted and it was only a case of tightening a water pipe and screwing in 2 wires so I put the 7.5 kw unit in myself. Also we had an old push in fuse downstairs, the kind with a length of wire. I threw that away and bought a 30 amp circuit breaker type fuse.
The shower worked ok at first but kept tripping the fuse every few minutes so I stopped using it. I asked the advice of another electrician and he said if the fuse is still tripping everytime the shower is on, then its most likely that the shower cable itself has a fault.
I have 2 questions.
1 Before I start spending money and getting a new cable, I need to ask, is the 30 amp fuse big enough to run the 7.5kw shower?
2 If the 30 amp is big enough, then I have a bigger problem. The cable will need replacing. The issue I have is the cable runs up from the pantry in the kitchen downstairs and is chased into the walls and upstairs to the bathroom, via the loft where it goes into a pull switch. But worst of all, the cable is behind the tiling, which was fitted with a new bathroom suite costing a lot of money. If the cable needs repalcing, what are my options? I don't want to rip out the new tiling so I need a way of getting a new cable to the shower from downstairs. The only thing I can think of is to run the cable out of the pantry, up the cavity wall, into the loft to the pull swtich. Then run the 2nd cable from the pull switch, through a hole in the ceiling and down into the shower, in some kind of sealed cable box. Is this possible and most importantly, safe? I can't think how of another way to get a cable in without pulling the tiling out.
For question 1, I would be happy to buy and change the fuse.
For question 2, I would be hiring a qualified electrican to do the new cable.
Thanks for reading and I would greatly appreciate any advice and help with this.
Since living in this house it had a 7.5 kw shower fitted. This worked fine for many years then something in the shower failed and it stopped heating the water. We bought a new 10 kw shower and an electrician who my girlfriend knows, fitted this for us.
This shower worked fine for a while and one day the power in the house went off while I was in the shower. We had to call the emergency helpline from our provider and an electrican came out, the main 3 inch long house fuse had blown. This person said he thought the shower cable we had would only be suitable for a 7.5 kw shower and not the new 10 kw one.
I shut the mains off myself, and removed the 10 kw unit. It took quite a bit of work searching the shops, as they are no longer popular but I found a new 7.5 kw unit that would be suitable for the existing cable. I had watched the other unit being fitted and it was only a case of tightening a water pipe and screwing in 2 wires so I put the 7.5 kw unit in myself. Also we had an old push in fuse downstairs, the kind with a length of wire. I threw that away and bought a 30 amp circuit breaker type fuse.
The shower worked ok at first but kept tripping the fuse every few minutes so I stopped using it. I asked the advice of another electrician and he said if the fuse is still tripping everytime the shower is on, then its most likely that the shower cable itself has a fault.
I have 2 questions.
1 Before I start spending money and getting a new cable, I need to ask, is the 30 amp fuse big enough to run the 7.5kw shower?
2 If the 30 amp is big enough, then I have a bigger problem. The cable will need replacing. The issue I have is the cable runs up from the pantry in the kitchen downstairs and is chased into the walls and upstairs to the bathroom, via the loft where it goes into a pull switch. But worst of all, the cable is behind the tiling, which was fitted with a new bathroom suite costing a lot of money. If the cable needs repalcing, what are my options? I don't want to rip out the new tiling so I need a way of getting a new cable to the shower from downstairs. The only thing I can think of is to run the cable out of the pantry, up the cavity wall, into the loft to the pull swtich. Then run the 2nd cable from the pull switch, through a hole in the ceiling and down into the shower, in some kind of sealed cable box. Is this possible and most importantly, safe? I can't think how of another way to get a cable in without pulling the tiling out.
For question 1, I would be happy to buy and change the fuse.
For question 2, I would be hiring a qualified electrican to do the new cable.
Thanks for reading and I would greatly appreciate any advice and help with this.