electric shower power woes

[Grenage]

Hi there,

Our electric shower packed in, or at least I thought it had, so I replaced it. It worked at first,then the same problem occurred - turn on shower and isolator led turns off. OK, it was a pants shower anyhow, never mind.

I changed the isolator, which to be honest looks OK. No burnt connectors or plastic, but I cut the wiring back anyhow. Worked OK, then same problem. The protector by the main fuse box doesn't trip.

I can't imagine the main run of wiring suddenly developing a fault, but I'm not an electrician. I figure it can only be the run to the isolator, the RCD for the feed, or the main consumer box - but to be honest anything further than I've already done would be outside my competence, and undoubtedly need to be certified.

Before call someone qualified, could I be missing anything obvious? Any guesses as to possible culprits?

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

It sounds like you've dealt with possible bad connections at the shower end of the cable, but not the other end.

 

[Grenage]

The feed from the consumer unit and the protector, I don't think someone like me should be touching that. That's about all I can think of though.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

You are right not to touch something that you are not confident to touch. It is probably either a connection which is loose, or a faulty device. I assumed that you knew how to isolate before playing with a circuit to have done the tests/changes you have done. This is why I was suggesting you might look at the corresponding connections at the other end of the cable.

But you are right to call in an electrician at the point you are less than happy.

 

[Grenage]

Hi there, thanks for your reply.

Well with the isolator I was able to turn off the power using the protector by the consumer unit, but I don't know how to cut the power to the protector from the consumer unit. I assume I have to somehow cut the power to the whole house, which I've never done.

 

[securespark]

If you turn off the main switch for the unit containing the fuse or circuit breaker that feeds the shower, it ought to kill the power to everything connected to the outgoing terminals of that main switch.

But the cables feeding that main switch will still be live!!

Post a picture of your board.

However, if in the slightest doubt, do not attempt any further work.

 

[Grenage]

Hi there

Rest assured I'm pretty careful, I run a tester on every cable about 10 times, even when I know the power is off. I've added a photo to my home album, as I've no way to resize the image on my phone. Are you able to see my albums?

 

[EFLImpudence]

View media item 68783

 

[EFLImpudence]

Do any of the switches on the old consumer unit also switch off the power to the shower? with the new CU on.

 

[Grenage]

Thank you kindly for the resize and your reply. I do not believe so, although tomorrow I could flip the master switch, and check that the shower loses power.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Is one of the numbers on the new CU breaker 61009 ?

Like this one -

 

[Grenage]

It is indeed! EN61009

 

[EFLImpudence]

That's ok then, I thought someone had forgotten overload protection which they sometimes do when installing RCCBs.

Yours is an RCBO - the 'O' standing for overload protection.

So, only the Main Switch may also isolate the shower but may not.

 

[Grenage]

Ah thank you. I'll use the master switch, and check that it's actually killed the power to the shower feed. If it hasn't, I'll get a sparky in; if swapping the RCBO doesn't sort it, I'll get a sparky in.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[Grenage]

Alas, it's not wired into the master switch. Qualified electrician time!