240v into bathroom ?!

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RocketDog

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I'll start by apologising in advance if this is a ridiculous question, but I'd prefer to ask a daft question than be dead.

I have moved into a house, which has a Mira Go Power Manual shower, this unit doesn't heat the water, but merely pumps it fiercely at you.

After dismantling the shower today and testing the electrical feed, inside the shower casing, to my horror I find its 240v!

I struggling to find any install instructions on the shower, and I just can't see how the unit can't get damp / wet during use. So this must be a risk, or is this sort of thing common practice now ?

Thank you in advance.
 
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Hi there, thanks for the quick response, but I'd already tried that.

The Mira site states there's no instructions available for this unit and a general Google results in PDF for much older unit.
 
Why would you be surprised to find 240V?
Providing the shower unit cover is correctly IP rated for it's location it is not an issue. I would recommend that you had 30mA RCD additional protection though.
 
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I'm surprised as there are so many regs' around electrical appliances in bathrooms.

As for the IP rating of this unit I think the photos show that this thing has more holes then Swiss cheese! Only the top half of the casing (between quarter to and quarter past) has any rubber sealing on it.

I'm more than happy to bow to the greater knowledge of those in the know on this forum, but it won't be going back together with out a significant amount of silicone first in my opinion

:)
 
It's easier if you can post the images INTO your post.
//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=129539

But looking at the ones you linked to, I cannot see any signs of water ingress.
The housing is DESIGNED to only have a seal on the top bit. The seal goes below where the power connections are.
Any water that might get in below there is not important, and there will be a drain aperture to deal with this.

You don't need to do anything except to follow PrenticeBoyofDerry's advice re an RCD.
 
Taylortwocities said:
It's easier if you can post the images INTO your post.
//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=129539

But looking at the ones you linked to, I cannot see any signs of water ingress.
The housing is DESIGNED to only have a seal on the top bit. The seal goes below where the power connections are.
Any water that might get in below there is not important, and there will be a drain aperture to deal with this.

Put away that silicone and stop worrying. You don't need to do anything except to follow PrenticeBoyofDerry's advice re an RCD.
Click to expand...
 
I'm concerned that the incomming supply appears to be single insulated figure of 8 cable, unless I'm mistaken and there appears to be an earth connection which has not been connected.
 
Hi Taylor,

Thanks for the heads up re' images.

If you guys feel this is normal then I'll stop worrying.

I've just realised that I forgot to mention that I'd found an old Mira transformer in the loft which had clearly been cut out of the circuit. It was designed to dial down the voltage to 24v which clearly this model wont work on, so its from an older shower. I think this too added to my concern that this had been a rough job by a previous person.

I assume you guys know of, or are using showers that are powered in the same way?
 
There are (were?) pumped showers which used 12V or 24V. Seems likely that the previous shower was one of those, and whoever replaced it reused the old ELV cable for the mains, probably because it is cemented into the wall behind the tiles.

There is nothing wrong with 240V showers - all of those which heat the water are, so that's the vast majority.

This installation is wrong, as that 2 core cable is probably not rated for mains use, and there is no earth connection.
 
OK. I cannot find the installation instructions for that particular MIRA shower, but a similar model says the following - that you should be concerned about:

1. The shower unit must be earthed by connecting the supply cable earth conductor to the earth terminal.

In your picture, there are only two conductors and third terminal. Is that marked with a earth symbol? If so the unit MUST MUST be earthed.
My guess is that there was a previous shower (24v as you have guessed) and they installed this replacement one and used the existing wiring. The 24v shower would not have required an earth.,
Why did they do this? because it would have meant chopping off the tiles to supply an earth.

It is dangerous to use, if the unit is not earthed.
Best to call MIRA customer services on Monday to confirm my suspicion.


Also the instructions say:
5. A 30 mA RCD (residual current device) must be fitted. This may be part of the consumer unit or a separate unit.

So you need one, if there isn't one protecting the circuit for the shower.
 
Thanks Taylor, this is really helpful.

I've called my farther now, whom is the qualified electrician of the family and he's going to call round tomorrow to sort it out.

In the mean time I've cut the electric supply to the shower at the switch I found in the loft.

Thanks again.
 
Untitled

Untitled

Issue seems to be missing earth wire. My mother had one of these fitted and that one would work A1 without any power in fact she would not notice when the shower upstairs had tripped the RCD feeding both.

When a new boiler was fitted and the water tanks removed the power shower also had to be removed and was replaced with a simple thermostatic valve type which to be honest works a lot better.

It will depend on where the cold water tank is fitted but often not required. Also there is a type where simple pressure switch activates the pump which is mounted in the loft not in the bathroom however my problem was getting original pipes to fit new thermostatic shower and ended up using chrome plated pipes exposed.
 
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