Sparks from electric shower !!!!!!

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Hello,

Just had a scary experience with a few sparks flying out the bottom of my 5 year old triton t80 electric 9.5kw shower. They appear when you switch it on but also when its operating i think...didnt want to try too long. They appeared near the shower hose outlet. When I took off the front cover, I saw that both the blue wires were scorched and the flex is practically melted completely! The overflow plastic pipe appears to have melted on one side too probably due to these wires. Both these wires seem to attach to a black circular (solenoid???..not sure) which also appears scorched too.

I've uploaded the picture in //www.diynot.com/network/cardob00/albums/

What are my next steps...apart from not using the shower obviously :confused: .

1) Can these wires be replaced? And if so where can you buy them and easy to replace? What about the black circular thing?

2) if not, can I simply replace the shower with a t80z which has the flexible electric and water inlet pipes switchable. Not sure this will work with without having to add extra pipe work to the water inlet...which I don't want to do. The water pipe enters my t80 on bottom right.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
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There's a manufacturer's phone number on the heater unit - have you rung them - they offer technical assistance.

The "black circular thing" is probably the cause of the burnt wires, so simply replacing the wires won't do you any good. It looks like a high temperature cut-out.
 
Would put money on the neutrals being loose on the terminals. A picture of it all in situ would be more helpful.
 
This is not a repair you should be trying yourself, you need someone qualified, please dont mess around with this
 
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I would never advise a Triton to anyone!

But it does look easily repairable to me.

I wonder if its supplied from an RCD ?

Tony
 
Huge and others,

Thanks for the advise. As the triton shower from screw fix was only £50 I opted to go for that as replacement parts would prob be more costly and time sourcing etc. sounds from reviews on score fix that this is a decent shower...looks like I might get away with a straight forward replacement for the old t80i I had as the inlet is on the right..whereas the t80z fast fit looks like its on left and would need some pipe work.

Opted for the 8.5kw model to replace the existing 9.5 one....my thinking was that as there isn't good water pressure it made little sense getting a more powerful one? Also just I case the old 9.5 kw one burnt out due to restrictions somewhere along the circuits it would be safer going for the lesser 8.5...again only my simple views..

Assume the MCB at 40A will still be ok.
 
Showers should now be supplied via an RCD!

40A will be adequate for less than 10 kW at which load it would trip.

I don't see how any supply woring would damage your unit.

I have never seen any decent Triton product!
 
So got hold of the Triton Enrich from screwfix (thanks Hugh for the link) at £50 is seems worth it but as Agile says perhaps it wont last ...time will tell.

I've installed this will not too much of a problem - biggest issue was trying to get the O compression ring jammed up the old shower inlet pipe - hacksaw!

Only problem was that the new ENRICH shower has the termnical block slightly LOWER than the T80i replaced shower. Though I know I probably should and could have trimmed the wires, I was thinking that IF the shower does need replacing again and the terminal block is higher (like the old one), I wouldn't have to "extend" wires (there is no slack in the wires and all clipped in.

The result is a lightly twisted or kinked cable inside the shower unit - see picture.


Will this be ok or too risky/overheat the cable (well pretty sure it's 10mm?). Any advice would be appreciated.....I am guessing this might be ok short term but over time it might cause an issue?

Also other minor issue was the Earth terminal was even lower than the other terminal block - couldnt get away without trimming it slightly.

PS. There is a RCD (be it an old one i think) attached to the main fuseboard.
 

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