Electric shower switches off

[DIY_Hero]

Hello everyone!

We've been at our house for about 6 months and had no problems with our shower, until the last week or so.

It's an electric shower (don't know much else about it), and the problem is that after pulling the cord to switch the shower on, then turning the knob to produce the water, the water will heat up for about 3 minutes, then the light goes out and the shower goes cold.

I tried it this mornnig and it only stayed on for about 15 seconds.

It will come on again after we leave it for a while, but then it won't stay on.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[HDRW]

It's an electric shower (don't know much else about it), and the problem is that after pulling the cord to switch the shower on, then turning the knob to produce the water, the water will heat up for about 3 minutes, then the light goes out and the shower goes cold.

I tried it this mornnig and it only stayed on for about 15 seconds.

It will come on again after we leave it for a while, but then it won't stay on.

It sounds like a self-resetting safety cutout of some sort - they have things like an "anti scald" trip which makes sure the water temperature doesn't exceed a dangerous level, a "low pressure" trip that shuts down if there's insufficient water supply, and/or an element-overheat trip.

Is it possible that the thing is furred-up with limescale (are you in a hard water area)? If the water is flowing properly that's the most likely thing, causing overheating.

Cheers,

Howard

 

[felix]

It sounds like an overheat thermostat is cutting out. I can think of two reasons why this may have started after six months of apparently trouble-free operation:

1) Your mains water is warmer than it was in the middle of winter.

2) Shower heads gradually clog with lime scale and the flow rate drops.

Either or both of these can cause some showers to go into overheat.

 

[DIY_Hero]

Thank you for your replies, that's most helpful.

It might be that the Mrs turned it up too hot, so I shall turn it down, if that doesn't work then I'll be fighting limescale!

Many thanks!

 

[delmel]

Try cleaning the head of the shower unit, gunk restricts the flow.

If its a Triton bin it

 

[scoobydooby]

I had a job like that the other day, just turns out it was the obvious, a dodgy switch, new one in, problem sorted

 

[Steve]

if it has 2 power settings, turn it down a notch, most people use the top setting, but if you have warm supply water or low pressure, you probably only need the low power setting

 

[DIY_Hero]

Hi,

well the problem I had was that the shower failed to come back on at all!

I found where the power supply was, no switches tripped. Anyway, switch off the power, switched it back on and the shower came on.

Took your advice and turned the temperature down a bit, and hey presto and working shower!

Woo Hoo!

Many thanks to one and all.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Took your advice and turned the temperature down a bit, and hey presto and working shower!

Mmm - but for how long? I fear you may only have masked the symptoms, not cured the problem. At any useable temperature setting the overheat sensor should not cut out.