Is what I have done to my electric shower safe?

[Turrican73]

Hi all....

My problem was a erratic shower temperature. I took it apart to find a wire had been touching the pump/heater and burned through thus making 'contact'. By experimentation I discovered the shower was fine when the exposed wire was moved away from the pump yet went cool when it touched - Problem identified...

In order to fix this I moved the offending wire but an unknown brittle and burned component shattered as I did this - This component seemingly joined two blue wires together at the bottom of the shower and it obviously had some function. A resistor maybe? Anyway, I connected the two blue wires WITHOUT this now broken component in the middle and the shower works just fine.

However, I'm worried the thing that's now missing in my shower might be important - The shower is a 1 year old Triton T80si and I found a picture of the exact part I removed. The part is like a small (thimball sized) black cylinder with two small metal connectors at one end - The pic shows it perfectly and I have drawn an arrow...

//www.diynot.com/network/Turrican73/albums/11344/42492

I'd very much like your opinions of whether my removal and the non existence of this component is an 'issue'...

Thanks in advance

A.

 

[Spark123]

It looks like a thermal cutout, its purpose being to cut the shower out if it overheats. It is a safety device and should not be disconnected.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

It is, and more than should not, it must not be omitted.

And Turrican - you must stop poking around inside electrical appliances when you don't have a clue what you are doing, and end up doing stupid things like making random guesses about what something broken might have been and deciding to not bother replacing it anyway.

 

[Turrican73]

Thanks for replies and your specific feedback on my approach ban-all-sheds.

Would I be correct in saying this cut out would come in to play if the inside of the shower gets far to hot then (as opposed to the water temp).

Does this happen much in your experiences? What can cause it? Say, as a consequence of leaving the shower on too long?

What's the outcome of NOT having a thermal cut out? Would over heating lead to some bigger issue like the pump over heating and breaking?

And lastly, is it best to get another cut out (basically order the part in the picture) and avoid using the shower until it's fitted. Or use the shower for max 5 mins at a time in the interim?

Thanks in advance... A.

 

[oasistechnical]

sorry to say this but..............

the gene pool is a bit low so i really think that if you carry on doing this sort of thing you will be joining it very soon!!!

safety devices fitted to appiances are there for a purpose

DO NOT REMOVE AND OR MODIFY ANY OF THE INTERNALS UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT THE HELL YOU ARE DOING!!!!


Oasis

 

[bernardgreen]

What's the outcome of NOT having a thermal cut out? Would over heating lead to some bigger issue like the pump over heating and breaking?.

If it is an electrically heated shower then what you have done could lead to scalding hot water and serious injury to the person in the shower or it could result in the unit being destroyed by fire. That could result in live bare wires being exposed and throwing water onto the burning shower in an attempt to put the fire out could prove fatal.

DO NOT USE THAT SHOWER UNTIL IT HAS BEEN REPAIRED OR REPLACED BY A COMPETENT PERSON

What you have done proves without doubt that you are NOT competent in shower maintainance.

 

[Turrican73]

Interesting replies.

Based on what you have all said I will not use the shower and get someone out to fix it...

 

[riveralt]

Interesting replies.

Based on what you have all said I will not use the shower and get someone out to fix it...

If the shower is only a year old I would have called Triton and claimed under their guarantee - the one year is arbitary and given that we expect showers to last longer than 12 months they normally sort something out.
However, opening it up and removing bits will have invalidated any chance you have of that - sorry.
It might more cost effective just to replace the shower rather than you paying for someone to come out and fix it.

 

[17thman]

Posted: Tue Feb 07, 2012 6:08 pm


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

sorry to say this but..............

the gene pool is a bit low so i really think that if you carry on doing this sort of thing you will be joining it very soon!!!

I think you mean that the gene pool will be improved!!

 

[17thman]

sorry to say this but..............

the gene pool is a bit low so i really think that if you carry on doing this sort of thing you will be joining it very soon!!!

I think you mean the gene pool will be improved

 

[Turrican73]

I think what he meant was; The process of human evolutionary improvement via natural selection would be enhanced by the removal of my own genetic code from that which is available to reproduce.

His implication was my intellectual capabilities and thefore those of my potential offspring are retrograde.

 

[WabbitPoo]

In other words, let stupid people die out before having kids....