Help. the main switch for my shower - which is outside the bathroom has started smelling of ozone and the switch itself is quite hot. There was a fishy smell for a bit, but that seems to have gone after pouring cleaner down the shower outlet. Any suggestions?
There's a poor wiring termination in there, causing overheating and probably cable damage.
Isolate the shower supply at the CU and unscrew the switch to ascertain the extent of the damage. If any cable insulation is melted, you need to cut back to undamaged cable. If there isn't enough slack then you'll probably need an electrician to help you, otherwise just replace the switch making sure that the exposed ends of all of the copper conductors are clean, bright and untarnished.
Buy the best quality switch you can find - don't skimp.
look at the ends of the copper conductors. If they have overheated (colour will have changed) this softens the copper, so that the terminals wil not be able to grip it tightly enough (it sort of squashes away from the pressure over time). in this case you need to cut it back to undamaged copper. this may be an inch or so. If this means that the wire are too short to reach the switch please report back here. it is diffcult to make a permanent joint that will not overheat again without a special tool.
The fishy smell is characteristic of the hard plastic of the switch burning.
For some reason it is usually just the Black wire that overheats.
It shouldnt be expensive if you act now. Dont use the shower until its resolved.
Fishy smell usually = loose terminations causing heating of switch and/or cable insulation
or
someone has left a lump of halibut on the radiator
Like the back of a printer! Thanks for all your help. I was able to appear totally knowledgeable with the electrician who came. The problem was exactly what you all said it would be. Burnt out plug and dodgy blackwire connection. Only problem was that they had to put the switch on upside down because there was no slack. Fish and ozone smells have disappeared!
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