Shower electrical fault

[lordtony666]

Hi all,

Hope someone can give me a bit of guidance here, did a search on this topic but could not find anything like this so sorry if this has been asked before.
I have a shower with a separate FCU, with a switch on the front and a red light to say its on. However when I switch on the shower the light goes off and the shower doesn't work. To save me trial and error would you say this a faulty FCU, or a faulty shower tripping it out? or something else?
thanks for any help

 

[jj4091]

I think you have a double pole switch with neon indicator rather than an fcu & it sounds like a loose or burnt terminal/cable inside it

 

[mikhailfaradayski]

poss faulty shower.

Does the fuse/mcb/rcd trip when you try to run shower?

 

[wingcoax]

As jj4091 says Switch off at the CU and then open your fcu(which is probably a shower switch) and look for loose or burnt cables.

 

[lordtony666]

thanks for the advice, I will try opening it up and having a good look at all the connections. I cannot see a fuse in the switch unit (no external access to one anyway) and yes it trips when the shower is switched on, light goes off and no power, the main CU is not tripped however which is why I thought the switch/FCU was breaking the connection there.

 

[mikhailfaradayski]

let me just try to be clear here.

The shower control switch, with the neon mounted in it. Whilst the shower itself is switched off, If you flipped this switch back and forth, does it behave itself?
Does the neon go on and off consistently with the operation of the switch?

If the answer to either of these is no, then probably a faulty switch.

If the answer to both of these is yes, then next question ---

When the shower itself is switched on, does the fuse/mcb/rcd trip?

If the answer to this is yes, then probably a faulty shower

simples

 

[oharaf]

The way I have read this is that, turns the shower on at the switch and the neon goes out and the shower does not work.

So if you turn the switch off, does the neon come on? And if so does the shower work?

If this is the case then the connections are in the wrong terminals at the switch!!!

 

[ColJack]

The way I have read this is that, turns the shower on at the switch and the neon goes out and the shower does not work.

So if you turn the switch off, does the neon come on? And if so does the shower work?

If this is the case then the connections are in the wrong terminals at the switch!!!

your logic is incorrect..
if it was wired into the wrong terminals at the switch, the neon would be lit whatever the switch was doing..

 

[jj4091]

The way I have read this is that, turns the shower on at the switch and the neon goes out and the shower does not work.

So if you turn the switch off, does the neon come on? And if so does the shower work?

If this is the case then the connections are in the wrong terminals at the switch!!!

your logic is incorrect..
if it was wired into the wrong terminals at the switch, the neon would be lit whatever the switch was doing..

Not if it is loosing the input supply due to a bad connection which is breaking down under load. Which is what I was trying to say in my first post.

 

[mikhailfaradayski]

i read this as the isolator(with neon) in itself is ok.

The problem seems top occur only when the shower's own on/off switch is operated.

Guess nobody will know unless Tony gives more info.

 

[lordtony666]

Hi there,
Sorry for not getting back sooner.
I think what mikhailfaradayski makes sense thinking about it.
The shower switch behaves itself when the shower is not turned on, the switch will go up and down (bit looser than before but the light goes on and off). When you switch on the shower itself the light goes off (trips) and nothing happens at all. It cannot be a case of the terminals being wrongly connected as its worked fine for years and just started doing this. Checking the back it appears that the wires are all securely connected so nothing has occured there.
Looks like the shower is on the fritz.
Damn thats a more expensive thing to fix
Thanks for all you input you have saved me hours of swearing and tinkering!

 

[sparkyspike]

When you turn the shower off agin, does the isolator light come back on?

Also, when it goes out, are you sure it's not just very dim?