Shower switch help needed

[Amius]

Hi.
Am trying to replace shower switch with pull cord, which involves wiring in 2 of each - Live, Neutral and Earth.
We are struggling to do this as the cables are so big, and are jammed tightly in the hole in the celing and switch box. When we get a few in and try to push the next cable in, the others come out again. In a tight space and not much flexability it seems near impossible.
Do we need to wire in all 6 cables?? I have read some forums which imply that some switches only require one of each to be wired in. (3 wires)

Any advice would be great.

thanks

 

[andy]

Hi.
Am trying to replace shower switch with pull cord, which involves wiring in 2 of each - Live, Neutral and Earth.
We are struggling to do this as the cables are so big, and are jammed tightly in the hole in the celing and switch box. When we get a few in and try to push the next cable in, the others come out again. In a tight space and not much flexability it seems near impossible.
Do we need to wire in all 6 cables?? I have read some forums which imply that some switches only require one of each to be wired in. (3 wires)

Any advice would be great.

thanks

all must be wired. there isnt usually much space to wire them and they can be a pain in the arse. can you not pull some wire down, wire it and then push excess back up?

 

[Amius]

Thanks.
Thought that would be that case. Spent hours on it already! Will keep trying.

 

[Amius]

The cables are pretty mangled. We might try wiring it with fresh cables, and putting junction boxes up in the loft.
At least we can cut them to the right lengths and see what we are doing!

 

[Steve]

not recommended to put junction boxes on a shower cable - the cable is usually fully loaded when the shower is on and there is enough problems with overheating contacts at switches and CUs.

 

[Amius]

Thank you

I'll see what we can do. The cables dont look in great condition though. Dont want to re-wire the whole shower if can help it.

 

[plugwash]

you'd need a pretty beefy junction box for shower cable but assuming you use sufficiantly rated boxes (e.g. http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/AAJB60.html ) and properly tighten the screws it shouldn't be a problem.

 

[Amius]

will 30 amp junction box be enough??

 

[Adam_151]

will 30 amp junction box be enough??

Very unlikely, unless your shower is pathetically underpowered

The link is the same as Plugwash's link but actually works http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/AAJB60.html

 

[macmini]

Are you using a 'proper' shower pull switch?

 

[Amius]

Yeah, proper switch.
Its a 9.5kw shower. Guess I need the 60 amp junction boxes then.

Thanks