Triton Shower Power Light

[Bill Woods]

Hello

Apologies if this is the wrong forum but as its "electrical" related i thought i would try here first

My daughter has a Triton Shower in the house she moved in to, this unit is a low end model and does not have an on/off switch on the unit itself so she has been using the isolator pull cord to switch it "on and off" otherwise the power light remains on all the time.

Consequently the switch has now burnt out and needs replacing, having a read around it appears as if the isolator should not be used as an on off switch which means the unit is powered up all the time

The Triton manual says: " In normal use, it is in order to leave the water supply permanently on to the shower unit, but as with most electrical appliances, the unit must be switched off at the isolating switch when not in use."

so what constitutes "not in use" as with any normal person not in use to me means when you are not getting a shower or does it mean when it will not be used for an extended period of time ?

Any opinions or advice please

Thanks

 

[ETAF]

i suspect you may not be able to work out the rating from the case - Also the switch rating

What is the model - i assume you can turn off the water flow, from the unit itself ? or are you turning it on/off while its running ?

i would expect an isolating switch of the correct current rating to be fine switching on off, if the unit is not running
If its burnt out, then maybe a loose connection or wrong rating -
we have a triton shower with a pull switch - the shower is a 9.5W and we use a 45A DP cord Switch

 

[JohnD]

if you turn the shower to "cold" then the heating element will be off. I would have thought it would also be off if you turn the water flow off. In either case there should be no significant load on the switch contacts of the ceiling isolator.

Of course, if you operate the isolator when the shower is running at max power, there will be quite a lot of load on it.

An isolator is not quite the same as a switch, as it can be used to isolate a circuit that has already been turned off. I don't know if that applies to shower pull-switches, but the max load is probably the biggest of anything in your house. If fitting a new one, I'd go for the highest rating you can find by a reputable UK maker. IME pull-cord switches, even for lights, have a shorter life than ordinary wall switches.

I have known some very high-rated breakers which are humorously described as capable of breaking a load on xxx kA "but maybe only once" meaning that they will be irrepairably damaged by turning off the max load in an emergency or fault condition..

 

[mikehammer69]

Yes the life span is not great with some isolators

Especially if used to control the shower which some people do

 

[endecotp]

she has been using the isolator pull cord to switch it "on and off"

With the water running or not?

 

[Bill Woods]

Hi thanks for the replies

The unit is an 8.5kw and the switch was a BG 45 amp, it has burnt out on the feed neutral

The shower has an off selection, actually "stop" alongside 3 heat selections of high, econ and cold, it is always stopped before she gets out the shower and the isolator switched off sometime later

Its not an issue to leave the isolator on all the time as this was always the case in her previous house where the shower also had a power on off button, it is just the fact that the shower power light is also on and this would leave people, myself included to believe this would be detrimental to the shower itself, especially with the Triton instructions being so vague, as mentioned in my first post

 

[ETAF]

was it tight , i saw that on my brothers switch all burnt out - but the cable was loose in the connection

otherwise it sounds like it was all used fine

 

[endecotp]

Consequently the switch has now burnt out and needs replacing

I don’t think the switch has failed as a consequence of being turned on and off, since there will have been zero current flowing when it was operated. Most likely, the connection where it has failed was not tight. It would have failed anyway.

Replace the switch. Use a good-quality replacement. Cut back the burned cable to bright copper.

Modern electric shower instructions do tell you to turn them off externally when they are not in use. There have been other discussions about this, e.g. https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/shower-isolator.647776/

 

[333rocky333]

Im sure they use the same bs en number that allows use as a switch as well as an isolater

 

[Bill Woods]

@ETAF and endecotp

Think you are both right, im going for a loose connection specifically because the switch is located right into a corner and its a proper PITA to connect all 6 wires up tight, there is very little room for manoeuvring and you would have to twist it round once you have one wire connected to get access to the screws for the other two on one side, chances are that the jiggling around has loosed one of those connections

Thanks all for the replies and advice

 

[ebee]

Personally I always like there to be an isolator switch preferably immediately outside the bathroom - I’m not keen on pull switches of that type, they require a good pull and on some I’ve seen you might pull the ceiling down or loosen it before the switch pulls to off. I do not advocate using one as an on off switch it is not usually required, a switch somewhere near to the shower and easily identified as being for the shower rather than going far away to the consumer unit and throwing the whole lot off just to be shower.

Simply put - have an isolator but do not normally use it but if you really need to then there it is nearby.

 

[mikehammer69]

P

Personally I always like there to be an isolator switch preferably immediately outside the bathroom - I’m not keen on pull switches of that type, they require a good pull and on some I’ve seen you might pull the ceiling down or loosen it before the switch pulls to off. I do not advocate using one as an on off switch it is not usually required, a switch somewhere near to the shower and easily identified as being for the shower rather than going far away to the consumer unit and throwing the whole lot off just to be shower.

Simply put - have an isolator but do not normally use it but if you really need to then there it is nearby.

The pull cord type is ok as well if good quality and properly installed

And as you say do not use it unless needed