Voltage leak in bathroom

[diesel75]

Hello,

We a voltage leak with our ensuite shower controls and shower hose. This is intermittant, once every 2 weeks or so, its not 240v but quite nasty shock! The shower is driven by a pump - so assuming that this is the problem, as when the pump is off it does not happen. However in our main bathroom, this does not get live - even when the ensuite is live - they run off the same pump.

We have had 2 electricians round now, everything has been earthed and checked but this has not resolved it - both were stumped, and it's getting expensive!! Can anybody suggest a possible approach.

Cheers

 

[JohnD]

Tell me more about the qualifications of your two electricians

Why did you use two different ones for the same problem?

What are you doing when you get this shock - standing barefoot on the floor and touching a pipe? Or standing in a metal bath?

Do you see any spark?

Does the shock last for a fraction of a second, or continue until you let go of the pipe? If the second, then it probably IS 240volts and you are lucky that so far it has not killed anyone.

I have a feeling you have a fairly old electrical installation with no RCD. the cause may well be related to a water leak getting onto an electrical part.

There are two things you urgently need to do:
1) Turn off the shower pump that seems to be causing the problem
2) Find a competent electrician

 

[diesel75]

Thanks for your reply JohnD. Both are qualified - we used the same company, who sent a different guy round the second time.

Standing barefoot in the shower (plastic base but wet!) and touching either the controls or hose. No sparks - to be honest didnt want to hold touch it for too long to find out, but held it long enought to turn controls off. I'm pretty confident its not 240v though - I have had the missfortune to feel that before..

 

[JohnD]

have you got a cast-iron soil pipe or a lead or other metal waste pipe?

 

[Spark123]

One I saw a few years ago was in a shower block. They were all getting shocks and whatever the sparks did didn't appear to solve the problem, supplementary bonding, driving in earth rods etc. We got a map from the DNO network for some unrelated work and found the HV earth running parallel to the sewer. By that point the shower block was not in use.

 

[diesel75]

Thanks for that, I can't seem to find access to the pipes - due to an extension, just can see the plastic connectors - but it is a 1930's house so this could be the issue. Can anyone recommend an electrician in the Woking area of Surrey? 3rd time lucky perhaps.....

 

[JohnD]

As well as fixing the fault, you ought to have an RCD on your socket circuits, and especially any circuit which supplies the bathroom.

Metal waste pipes are not common these days so are often forgotten when it comes to bonding. From what you were saying you were not in contact with two metal objects, just the shower and the water in the ?plastic? bath

The reason I still say it is a mains-voltage shock is that I see no reason why you should be shocked by e.g. a battery-operated or low-voltage transformer as you do not mention one. I think it is a mains shock and so far you have been lucky that it has not been strong enough to kill you.

Buy a lottery ticket if you feel lucky.

It would be very interesting to see a photo of the areas showing your consumer unit (fusebox), incoming supply, main fuse, and the wires around them, especially the green-and-yellow ones.

I hope you have stopped using that shower.

 

[IJWS15]

If the house is 30s it could quite easily have both lead cold water pipes and lead bath/basin drains.

The only house I re-wired (DIY) had interesting bonding in the bathroom - radiator, iron bath, copper hot and cold supplies, lead bath waste, lead basin waste and lead toilet waste - all bonded! It was built in the early 50s and re-wired in the early 90s.

 

[securespark]

held it long enought to turn controls off.

Can you elaborate on this bit, please?

 

[diesel75]

hi securespark - to turn the controls off is about 1/2 a turn. I think I am going to just bite the bullet and get a 3rd electrician round. At £80 a time though is expensive...

the shower is certainly not being used!

 

[DESL]

try this link

http://www.competentperson.co.uk/

just enter your post code


Also if you haven't got one now get an RCD fitted or ideally a new consumer unit.

 

[steve1811uk]

You paid the electricians when they didn't fix the problem?!

 

[JohnD]

I offer a no-fix service for only £50. Better value than your previous company.

Just give the money and I won't fix the fault.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

I can beat that - pay me £35 and I won't even inconvenience you by making you wait in for me to turn up, but I will match JohnD's service guarantee.

 

[JohnD]

I'm the Tantric electrician.

You stay in all day and nobody comes.