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Any Electricians?


JD™

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Hi All,

Hopefully some bright spark on the forum will be able to help me out. I'm currently sitting around like a ball of grease after my shower decided to pack in this morning. It's an electric power shower which has it's own box of fuses off the main fusebox in my utility cupboard. There's 3 on there, one for the pump which pumps water through the drain (it's a wet room), one for the shower itself and a 'main' one which I guess overrides those 2.

Whenever I flick the switch to start the shower in the bathroom, it trips the main switch straight back off again. If I manually turn off the shower fuse and turn the main one back on then the pump works fine, so it must be something to do with the shower fuse. I can't see any way to take the module out and don't know what to do next to get it going. Off to work now smelly though... :(

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Stepdaddy was stood behind me as I was reading and said if your fuse is 30amp then upgrade that to 40/45 and try that.

Edit: I don't have a f**king clue though, don't blame me if it goes wrong :P

Yea I meant to say in the original post (but I was rushing) that there doesn't seem to be any way of getting these fuses out, which is a bit odd... Didn't have much time to look, but there were no screws and it didn't just pull out - Prise with a screwdriver?

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As long as you turn off the power firsttttt. Stepdaddy also said you might want to look at getting it replaced or some shit. Apparently if you can't get into it it's probably dead old.

I'll get some pics later. The place was only built in 1994 so it's not proper old, looks in good nick I just can't work out how to get it out. I'd be comfortable replacing the fuse wire and stuff if I knew that was definitely what it was..

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I'll get some pics later. The place was only built in 1994 so it's not proper old, looks in good nick I just can't work out how to get it out. I'd be comfortable replacing the fuse wire and stuff if I knew that was definitely what it was..

If it was built in 1994, the board shouldn't have fuses/fuse wire. They should be MCBs. So you have to take off the whole front cover, & remove the wires to replace it.

REALLY don't recommend doing this yourself, as it can be stupidly dangerous if you don't know what you're doing (Being shot across the room in a ball of fire kinda dangerous). Thing is, if the shower used to work, there could be a wiring fault somewhere, or the rating of the MCB is fine, but it has just died itself (Not likely, but possible)

Sounds about time to call in a spark to be honest!

Edited by Tarquin
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Hannah, considering your stepdad is an "electrician", that is a f**king ridiculous (not to mention dangerous!) thing to suggest. I would be ashamed to call myself an electrician with an attitude like that.

If its tripping the RCD main switch (which is what's protecting the other 2 mcb's) then the shower itself has a fault. Normally it will be a live to earth short, or it could be a live/neutral short, but either way, you have a fault in the shower (which will more than likely need replacing by the sounds of it).

I would highly recommend getting an electrician in. Shower cicuits (which normally run at anything from 30-63amps) could quite easily kill you.

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Thanks guys. You've just totally backed up what a buddys dad told me. He said it could be as simple as changing something in the shower, but I'll have to look into that. Glad I didn't poke around when I got the cover of the MCBs off now!

Hannah, your stepdad must really dislike me...

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Sorry to sound harsh.. but you shouldnt be touching it at all (fuse box) Obviously your not 'part p' and niceic registered. So my advice would be to get a qualified electrician. If you know someone genuine this will not be an expensive problem to sort out. In case your wondering im a plumber and it annoys me know end when people 'have a go' then call someone. Just shows they are trying to save a buck or two. They end up causing more problems and costing themsevles more.

Sorry about the rant, just being honest.

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Sorry to sound harsh.. but you shouldnt be touching it at all (fuse box) Obviously your not 'part p' and niceic registered. So my advice would be to get a qualified electrician. If you know someone genuine this will not be an expensive problem to sort out. In case your wondering im a plumber and it annoys me know end when people 'have a go' then call someone. Just shows they are trying to save a buck or two. They end up causing more problems and costing themsevles more.

Sorry about the rant, just being honest.

Or, I could be trying to fault find so that I can give the man in the know the right information saving him and me time and money. I clearly haven't done any work, just poked about to see whether I could isolate the problem.

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He will have a megameter (sp) for fault finding.. leave professional jobs to the professionals. Your interference will only hinder him and not mention its very dangerous. Dont think im being funny.. im trying to help you out.

Edited by mods
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He will have a megameter (sp) for fault finding.. leave professional jobs to the professionals. Your interference will only hinder him and not mention its very dangerous. Dont think im being funny.. im trying to help you out.

A megametre (American spelling: megameter, symbol Mm) is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one million metres

You mean a multimeter? Lulz.

Be careful checking it out for yourself man, Looks horrible getting thrown backwards if you touch the wrong thing, Supervisor at work did it a few weeks ago poking about a drive cupboard without a clue what he's doing

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He will have a megameter (sp) for fault finding.. leave professional jobs to the professionals. Your interference will only hinder him and not mention its very dangerous. Dont think im being funny.. im trying to help you out.

megameter? thats a new one. u mean a multifunction test meter made by megger, many other makes also, fluke etc....

have you put any nails into walls or drilled into anywhere? the rcd is tripping due to a short between either line- earth or neutral- earth.

get a sparky in. should be a nice easy job. 1 hour max.

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A megametre (American spelling: megameter, symbol Mm) is a unit of length in the metric system, equal to one million metres

You mean a multimeter? Lulz.

megameter? thats a new one. u mean a multifunction test meter made by megger, many other makes also, fluke etc....

have you put any nails into walls or drilled into anywhere? the rcd is tripping due to a short between either line- earth or neutral- earth.

get a sparky in. should be a nice easy job. 1 hour max.

a mega is a trade name for a multimeter. Just like hoover and vacuum cleaner. You ask any half competent sparky for a mega, he'll know what you're on about.

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I've just had a thought... I put up a shelf at the weekend, which obviously involved drilling. It was over the other side of the flat though and Leanne had a shower after that although it was temperamental then. It's been temperamental before then though too. Put my mind at ease TF, it's proper unlikely that the drilling has anything to do with this right?

In the unlikely (?) event that it does have something to do with it, what is likely to have to be done in that case?

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If you have been drilling you might have caught the outer casing of the cable for the shower and live and earth are touching where the copper is exposed causing a short (rcd/mcb tripping)

Edited by TJ.
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If you have been drilling you might have caught the outer casing of the cable for the shower and live and earth are touching where the copper is exposed causing a short (rcd/mcb tripping)

Yea, but look at what I said... The problem was occurring intermittently before I did the drilling and the wire is over the other end of the flat - near a back door and in the opposite direction to the fuse box. In fact, thinking about it - the wire from the fusebox (rcd whatever) goes straight into the bathroom which is next door. I've pretty much put my own mind at ease through common sense and logic, but thanks. I'll let you know if I'm wrong and some bright spark has run the wire from the fusebox all the way round the flat to the bathroom instead of the direct route!

Gonna go buy a new shower tonight and fit it and see what's gwaanin, because there's some odd looking marks inside the current one. Was gonna redo the bathroom anyway so might as well just do it now...

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