2 electric showers and melted live wire from relay

[Jberry]

This unit is running two showers. Unit was smoking while one shower was running, never tripped the safety switch. Power to one shower is cut off while the other is in use. Is it ok just to change out the relay that had burned? I'm not an electrician but one will be doing the work. The house is rented and the landlord will be arranging the repairs but I'm afraid he probably wont send someone who's registered

 

[Charlie_]

Why not? The contactor setup is there to ensure only one shower is used at any one time.

How do you know that?
That’s how it’s supposed to be but look at the state of it

 

[Jberry]

This type of ‘shower’ contractor board is generally used abroad if I’m not mistaken ?

In 20+ years of doing odd domestic wiring , I think I have only ever come across one of these once and iirc it was made in Ireland

Either way , it looks like a dogs dinner ...

Do you have any electrical safety certificates for the rented property as those would make interesting reading

Nope no safety certificates.. do you see the wires leaving the right side box and going into the upper left of the next box? Can you see they leave the box and go out through a hole in the main wall and run along the back of the house, they then enter and go to the second shower. The first shower is upstairs, the grey cable entering from the upper right of the box on the right is feeding the upstairs shower

 

[Jberry]

This type of ‘shower’ contractor board is generally used abroad if I’m not mistaken ?

In 20+ years of doing odd domestic wiring , I think I have only ever come across one of these once and iirc it was made in Ireland

Either way , it looks like a dogs dinner ...

Do you have any electrical safety certificates for the rented property as those would make interesting reading

Nope no safety certificates.. do you see the wires leaving the right side box and going into the upper left of the next box? Can you see they leave the box and go out through a hole in the main wall and run along the back of the house, they then enter and go to the second shower. The first shower is upstairs, the grey cable entering from the upper right of the box on the right is feeding the upstairs shower

 

[Pete999]

This type of ‘shower’ contractor board is generally used abroad if I’m not mistaken ?

In 20+ years of doing odd domestic wiring , I think I have only ever come across one of these once and iirc it was made in Ireland

Either way , it looks like a dogs dinner ...

Do you have any electrical safety certificates for the rented property as those would make interesting reading

Dogs Dinner is putting it nicely Dusty, Lash up is a more apt description, a Bert job from down the local if I'm not mistaken.

 

[Dustydazzler]

If it were me I would be condemning the whole thing until a thorough eicr inspection was carried out on the entire installation.

But 99% of landlords I know won’t pay for a proper eicr to be done and will just get bodge it a scarper round to ‘fix’ the problem

 

[Jberry]

If it were me I would be condemning the whole thing until a thorough eicr inspection was carried out on the entire installation.

But 99% of landlords I know won’t pay for a proper eicr to be done and will just get bodge it a scarper round to ‘fix’ the problem

I'm waiting on the landlords reply. I have told him I want it investigated and someone registered who can provide a cert for the work

 

[Spoon]

So, what power rating are your showers?

 

[SparkyChick]

So, what power rating are your showers?

Post 12:- 2 electric showers and melted live wire from relay - https://www.electriciansforums.co.uk/threads/2-electric-showers-and-melted-live-wire-from-relay.173190/#post-1524259

8.5 and 9 kW I believe

 

[TJ Anderson]

How do you know that?
That’s how it’s supposed to be but look at the state of it

It's a shower priority unit. It will only one run at a time with one taking priority over the other. Terribly installed though!!

 

[Jberry]

So, what power rating are your showers?

9kw & 8.5kw

 

[Jberry]

It's a shower priority unit. It will only one run at a time with one taking priority over the other. Terribly installed though!!

It was basically smoking while my son was in the shower. We had to turn it off as nothing tripped

 

[ChrisElectrical88]

Thats a right lash up. Recently used a shower priority unit, same one as yours, made in ireland. I however moved all the guts into a metal housing. There a great concept, the switchgear is average.

 

[TJ Anderson]

.

 

[TJ Anderson]

ABB Switchgear is very good.

All that needs is a 230v coil, n/o contactor rated 40A or above. They come with 4 pole but only use 2. It's suitably protected against overload by the 40A MCB. That has overheated either due to contactor failing or poor termination. Just get the contactor and damaged wiring replaced.

 

[SparkyChick]

It was basically smoking while my son was in the shower. We had to turn it off as nothing tripped

The smoking will have been caused by the overheating of the conductor and the consequential burning of the plastic insulation (most likely due to a poor termination). It's unlikely any of the protective devices would trip because electrically the only fault appears to have been a bad termination, there doesn't appear to have been any unwanted connections say between live and neutral or earth which would cause the devices to trip.

Basically it looks like a simple case of bad workmanship when it was installed, but as I said, definitely not the first time this has happened.

As for you wanting to see paperwork from the electrical contractor (I use the term loosely based on what you've said), you're not the person ordering the work so technically you've got no right to see the paperwork.