Shower lash up

[South Spark]

I was called into a property where I was told that the shower fuse had blown. On investigation it turned out that a 9.8 KW shower was connected with 10mm T+E but only as far as the nearest fused spur on the upstairs ring main. They'd used a 45A cooker switch to terminate the 10mm then switched to 2.5 to connect into the supply side of the fused spur (which is powering a kind of sit down jacuzzi and seems to be correctly installed). They'd even done it in the old colours!

Apparently this work was done last August - I've taken photos - the 2.5 in the old colours was melted and fused together - it blew the RCD at the consumer unit and the tenants just haven't touched the shower since it started smoking.

1) What chance is there that the shower unit is still functional - should I tell her that she needs that swapping and will need a plumber?

2) What recourse does she have against the shower installers?

 

[Octopus]

IMHO you should provide an estimate to install the electrics properly and leave the rest to the homeowner.

 

[tonycoysh]

Sorry this is of no help to you but.......

You have to laugh or you'd cry!

Surely you'd be best sorting the wiring out and check the shower and advise her from there? The wiring needs sorting anyway so it's not like you're wasting your time.

As for recourse maybe she would be best going to citizen's advice or something armed with pictures and see where that gets her first? Or contacting the company?

 

[Dave 85]

Thats class, just class.

 

[Dan the spark]

I'd do the lot if I were you mate, showers are nice and easy to swap over, nice little profit

 

[GLENNSPARK]

any notification for this shower? ...as in "shower of ****"..lol.....i bet not....given the old colours...lol.........

 

[giles-stone]

I thought I'd done a good job n all......

 

[GLENNSPARK]

well we all like to think that we`v done a "good job"...lol......done a good turn more like....as in..quids=arse pocket..lol....

 

[DNS1]

1) What chance is there that the shower unit is still functional - should I tell her that she needs that swapping and will need a plumber?

Shower unit itself should be fine shouldn't it? Wouldn't it have just draw it's normal current until the insulation melted and the RCD/MCB tripped?

 

[South Spark]

I think the unit should be fine - obviously I'll open it up to see if there's internal damage but was hoping to draw on other's experience as I don't want to be doing a good wiring job on a damaged shower.

Btw - the original job was apparently done by a "friend of a friend handyman"

 

[cook1e]

I would be equally concerned with the rest of the 2.5 mm circuit, the heat build up in the cable will possibly have damaged it elsewhere, not just where it became apparrent

Martin

 

[tony mc]

I was called into a property where I was told that the shower fuse had blown. On investigation it turned out that a 9.8 KW shower was connected with 10mm T+E but only as far as the nearest fused spur on the upstairs ring main.

Some pictures would be good especially re the upstairs ring main fused spur that you mention!

 

[Octopus]

I too would be concerned about any damage to the supplying "ring". A full test of said circuit must be conducted too IMHO

 

[South Spark]

obviously I'm not ticketed for inspections. However it would be pretty straightforward to unplug everything on the upstairs ring and do the full set of tests from the board I suppose.

 

[tony mc]

IMHO I would't worry about tickets etc I would be testing each and every cct that you believe has been affected.

This is a distress call which has luckily not caused a fire.

I would be having a good look at the up final ring cct and then performing all the tests having a good look at all the results especially the IR ones just to make sure that the cct is safe to re energise.

Because of this cowboy install I would stongly recommend that a full periodic inspection be carried out to identify any other problems that might just be hideing!!

 

[cook1e]

i would also check in other sockets on the ring for heat damage, maybe the cables have gone brittle

martin

 

[bwm730]

At least it blew the MCB/RCD. Just returned from a callout where the shower stopped working due to a broken isolation switch. Went to turn off the supply in the main consumer unit and couldn't find the shower fuse. Therefore turned off the 100amp main switch and guess what, the shower isolation switch still had 240v on the supply side. Undone the consumer unit cover and found the 6mm shower supply cable had been piggy backed off the incoming meter tails and no inline RCD. The only protection for the shower was the DNO fuse. Apparently the shower was installed by a plumber last year and he got an "electrician" in to connect the wiring, no certificates as usual. How do these people sleep at night ?

 

[londonlec]

Stanley FatMax slotted screwdriver: universal screwdriver, key, floor bar, basher...