PigletJohn? Question about electric shower?

[NK5BM3]

Hi pigletJohn
Can you help?? My shower has decided not to hear up the water anymore. Dh nearly electrocuted himself and took a look and has come to the conclusion that the thermostat isn't working anymore...

Could that be right? He's pretty handy around the house and I'm also desperate to change the shower to a better, more powerful one. Do you have any recommendations??

Thanks very much in advance!

[PigletJohn]

I am not especially keen on electric showers. They cannot deliver as much hot water as a combi or a cylinder, but can be a useful standby in case of boiler breakdown.

Most often one of the heating elements burns out with age, so you lose either low or medium heat, and high is not so high.

Electric shock suggests a wiring fault, which should be looked at by an electrician. They are made so that a water leak inside the casing will run out of a drain hole. Power must be isolated at the CU before attempting repair or inspection, and the circuit tested for dead.

You need to look at the power available. The circuit breaker will be marked "B32" or "B40" or something similar, and that will limit the amps on the circuit. You can't increase it unless you run a new cable for the circuit, the breaker is (should be) matched to the cable size that has been used. All circuits in a bathroom should now be RCD protected. If yours isn't, and the consumer unit (fusebox) is fairly modern that can be fixed by an electrician, probably fitting an RCBO which might be quite easy, but is not an amateur job. The pipework should be bonded to earth in most circumstances, which, again, gives some protection against shocks.

For the easiest fit, the same brand used again will usually fit the existing positions of pipe and cable.

If you have either a combi or a cylinder, you can probably get about three times as much hot water by changing shower type.

[NK5BM3]

Thank you so much!! I shall show dh this. This shower was in the house we bought 3 years ago... And when he looked into the various parts as he was taking it apart, it had a date stamp 15 years ago, so I'm happy to change.

It is a pretty nasty cheap one so I want to upgrade, make it powerful. Any makes you'd recommend? We have a viessmann boiler (?) thing that was fitted 2 years ago and our storage water tank in the airing cupboard got removed.

[PigletJohn]

Aqualisa showers are super.

Try Plumbworld, they sometimes have good prices.

[NK5BM3]

Thank you!!