Electric showers defy MY logic regarding safety.

[mart]

There are pull switches in bathrooms, because if we had a conventional switch that was touched with wet hands while our body was wet it would be very dangerous, ok I get that no problem.

It is apparently safe to have a shower fitted on a wall over the bath, with 8.5KW running though a cable located just inside the thin plastic control panel, which has a couple of control knobs on the front (that one trusts are 100% water tight, as well as the 4 screws/screw holes that hold the front cover/control panel on). While water splashes on to this control panel from the shower hose, these knobs will be touched with wet hands “attached to a soaking wet body” while standing in half an inch of water.

I just struggle to get my head around this. Anyone else here have similar reservations about electric showers?

 

[Dee J]

No. Not really. I often work on electric showers... fitting, replacement etc. Never come across one with water damage inside, and never heard of any incident involving a correctly fitted shower (or even an incorrectly fitted one). More likely to have problems with the pull-cord isolator - often overheat and melt - especially if used to turn a running shower on and off (rather than isolating a shower which has been shut down correctly).

 

[ford34/2]

Now I am not a sparky by any stretch of the imagination .

Electric showers should always be installed using an RCD or an RCBO. The RCBO is the better option as this gives overload, short circuit and Earth fault protection.
It would be a wise precaution to check all the pipework for cross bonding when you install the shower. All copper pipes should be cross-linked using EC14 Earth clamps, as described above, and lengths of 4mm2 green/yellow earth cable using crimp lugs on the ends. There should be a main Earth bond linking your consumer unit earth terminal or the main earth terminal of the supply to both your Gas and water supplies, these bonds should be within 600mm of the consumer side of meter or stopcock. The cable used should be no smaller than 10mm2 Green/Yellow earth cable, in some cases they may be 16mm2
Also please note:

• All circuits now need 30mA RCD protection.
• Cables in walls of bath or shower rooms have to be protected by a 30mA RCD.

So if its been installed correctly you have no fears. A separate RCBO specificaly for the shower will avoid the whole house or part of it loosing power should there be a problem with the shower.

 

[rockweasel]

When we moved into The Hovel our electric shower was a the first thing we had to sort out. The electric cable serving it came out of a hole punched in the ceiling in the hall and disappeared down another hole drilled in the floor. The shower itself had a bare electric bulb dangling inside it. The gent that owned the house before us was on the short side. We had to duck our heads in case we head butted the bulb.

 

[mart]

Ford34/2-what you say makes good sense in respect of installation & electric safety. I just have concerns of never knowing for sure that the unit is absolutely water tight. I`m not a sparky of course. Maybe if any water got in to the panel the RCD and correct earthing would take care of the issue.

 

[Robotstar5]

It's as bad as the old 'radio in the bath' murder - won't hurt you until you touch something outside the bath...

Unless you had earthed rubber ducks floating in your bath?

 

[Parm]

Is there not some sort of standard that the shower units have to be made to and tested against ?

 

[rtbcomp]

I'm not a fan of cross-bonding pipes, in some circumstances this can cause a hazard rather than prevent one. IMHO the earth to a shower should be via a hefty earth wire back to the incoming earth connector.

 

[mike os]

Never seen water ingress into a shower unit that was correctly installed...

 

[thinfourth]

You think you have seen iffy?

You have no idea what iffy actually is

Meet the suicide shower

 

[brightspark]

fit a new 17 th edition 3d amendment db bond the gas and water and all the ******** supplementary bonding is done away with . another point is water may not get in but it can certainly get out if any seals leak or tank

 

[the snooper]

Unless you had earthed rubber ducks floating in your bath?

thats a big ten four, oh wrong rubber ducks

 

[brightspark]

http://electrical.theiet.org/wiring-matters/53/section-701/index.cfm

 

[anjum]

Seen worse than the suicide shower.
One campsite in Kenya had the bare element can wired directly above, hanging by the cable.
Worked though!!
The cockroaches and mosquitos on the other hand..