My shower was smelling burnt, when I checked, the negative wire coming in has melted the block,?
Question:Anybody know what might be the cause. Many thanks, dont want to just get a new shower if its the wiring.
Answers:
If you have wires in your shower, you have problems that you can't imagine.
Don't understand your Question. but maybe you shoul call the fire dept.
when this happend to me i ignored it and one day my bf was in the shower and it blew up! i reckon you shuldnt use it untill it is sorted though i never found out what caused it.
The small screw holding the wire had probably come loose. The vibrations from the shower when in use caused the wire-end to spark. The heat then melted the plastic block. You havn't stated whether it was tripping out. You'll need a Sparky to check it out to be safe. Under new laws your not allowed to mess.
This happens for a variety of reasons. The first is that the screws on the terminals are loose. The second is that the shower is struggling to get water through it because of lime scale. This is the most likely, not a lot that you can do about this and a replacement is likely to be needed. I have had two showers go like this.
the cause of this was a loose connection ,you do not have to replace the shower unit ,just the cable and connecter inside the shower ,a small job.
This would probably have been caused by a loose terminal screw or nicked strands, if it's a Mira there was a lot of faulty terminal blocks some years ago, (the clear plastic type). It was possible to put the wire in and tighten but the clamp was not tight. Mira will send a replacement.
PS It's a Neutral - not a Negative!!
The problem you have is called arcing, and usually occurs on high load equipment when the connector screws are not tightened enough.. If there is no obvious sign of damage to the cable leading away from the block, then you can replace the block with one rated for 45 amps, and re terminate the cables feeding the unit. Make sure the mains power or at least the mains circuit breaker feeding the shower is off, and if in doubt, consult a suitably qualified electrician..
For the people who answered above saying if there are cables in your shower then you've a problem, please think before engaging keyboard skills. Obviously electric showers have cables inside
Typically caused by a loose terminal, giving a high resistance joint.
It goes like this, bear with me.
Assuming Shower = 7 kw, UK supply 230 volts, Current= 30 amps
Assume joint resistance = 1 ohm, voltage dropped (lost) at terminal = Ohms X Amps= 30 volts
To put this in perspective, we calculate "Watts"
Watts= Amps X Volts = 900 watts equivalent to the power your kettle/ iron uses dissipated at the terminal block! ouch.
Thats why your teminal block melted.no surprise, eh!
Get a new terminal block suitable for the power of your shower, divide the shower Kw by 230, thats the amperage block you need.
Put the power off (always a good idea!!) replace the terminal block, make sure the screws are very, very tight on the terminals.
To be dead sure, rplace the cover, run the shower for a while (30 mins maybe) then, put the power off, remove cover, check the block, make sure its cold.
This same problem by the way, happens on plugs (particularly high power like a 3 kw fire, kettle etc) If this is the case, remove the plug, check the connections are really tight, then replace and check. If the plug still gets hot, then its time to replace the wall socket. I have seen them so bad, the plug was melted to the socket!!!
how old is the shower.if it is still under warranty and the connection is burned mostly on the manufactures side of the connection block then you could have a claim. If not best to replace wire from block to connection in shower unit, replace connector for all 3 wires with correct size block and cut back neutral wire to clean copper coloured wire, otherwise problem will occur, once the connections are tightened do it a second time
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