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Shower cutting out on hot seting

Posted by Alan Zebelys, on Mon 23 May 2016 07:59pm

Whenever my shower is switched on to either of the hot (red) options it will cut out a minute later and trip the circuit breaker - this also cuts out a pull cord switch in the bathroom. This doesn't happen when using the cold (blue) setting on shower so is the shower faulty or do i have a more serious problem?

Darren Butler

Thu 26 May 2016 11:06am

Hi Alan. It sounds to me like the power rating of the shower is too high for the trip switch (MCB) you have installed. I have to assume that the trip switch you have installed is the correct sized MCB for the cable that goes to the shower, so it's likely you have one of three options to alleviate the problem; (1) continue using the shower at a lower temperature and thus drawing less power. (2) Upgrade the cable & MCB supplying the shower to a bigger size to allow full use of existing shower. (3) Replace the shower with a lower rated KW shower. Option 1 is the cheapest, option 3 the next cheapest.

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Cornelius Cretu

Mon 23 May 2016 09:36pm

Hi Alan, If the circuit breaker was fitted accordingly with the shower's power consumption and the right thickness of the supply cable then one of the heating elements might be faulty. My advise is rather than having it looked at and pay for replacing the faulty part, get a new one fitted. Regards,

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