Teardown of a British electric shower that went bang.
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- Опубликовано: 2 июн 2020
- It may sound horrific to some, but the UK commonly uses electric showers to heat the water instantly at the point of use. We do have hot water tanks or central heating systems, but it's just much more efficient to touch a button and shower under hot water in seconds.
There's a very low accident rate, with the few incidents involving very bad installations.
The one in this video is pretty old. Between 25 to 30 years old, with very retro electronics. I'm not a fan of electronics in showers at all. They just introduce reliability issues.
In this case though, the electronics were working fine right up to the end.
Time to get Ralfy my brother a new shower. (Without electronic controls.)
If you enjoy these videos you can help support the channel with a dollar for coffee, cookies and random gadgets for disassembly at:-
www.bigclive.com/coffee.htm
This also keeps the channel independent of RUclips's advertising algorithms allowing it to be a bit more dangerous and naughty. 
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"This is Ralphy, my brothers shower"
Ralphy is a strange name for a shower. But I am glad your brother named it.
I call mine Fred.
I call mine the pisser
@@sunriseshell i call mine chain chomp
I call mine the trump
I call ours "Dampfnudein"
In Britain you can't have a regular splash proof light switch in your bathroom, but a 25 amp electric shower inside your shower cabin is somehow fine.
It's not a power shower, it's an electric shower, very different animals!
the pull cord switches are ridiculous they always fail. Meanwhile on the continent we get to enjoy a regular light switch and standard 16 amp sockets in the bathroom.
Yeah that's stupid. I can have a IP65 light switch outside exposed to the rain but not in my bathroom. Ditto a pair of those waterproof sockets with the fold down lid, OK outside but not on the bathroom.
Our bathroom as a kid had a normal light switch. When the house was rewired in the 70s they replaced the switch with a modern MK rocker but it stayed where it was.
Possibly there are earthed shielding around abouts in the shower but not in a light switch?
@@Progan666 No I have been in this house over 30 years and the only thing about the pull cord switch to fail is the cord. Oh the shower in the bathroom is gas,fed from the central heating.
The bathroom light switch ban is a myth, you can have one in your bathroom as long as it is 2 feet away from the bath. You can't have a normal socket in the bathroom unless it is 3m away from the bath IIRC. Most modern electric showers are in the range of between 40A and 50A, and are usually the highest powered electric devices that you will find in a normal home.
My nan doesn’t think I can think fix the electric shower.
Well, she’s in for a shock
240 volts worth :D :D :D
Ba Dum Tsssssshh!
good one!!!! : )
Fix it with a 'zap' strap.
@@chmarr volts dosnt matter though, the kilowatts is whats scary ,showers can be up to 12.5kw
Step 1: Use Ralph's broken shower to make a teardown video
Step 2: Use the money from the video to buy Ralph a new shower
Step 3: ?????
Step 4: Profit
Shower gnomes! :)
Afaik Clive doesn't earn money from videos
With RUclips's cuts, Ralfy will be getting a watering can tied to a broomstick.
But he jus did!!!!!
The impressive thing about Triton is that they will have a model which will replace that one where the position of the power and water inlets and even the mounting screw holes will line up exactly to the old model. Makes replacement a breeze.
Love Triton showers, only showers that get hot enough
@@BeeKisses That would depend on the Kw rating, 7.5Kw was just too weedy for most uses, 10.5Kw was a beast, so, maybe you had a 8.5 or even 9.5??? 🤔😎🇬🇧
As mentioned in a previous comment, I installed half a dozen electric shower units from either Triton (can't remember the other make), but later on, the housing and part of the internal plumbing attachments could be utilised for either back/left/right or even underneath the unit input. But yeah, someone had common sense at Triton... 😉 😎🇬🇧
@@thedarkknight1971 I had a 10.5 Mira that was only piss warm and I now have a 9.5 Triton that's hotter, it's weird but meh
@@BeeKisses Hmmm 🤔 internal design I guess, but those two manufacturers were the main go too's back then. Like you, I preferred Triton 👍😎🇬🇧
Ralfy: Did you fix my shower, Clive?
Clive: lolno bro I tore it apart and made a youtube video
The reason why the shower would have a delay before shutting down is both an anti limescale measure and a safety feature. Pressing the stop button first switches off the elements, flushing cold water through the tank before shutting off the water solenoid valve. Water which gets too hot is more likely deposit limescale on the element compared to cold water. There is also the added safety factor. If the a non-delay shutdown shower is switched off, then back on again in shortly after, the water sat in the boiler tank gains extra heat as it sat there idle for a few moments and when re-started can then causing a scoulding risk.
(I work in this industry, but not Triton!)
The water would be sat there for a few seconds before it’s flushed out. It wouldn’t be say there waiting for the element to heat. You’re talking shit
@@DankMemesForAngryTeensWell that's not a very nice thing to say to someone. Would you care to take a look at this: ruclips.net/video/1h4_Lf3scgM/видео.html This is Triton's own video explaining the purpose of phased shutdown in their showers. To quote their blurb - "During "phased shutdown" the water will continue to run for a few seconds, flushing out any remaining hot water, before turning off. This helps reduce scale build-up in the heater and the showerhead and ensures a cool start every time the shower is used."
@@DankMemesForAngryTeens You are a halfwit.
@@DankMemesForAngryTeens You're a shit scientist if you don't listen to other people before talking.
I was a Triton service engineer over 20 years ago and that was an old unit style then. I think Ralphie has had good value for money. Mains water spikes can break those valves. We used to take mains pressure measurements and some were remarkably high. Especially around the western central belt of Scotland.
Yeah glasgow in places has ridiculous high water pressure especially in places near water towers
We had consistent leaks in our home, the city measured our pressure at over ten bar. A regulator fixed everything.
@@UncleKennysPlace i was going to say that, sometimes a regulator solves these problems, but not the final pressure after closing all faucets. it still reaches the full pressure from outside
for us non-UK natives, these devices boggle the mind beyond comprehension... UK houses have no power sockets in the bathroom (except for shaver sockets) and they often have string-activated ceiling lights, but a high power mains shower - yes please, squire...!
They are safe, plug sockets kill in the bathroom all the time in europe. I've been shocked by a switch, but never by a shower. They're grounded, and designed to get wet safely.
@@mandowarrior123 Ive NEVER been shocked by my outlets in my bathroom. Hell my light switch is missing its cover and i turn the light off right after a hot shower
The best part about these showers is that when the boiler stops working, you can still get hot water.
Ralphie set the shower temp to extra bang
Well the other options were "Light Show" and "Electrolized Hair Removal" so it seemed the best choice at the time.
Years ago we had a Mira electric shower in a rental property. It did fail once, which the repair engineer identified was caused by corrosion where the overtemp cutout contacted the copper pipe. The copper-deposits had swelled and were mechanically depressing the bimetal switch - so it failed-safe. The internal design and build was very good - in my opinion it didn't "deserve" to fail. Easily repaired with a new cutout. Was very impressed with the repair guy - he had a brief-case with his tools and all-possible spares, so was very efficient.
As a plumber from the UK, these are the most common form of shower in the UK. They're more economical to install and to service than a pumped shower or power shower. They make sense to install in (and are most commonly found in) rented properties. Seeing some of the comments here saying "Mixing electricity and water is never a good idea" leads me say the most alarming thing I've seen an electric shower like this do is dim the lights in the room next door when turned onto full power. They're designed to not be dangerous I've only ever seen a handful of these have this happen where water is pissing out of the casing from every angle; that said, the majority were broken by age or fatigue as opposed to being inherently unsafe. When installed correctly and of a reasonable quality, they generally last for quite a long time and are pretty safe. When they go wrong, you tend to know (as shown) so it isn't like you'd be standing there having a shower and suddenly you've got mains voltage flowing through you. You'd have to be incredibly dense to not notice that something clearly isn't right
Yeah it's the same with a lot of things. People just have a fairly rudimentary understanding of how things work and make judgement without the knowledge to back it up... I mean, being scared of an electrical shower is hardly an issue. But it's that same kinda thought process that fuels bigger issues in the world. It's best to be critical and not believe everything you are told but you should also be critical of your own lack of knowledge at the same time.
They might be more economical to install but certainly not economical to run. They use A LOT of electric. Spend the extra money and install a proper shower fed by hot and cold water from the gas boiler. A shower is usually installed above the bath so there is already a hot and cold feed available.
@@simontay4851 Not every where is on gas mains, and more houses are blown up by leaky gas pipes than electric showers. A lot of electricity? How many showers, what temperature, etc? fwiw, in UK, in a few years time, gas will not be installed in new builds. The advantage with electric water heating, is that all the heat goes into the water. No flue needed, etc.
@@simontay4851 How long do you shower for? My 10kW one would consume one unit in six minutes, so 15 pence. I only actually have the shower on for a minute or two.So around 5p per shower.
@@simontay4851 Significant amount of houses don't have gas. Its immersion heaters, water heaters and electric showers but for the amount of time these showers are on at one time, they aren't that uneconomical
This is a direct result of water hammer finding the weakest link.
Water hammer is also a bad aspect of automatic sprinkler timers. The timer relay instantly shuts the thing off and bang! If you've got a weak point in the water line that could mean instant flood!
Aging plastics is also a factor here.
thats why washing machines are dickheads i always hear a bang in my bathroom when the washing machine intakes water
Fitted a small pressure vessel in the main here to stop the washing machine rattling the pipes. Works well but does need repressuring once a year.
@@Graham_Langley sounds like the diaphragm has a slow leak
I remember when still living with my parents, in one house we had this exact same model. We moved into that house in 1993 where it was already installed by the previous owners, so by this point it'd be at least 27 years old. Don't know how long that model was on the market for, but it's done well if it's lasted that long.
Good old British made product made to last decades. I expect a modern one will be designed to last 10 years.
My parents had a different model from the same brand that lasted a similar time as well. One time it broke and my dad just replaced a part inside it and it lasted for another 5 years...
Another comment mentioned a 1990 date code on one the components so it was probably built 30 years ago.
We still have one of these in our bathroom at home, no idea how long it's been there for, but still works perfectly (touch wood), probably not the most powerful or efficient, but if it ain't broke...
@@Haggisking y'all say touch wood? We say knock on wood in America.
“Should I look inside this?”
*nods yes*
I've certainly never seen anything of this sort in Canada!
We like our hot water failures to flood our basements
Instantaneous water heaters are all over the place in England. Not only showers like this but a smaller version = 'hand shower' can be found at small hand-washing sinks that only have a cold water feed.
A lot of older British houses would operate large water heater tanks that had to be fully reheated over several hours whenever depleted. Coupled with significantly higher energy prices than their north American counterparts, many would opt for these instant water heaters in their bathrooms, essentially heating only the water they are using
IIXRATEDIIHiTMAN I think you're partially correct, electric showers serve as a useful backup when stored hot water supplies are depleted. Bit I think the biggest reason is that in traditional hot water systems there was simply insufficient hot water pressure to operate a shower, given that the pressure was derived from a cold header tank often inches above the bathroom ceiling. British bathrooms rarely had showers, and when they did start to become popular an electric shower operating on mains pressure cold water was a significantly cheaper option than changing the whole hot water setup.
@@spencerwilton5831 Yes! And the combination boilers too output low water pressure, I've been spoiled with a pressurised system for far too long to come up with this.
Started spraying water everywhere, eh Clive? Isn't that what it's for?
Sorry. :P
_"BANG! and the dirt is gone!"_ .. Barry Scott
had one of these (25 years ago) in a house i lived in, a cat could pee on you faster and warmer.
They don't pressurise the water thats why, if you have a crap gravity fed system, it will still be crap after you fit this. These only heat water.
You didn't have one of these then or your water supply was shite, because the flow from one of these is both powerful and hot. They are fed directly from the cold water mains at high pressure and the warmer you set it the stronger the flow feels.
EDIT: You likely had a power shower, although they look identical they work very differently from electric showers and have very weak flow rates.
The early ones were 7.5kW and were pretty dismal... You got a choice of adequate temperature with pathetic flow rate or adequate flow rate with chilling temperature.
The modern ones of about 9kw are great, its the last 2.5 kW makes all the difference.
It takes a lot of energy to heat water so the power rating of the shower determines the temperature/flow rate. The maths isn't too hard if you know some physics.
@@joinedupjon Ahhh but 9KW might require a 10mm cable on the install, hence 7KW. Maybe we need John Ward to give us a video about showers and 6mm or 10mm cable depending on the rating!
I had a horrible experience with one of these when I was about 12. My dad had installed it and in his wisdom had used the existing old bathroom heater isolator switch and wiring. Halfway through my shower the bloody thing blew off the wall and showered me in sparks and moulton plastic. I ran downstairs screaming completely naked much to the amusement of my family. I’ve never trusted them since.
Good god lol
Awesome video. In the US, devices like these are rare & used primarily in non-residential applications. I've only seen the "Insta-Hot" modules under sinks; never a shower. They use the 20 amp version of our 120V GFI outlets. Never seen one "hard-wired" without an outlet. Probably because our breaker-panels aren't Ground Fault protected.
Spot on, ground is required.
I took an old Triton T70 from 1988 apart which had performed OK for about 15 years. The construction inside was very similar, sans PCB. However, the amazing thing was that when I took the heating chamber apart, the sheathed elements had split axially exposing not only the alumina insulation but also, in places, the heating elements! It must have been like this for years with me using it every morning. When I changed the shower for a more recent Triton model I also upgraded the Consumer Unit to include an RCD. I dare say that if I'd had an RCD in circuit with the original shower then it is likely that it would have tripped. So glad I changed it!
As long as you dont have a metal bath with an earth connection you are fine ;)
In newcastle university dorms, my wife was in the shower as i was dozing on the bed. i heard a massive bang, saw a huge flash of light, and she came out and simply said 'the water has gone cold'. She never noticed!
I still dont know how she wasnt electrocuted.....
How would she be, exactly?
For its age, it looks like it just came out of the box, on the outside at least. Quite surprised it's not yellowed from UV or heat, and that all the print is still there.
UK: "We can't trust ourselves to have plug sockets in the bathroom, so we only have one isolated 110V shaver socket in there."
Also UK: "Hurr Durr We Shower With Electricity"
No kidding! Seems like a disaster waiting to happen.
The thing is, the electricity is nowhere near the water and the whole unit is made of plastic.
It’s as likely to shock you as a metal kettle or a stove element. The element is insulated from its casing, so there’s minimal risk of electrocution. Compare this to the Brazilian suicide shower, where electricity passing through the water is used to heat it.
It’s funny how much people are afraid of what they don’t understand or what doesn’t seem common. This would bother a lot of people but those same people drive around carrying 10 gallons of explosive liquid that when used releases deadly fumes only feet from where we are sitting.
Point being real danger is more about the engineering than what is used within that engineering. I would be much more worried about a $2 usb power adapter than 220v in a properly engineered water heater.
@@ecospider5 you ever seen those killer USB sticks? It takes and holds power from a USB port and once it has enough it shoves it down the data lines to kill the device!
Japan is known for having small houses and apartments so they have been using tankless water heaters for decades. Small units are often seen mounted on the wall over the kitchen sink. They're very reliable and efficient, much more so than the large and wasteful American tanked systems. My parents house in the US always had a big hot water tank and it always ran out of hot water whenever two or more people took showers. Taking a bath was impossible. It, however, had an expansion tank mounted nearby that got rid of any water hammer. Probably saved their pipes from damage over the years. They finally went tankless last year and now will never go back to the old ways.
Tankless as in they get electric shower?
@@usec5503 usually natural gas tankless, sometimes propane. Electric tankless is costly as you need to run new thick service cables to the breaker.
One issue with tankless is you need to flush them and have a water softener if you have hard water or it's asking for problems
@@SlocketSeven no he said the hot water got used up by only 2 people using it, not that it wasnt heating the water.
That's a Mark 1 T100, got to be at least 30 year old. You can still get spares. Surprised it lasted that long.
Interesting to read the jaw dropping comments, these units are very, very common here in the U.K. and are very reliable.
We get the same reaction when someone from the UK sees our massive country wide suicide booth network
What's the availability there of Mom's Bachelor Chow?
Unless of course I misread a Futurama reference...
Im more concerned about the electricity bill.
Had to replace one last year. That was only because the connection between the plastic dial and internal mechanism was worn and wouldn't mate properly. The rest of it was working fine and it was well over 15 years old.
Im from the states Pennsylvania. I have a Similar shower like This In my cabin. VERY useful ... regular House's have 55gal tanks
What i find quite suprising given the environment this lives in (damp and wet) is that there seems little internal corrosion or damage to the mostly uncoated pcb!
Not only that - zero scaling on the elements! I live in the South of England, and within 2.5 years - never mind 25 - the whole copper kettle would be full of limescale.
You can tell that is an old shower due to the copper heater tank. They are all plastic heater tanks these days. I am a plumber and have replaced many electric showers over the years. The only bonus when removing them, any copper heater tanks go in the scrap box. Definitely time for a new one. Just have to make sure the pipe and electrical connections on the new shower roughly match for position on the old shower and check cable size for maximum KW rating
How do the plastic tanks not melt?! Also this immediately looks old, even before removing the cover. Don't need to see the tank.
I'm from a European country and it always amazes me to see how much the UK is lagging behind in terms of electrical safety. A device like this is unthinkable in my country.
What do you have for a shower and how exactly is this not safe?
@@IrishSkruffles I don't know where he's from, but in Norway we just use a hot water tank usually placed in the laundry room that provides hot water to the entire house.
Love your videos. So soothing, great to watch while heading to bed and learning something new!
In the 80s we had an electric shower. It was some terrible cheap one with poor regulation and if you cranked the temperature to maximum it was possible to hear water boiling inside the unit, before some attempt at a safety cutout activated and the shower jetted cold water at you.
We also had one removed in a previous house, and the electrician discovered whoever had wired the shower up had used wrong gauge wire and it wasn't earthed either. So I guess it was like one of those Chinese death showers :)
The London house I moved into in 2010 had a 1960s style 3-bar electric heater suspended on 2 wires OVER THE FOOKING BATH. I suspect it was from the late 1930s when the house was originally built. Needless to say, it came out pretty sharpish and we did a full rewire.
Not had one of these Tritons for a few years but as a kid we had them and always astounded how long they lasted and how robust they were given the size of the heater can and the proximity of the electronics. Cheers for the video.
It was through an electric shower teardown that I first found your channel, Clive, and I've never looked back. A heartfelt thanks for the years of infotainment.
The suicide shower - I think we all got hit with that one XD
I had that for 13 years and it was old then, worked awesome. Can't fault it
I had to repair ours (a late 90s Mira Go) after turning the water back on after an extended holiday. As with this one, a small plastic part fractured allowing water to escape; I ordered a new one from eBay and it's been fine ever since. The design aesthetic of this Triton makes me think it's late 80s or early 90s so it's done well to last this long before failing. (If you had opted to fix it, you'd be surprised what parts are still available for older appliances: I've carried out a number of repairs on my 1992 Zanussi clothes dryer and pretty much everything that can be replaced is still listed online.)
i can still find Arçelik-Siemens 2100's (1988) all parts from the net, too!
240v wired directly into the shower stall. Genius idea! It's hilarious how the British are so proud of their humongous wall plugs, yet will put circuit breakers outside in the rain or 240v directly in the shower.
Its clear you dont know what directly means.
Just try touching the mains from where the shower is.
"Calcified." My wife was frightened of these (we are American) when we went to your home town (all around northern Scotland as well). I just told her not to touch anything metal, LOL. They worked great. Thanks for sharing.
Dont touch anything metal?
@@TheFool2cool Metal is a conductor.
You're a good brother, Big Clive!
Poor Ralfy, that malty messy martyr of mechanical malfunction!
Looks like a malt mention. :D
holy alliteration, Batman !
I had one in my old flat for over 20 years, very reliable and parts were available for repair when the heater element failed, and also for the pressure switch (which prevents the shower switching on if there is insufficient water pressure.) I have one in my present house, that was probably installed 15 years ago, the design has stood the test of time. Yes, you don't get much of a power shower in winter, but it works and is economical as you only heat the water you use.
I actually find it quite odd that in the UK, you don't have proper mains sockets in bathrooms due to health and safety reasons and you even have special light switches in bathrooms which you switch on by pulling a string. Yet you still have these electric showers and also shower pressure boosters which are basically combining mains 240v with water you're standing right under which to me looks a lot more sketchy than having a socket to plug in your hairdryer :)
It's pretty amazing to think about how hot those heating elements must get to heat the water as fast as it's flowing through there. I've got a natural gas whole house on-demand water heater and I've wondered about the fiery inferno that must be going on inside there when it's running. It's quite impressive really
The fire is nothing like an inferno. The heat exchanger is just so darn efficient.
showers range from 5 kw ( shit ) to 12.5KW , so yh 12kw of electricity flowing through water heats it up good
I still can't wrap my head around the idea of having a 220v appliance in the shower with you! Just seems nutz to me.
I really can't see why anyone thinks a properly grounded appliance on a dedicated circuit and breaker is an issue.
@@skylined5534 2 reasons
1. Murphy's law "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong"
2. Mullins' law "If it can go wrong, it will most likely go wrong on a Mullins, in a BIG way, and at the worst time, and will likely make another Mullins laugh, probably a spouse or parent."
@@bryanmullins2063
Thing is I've never heard of one single person perishing due to an electric shower unit. There are literally millions of them in use in the UK on a daily basis too.
My above comment doesn't cover shonky installations or the use of those bizarre electric shower head things.
Nearly everything you can touch in the uk is RCD protected so basically a gfci or gfi and these showers are very reliable more shocks happen from electric water heaters in the uk
"So when do I get my shower back, I have the replacement diaphram?" -- Ralph
I'm from Germany - here we often use instantaneous water heaters. The big difference: Our devices has power Ratings of 18kW, 21kW (Standard) and 24kW and need 3-phase 400V to power these things. Older or cheap devices use simple hydraulic pressure switches to turn on, you can choose between two heating-levels and the final temperature you have to adjust by the faucett. Newer devices are electronic instantaneous water heaters and use electronic flow-rate sensors. The outgoing temperature can be adjusted stepless up to 60°C. The heating-power is controlled by Triac's or Thyristor's. The expensive ones have LCD Displays and programmable Temperature Presets. By us, these things has to be mounted in a safe zone so you can't reach them when standing in the shower. The market leading manufacturer in Germany is "Stiebel Eltron".
Instinctively, I would avoid such a shower system. But, you're right Clive, I too have never heard of any serious accidents in the UK with this type of device. FWIW, tap water, even heavily ionic tap water (usually Ca++) is a surprisingly poor conductor - almost an insulator in some circumstances.
I worked at a power station with a 340 MW generator that had (pure) water cooled windings and hydrogen cooled rotor, but I still get uneasy around electric showers lol
As water is spewing Electrified Mist here and Yonder Rolph Butt Neked calmly pushes the OFF button ? YEA RIGHT ! LOL Bet you could have heard him down the street. LOL
omg classic stuff, thank you
😂
No barrier between moisture and electronics in there is there. I always assumed the insides of these would be sealed, potted and gasket-ed up to the hilt.
Yeah, there is. It's extremely safe. Also, it's connected to an RCD, so in the event of a catastropic fail, the power would be cut extremely quickly.
Ah of course, mains voltage and water! What could possibly go wrong?
I believe my Gran had the (possibly) older version of said shower, I would guess from the 80's, very brown iirc, similar brown to her Belling Format 600 cooker that is also of 80's vintage.
Mine too, she only just replaced it a few months ago, I wonder if hers dated from the 70s as that's when the house was built
The black diaphragm pushes the switch closed to enable the heating element to turn on. If the water pressure on the cold inlet is too low then the heating element will not turn on. It's a safety feature to reduce overheating of the water when the flow rate is low.
I still remember in the 1980s in the Caribbean running into the predecessor of one of these at a hotel. It was all built into the shower-head. Two wires coming out of the wall and connecting directly into the shower-head with wire nuts. I remember thinking they have these complex grounded plugs with a switch in the wall to "protect" the user and then this contraption in the shower. Crazy.
Pretty common in the UK, running from the rising main so decent pressure, actually safe too, the original ones were IRO of 6Kw nowhere near enough to heat the water and have a decent flow rate, later models are upto 11Kw. They work well enough although if you're in the sticks and on an overhead feed the lights flicker when it goes on. The other type are fed from the hot water tank and are essentially a pump and a mixer valve they only need a few hundred watts if that. I've seen those in Malaysia fed from a 13 amp 3 pin socket in side the shower cubical, that was a rental I decided against.
I've got under my kitchen sink now what looks like this type of electric shower as an instantaneous water heater that's 6Kw
Clive's done a video about those "suicide showers" :)
These are every where in vietnam/south east asia. They are fairly safe it's all plastic around the electronics. It's only the heating element that could be a problem really. Also most of the time they are grounded and the water flow is usually not totally solid (so you don't get a steady stream of water to kill you).
I'd love to see an AvE teardown of this.
If I knew where to post it I'd maybe send him one. Bound to be a classic that🤣🤣🤣
Clive does it better.
I'd imagine it would involve pixies, jeeseless plastic molded parts that don't mutha fkn chooch. Then the odd "focus you FK" toward the recording receptacle. Ending with "stick yer di** in a vice". The guy is pure genius.
For being that old it seems safe to use. Here in Belgium we don't use those things. Warm water comes from an electric boiler or from a boiler heated by fossil fuel. ( most of the time the central heating system warms up the boiler or warms up the water 'on the fly', without even a boiler). There are similar central electric systems like this who heat up the water instantly from the main water pipe and deliver it to all warm water foucets and showers in the house. It's rated mostly about 25A at either 230V or 16A at 400V, depending on the waterflow needed. Those systems usually also implememt a sun water boiler on the roof.
Do you think we have one of these on every hot tap? Of course we have central hot water boilers. 🙄
@@howardg2010 Lol if I presumed that then everyone house should need a 200+ Amp main fuse 🤣
As a British Electrical engineer and past domestic sparkie I've installed more than a few of these type of showers ...I a big fan of the simpler units like the Triton Enrich ...only microswitches and the same heater ....I have never had a case of anyone getting even a slight tingle when installed properly...In the UK the shower nowadays has to be installed with either an RCBO or if retro fitting to an old system with out the room for that its own RCD and MCB in separate box at the least.
The heating element is a ceramic filled element like most kettles and the heater body 'tank' grounded so if if a heater rupture fault occurrs the RCBO will trip before you know there's a fault..
Personally I'd not be with out a well installed one of these showers.
The problem comes when people try to cheap out on the install and do it themselves with out the knowledge of how to do it safely.
Another common problem is the under sizing of the incoming water flow so the opening of taps else where affects the heat setting of the shower.
Since there‘s a „low water pressure“ waning light on the unit, it’s probably an enable switch that deactivates the unit when the water pressure gets too low.
For a German, this is a very strange system to get to see. Here, we usually have big hotwater tanks in the basement, heated by the same burner also used for central heating (oil or gas in most cases). And If we do use electric / continuous flow heaters, they are usually outside the shower, often coupled to a smaller tank, and supply JUST (scaldingly) hot water. But every shower (and other faucets) has a mixing tap, either with two rotary knobs for older installations, or a single handle mixer (anything past the 1980s, really).
I'm from the UK and I have a similar thing, where the shower mixes hot and cold water and has no electrical systems. I have an on demand combi boiler rather than a hot water tank though
We have this and more in the UK. Oil is rare and has been hated a long time. We use gas (combi boiler or hot water tank), though swapping to electricity for new builds (immersion/combi) as though more expensive it is greener energy.
If you're all using oil heaters it makes me suspicious that germany can meet any emissions targets.
Though germany claims wood power plant is green energy too... perhaps in the literal sense xD. Buying up timber from the amazon deforestation to burn to fudge emissions figures, i see why now, oh my =') 'biomass' indeed
@@mandowarrior123 Well, it’s usually old heating systems from the 80s and earlier, quite a lot of those still remain in service.
For current installations, it looks more like this: „Laut Statistischem Bundesamt lag der Anteil an mit Öl betriebenen Heizanlagen in Neubauten 2018 schon nur noch bei 0,6 Prozent. 41,2 Prozent aller neuen Häuser werden demnach mit Gasheizungen ausgestattet, etwa ein Drittel werden mit erneuerbaren Energien geheizt, 22,4 Prozent mit Fernwärme.“
>> According to the Federal Office for Statistics, the share of oil fuelled heating systems in newly constructed buildings in 2018 has dropped to 0.6%, 41.2% of all new houses are therefore fitted with natural gas heating, about a third is heated using renewables, 22.4% use district heating systems.
Source: www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/oelheizung-erneuern-zuschuss-1.4624858
But yes, Germany _should_ do a lot more to protect the environment, no question about that.
"Americans don't think electric showers are very safe"
Say the same people who use un-fused un-grounded plugs. xD
Here in Germany our plugs are not fused like most plugs in the world, and a variation of our plug isnt grounded either
They don'y need fuses, fuses are only a thing here because of our ring main system. Also many UK plugs now have plastic earth pins. There is a lot of crazy stuff with US electrics but lack of fuses and earthed plugs aren't the major problems.
The US also uses split phase electrical systems.
@@mfx1 Yea, I've always thought it was kind of strange that our ground/earth conductor in mains wiring is just bare copper..
@@yxcvbnmmnbvcxy544 But our outlets are friggin recessed, which solves a lot of problems plugs around the world have with one fairly simple trick.
thanks clive!
i have a water heater from 1998, and we still use it because of regularly maintenance by myself, cleaning up the heater and calcium builds inside the little tank on it, and if anything fails, it pops the GFCI breaker (never happened but i test it regularly too) and most importantly i can find its newly built parts from call service, yes! after 24 years, i can still find the parts..
"Let's loosen the screws off on the water regulator"
Ooh, I wonder what that does...
"-that regulates the flow of water."
Oh, wow, I had a completely different idea.
Turn towards blue to make it hot, towards red to make it cold. Yeah. That would get you sued in the US.
ETA: In UK, you can't have an electrical outlet, because danger. Also in UK, run 240 volts into the shower.
kcgunesq Because idiots would could plug anything into a socket in a bathroom and most appliances are not protected against water ingress, wet hands etc. A shower is designed to be safe even when water is spraying over the unit.
@@spencerwilton5831 One could simply install GFCI - unless they don't make 220v versions. We recently remodeled a bathroom Went from one outlet to four, including two with USB sockets. That way, we can plug in virtually anything, including razors, toothbrushes, vacuums, the bidet, shaving cream warmers, etc. All protected by GFCI for less than $10 or so.
Yeah, nah. I like my hot water system id rather have a boiling hot bomb on the other side of the house rather than Mains power in the shower, if I wanted that I'd just start splashing water at the power points.
Strangely , my Triton shower has started leaking in the same place , although ours is more basic with no circuit board , interesting to watch as usual Clive , cheers , stay safe !!
I hope you'll show us the installation of the new shower, it would be interesting to compare a modern unit and see if the installation differs from that of the much older unit.
I've always been terrified of electric showers, I'd much rather my water be gas heated, so any bang happens at the other end of my house and the kitchen burns down.
They are not very nice to use, there is no proper control over your water, and flow rate is minimal even with 11kw unit. In the winter it is worse, as incoming water is colder. But from electrical safety point they are safe, as long as were installed properly. By properly i mean there is good cpc (earth) continuity, eath fault loop impedance is not higher then permited for overcurrent protection device and the circuit has means of additional protection installed (30ma RCD)
Mains power in the shower? I thought it was supposed to be a toaster in the bathtub. Is this like the ketchup vs mayonnaise on french fries thing?
If the power is out, run it off a car battery in the shower 😀😉
Absolutely mayonnaise!
Shocking!
The heating element is in a copper container that is earthed/grounded to unsure that the water has zero voltage on it, unlike the plastic suicide shower heads with the token gesture earth wire in it :)
French fries should be served with remoulade, not mayonnaise. Though McD has a special "French Fry Sauce" instead. But if you've never seen the correct sauce before, it looks like raw mayonnaise (the main, but not only ingredient).
That is indeed really old for a power shower unit. Every new place I've moved into so far has had an old one (but not *this* old) that went bad during my use of it so got replaced with a new one.
It's not a power shower - those have both hot and cold water inlets. This one only uses cold.
@@ann_onn interesting, thanks for that. I'll continue to call them power showers though, as a slang term :P
Triton are a very good company, on newer showers you could order any parts on their web site. Interesting tear down, I had that shower for many years and the only thing that went wrong with it was the pressure valve caused by the shower head furring up
8kW for a shower sounds disappointingly feeble. Here in germany we use 3-phase (400V) water heaters at around 20kW, so I have absolutely no idea what this electric water heater scare stuff is all about.
You only need a GPM or 2 for shower. 8kW is more than enough for that. Remember you're not mixing with cold after heating. So 35f/20c of rise isnt bad.
the modern ones are 9.5-10kW.
The great thing with these is if you have boiler problems you can still have a warm shower.
I guess you don't really need a boiler ...
@@morganfreeman5171
You do if you have central heating.
I remember when we used to have one of these and the solenoid valve went, it was a fun experience having it randomly spray water at timed intervals
Electric showers in Britain: Complex devices with precise temperature control.
Electric showers in South America: haha 220v go sprinkly sprinkly
This looks a bit more complex than the brazilian showers.
Now I'm curious but don't especially want to google 'Brazilian shower' for fear of the resultant hits...
@@rich_edwards79 Just look for the suicide shower video of bigclive.
@@dan_loup The pink chinese one with no insulation?
Well there's very little hair to be washed in a Brazilian one.
@@rich_edwards79 Electroboom also has a great video on suicide showers, "suicide", been using them all my life
More likely the the pressure switch cuts the heating element off if the water pressure goes too low
I agree. Also illuminates the low pressure lamp.
The thermal switch mounted on the element housing does that.
@@MrsZambezi they both do that. safety. n stuff.
@@MrsZambezi better it doesn't get the chance to heat up to trip the thermal to start with. If pressure drops below enough to keep switch closed, illuminate low pressure and cut power to heater.
Sometimes (usually?) the pressure switch is the main on/off switch for the the heating elements. When you press the on/off button on the front, the only thing it directly operates is the solenoid valve. Then, there's a short delay before the water pressure builds up enough to turn on the elements. That won't be the case with this model, because it has that cold flush-through feature when you turn it off.
I have only seen this kind of apparatus in Anime/Mangas, but i like the idea - less piping in the walls, no central heating with gas/oil or a big water tank somewhere.
But i guess they are only for very old and never updated buildings?
It's a retrofit, yeah.
Reminds me of my nans house on Bootham cresent when I was a kid. Thanks Clive
water and 240 volts......perfect combination!
All new bathroom electrical installations in the UK must have a 30mA RCD protection to them (GFCI if you're American) and these sort of showers are going to be earthed. The likelyhood of an electrical safety issue is incredibly small if installed correctly.
I've used these on and off for about 15 years, even had a couple fail on me and have had no incidents. They're safe.
So Ralfy has been a very dirty boy......well, until you replaced his shower.
It doesn’t matter most of ralfy’s clientele don’t complain ⚰️ ✝️
@@Mrflash222006 that's mean
It's the second time now I've had to squint at that tiny coffin emoji thinking it's a chicken drumstick
Awesome.. I remember years ago installing an electric shower and starting it off on hot without running any water through it...The lack of water caused the heating element to pop...Not a good start. Had to repair it before i could use it...Since then ive always remembered when dealing with simular units. Always run them on cold first to fill them and eliminate any air locks before calling for heat...
My parents had the remote controlled version of that shower. The control panel sat flush inside their shower cubicle, while the main unit sat mounted on the bathroom wall outside the cubicle. Obviously the components where sequenced differently as the heater elements were about 2 metres before the flow rate control.
I have never been to the UK but the idea of 240 volts in the shower makes me cringe, I wonder how many people have been killed by this setup?
Heater looks like the kind used in a senseo coffee machine
Probably is, only more powerful.
Coffee shower.
I fixed our electric shower got an old new part off ebay the shower was from 1998. I was a little concerned about the waterproofness in certain areas and souped it up with silicone and waterproof tape. It is still working fine 🙏
An interesting autopsy, Dr. Bigclive!
I've always marveled that the guy who compulsively discharges even the tiniest of capacitors won't bat an eye at climbing into water filled shower with a live mains wire ^_^
-american who thinks these are death traps, even if they are "relatively safe"
And he discounts the fact that they could be considered death traps...while taking one apart that exploded and sprayed waters all over mains wiring. Sorry but this American says fuck no
The idea of messing around with a 240 V device in the shower makes my skin crawl.
It seems like you may need the hot for hand washing in a nearby sink as well, id think that same heater would go on the wall outside the shower where it can stay dry and supply both taps
Yeah, more modern on-demand electric water heaters are a separate unit that will sit in front of the sink and shower.
SlocketSeven, 0.25 gallon per minute ???! You have to walk in circles to get wet or what ?! My natural gas powered central heating system with hot water pushes out a whopping 14 Liter per minute. (3.7 Gallon)
I have a 15 by 15 inch "rain shower" build into the ceiling of the bathroom and it needs a lot of water to work well, but it's soooo nice and comfortable. Maybe even too comfortable , sometimes I turn on the water in the kitchen to get my kids out of the shower ! (they will get only cold water if I do that)
@@SlocketSeven Yeh that's why you can buy these in a 10.5kw model otherwise you would struggle to get hot enough water
@@martijnvv8031 that sounds like a shity system if you're in the shower and someone uses another outlet somewhere else in the house the shower doesn't work, what backwards country do you live in?
That diaphragm is a protection against too low water pressure, not too high. If it triggers the "low pressure" LED lights up. Power to the heater cuts out too (obviously).
In Germany we have modells with 3 phase supply and 22 kW regulated eletronically. I had a unit running for > 20 years without a problem. It was replaced in a complete remodell of the bathroom. I once opened a broken one from my parents. Looked similar inside except for a bigger heating element with the water cooled triacs.
Interesting design! We do have point-of-use demand water heaters in the US, but they are usually in areas without a central hot water system. There's been a lot of debate about the efficiency of storage type water heaters, but the finding was that they are quite efficient. The lower power demand over a longer period of time is also better for the electrical supply, some people say.
That is a good design with the LV transformer for the control power, instead of a switchmode supply.
Blimey, that's ancient. Hardly any scale though, must be very soft water. I couldn't see the power rating properly but you might have trouble getting one that low powered. You might have to run a new feed or cheat and disable one of the elements in a new one.
Judging by the size of the internal cables, I reckon it's probably about 6.5kW, not at all unusual. The external cable looked like it could handle a lot more so a 7.5kW replacement should easily be feasible.
I presume the reason these types of units don’t exist in North America is that they would draw a huge amount of 115 v current. I remember marveling at how quickly an electric kettle could boil water the first time I came to the UK. Kettles in North America are very slow by comparison.
I think the emergency CutOut is there not for a low water pressure but as a cutout for in case the flow-switch sticks without waterflow.
Modern gas-heaters check as a fail-save test if the NO and NC are acutely in the “rest position” before each operation.
this seems like such a dangerous system to me. i really dont understand why anyone would want one of these
Out of interest, what do you find dangerous about this? There are thousands of these in use and I've never heard of any problems. In fact, my parents had one for over 30 years before they moved house, and it was perfectly reliable. They don't require a hot water supply, and you get a hot shower in a few seconds. It's interesting to note that in the UK, you won't find any electric sockets on the walls, and the light switch is either outside the bathroom or a pull cord. British safety standards are pretty high.
I echo what Steve Caddy has written and would like to add that a 30mA RCD trip is the compulsory safety disconnector for electric showers; not at all dangerous, I've used one for 40 years.
As soon as the electrical current spikes due to a short circuit, it cuts out at the speed of light.
@@SteveCaddy there's over 27 million homes in the uk, i expect at least 1/5 have at least one electric shower. That's not including hotels, caravans & campervans and so on. So at least 4 million i would bet, not "thousands"
@@mandowarrior123 Fair comment, and you're probably right. I thought saying there were millions of these devices in use would have sounded like over-stating the figures. Either way - they're not as dangerous as some people assume.
My experience of UK electric showers is that you can do everything except get wet !!
You forgot to switch them on. The 10kW ones aren't too bad.
Pressure is the problem, if you have very little pressure in your mains then there is a problem, The hotter you you want the water, the less water goes through them as they work by reducing the amount of water running around the elements to get a hotter shower. Bad deign really, but they are cheapish
You've likely used a power shower then, they have piss poor flow rates but an electric shower will drench you as you are basically standing under a fully open cold water mains being ran through a heating coil.
The 6.5kW electric shower in my student house is shite. The way these showers regulate temperature is by regulating flow-rate, not current. So in the winter when the water temperature into your home is colder, the water gets regulated down to a trickle. Not fun.
@@Oscar-if6lq anything less than 9kW is useless
In america we call a big version of this a hot water heater (here are a few versions) but they all attach to the water main and feed the entire house. No shower electrical issues; much safer that way.
Had a Triton T100E myself years ago very reliable and lasted ages then moved to a Mira.
Mira work great too, they're just as good quality as the Triton ones