Afternoon all.

Our electric shower has died.

I'm tight, so was wondering if I can just swap a new one in without too much hassle. Don't fancy paying for a plumber if it's just a case of turn off power and water, disconnect shower and remove, replace with new unit, enjoy hot shower.

However, if it's more likely that i'll electrocute myself and flood the house, then i'll pay for someone else to do it.

I don't have 'mad diy skillz' but more often that not, me being tight outweighs the ease of paying someone, so i'm willing to give it a go.

only sticking point could be the wiring

might care to check if a qualified elec has to do the wiring

I managed it, even with limited DIY skills. One thing is that it's unlikely that the new unit will be exactly the same size and have the water inlet in the same place, so you may need to fit a new bit of pipe on the end. Also hope that the previous owners of your house didn't tile up to the old unit, and not behind it. That would be really annoying, especially if you can't find matching bathroom tiles…

did it at my house when I was at Uni – one of my finer moments as a man.

avoid tiling issues by buying exactly the same unit as before if possible. If not, measure it and find something the same shape/size. Also, take the front off and find out where the water goes into it and find a shower that does the same.
You'll need a compression joint to connect it to the pipe. Wiring wise, it's really not any harder than wiring a plug. However, if you have ANY doubts about your wiring prowess, best get a sparky to do that bit.

I'm not sure these days, but isn't there a law where you have to have an electrician check installations such as showers these days (I won't grass you up though, unless you live in the same block of flats as us!)

You'll need a compression joint to connect it to the pipe.

this is part of the shower

What jimobrighton says about getting the same unit if you can – makes it much easier. Beware of power requirements too. If your current shower is say a 7kw one, the wiring may not be suitable for one of the superduper 10+kw ones you can buy today.

I've done a couple, including some basic plumbing/soldering and I'm about as ham fisted at DIY as you can get – my dad is so proud 🙁

Hi,

I would be a bit carefull with this.

My dad recently had a new electric shower fitted.

(Personally I would have just installed and connected up.)

However the plumber said that he had been round to two peoples houses last month who had burnt out the unit after installing it themselves.

They probably connected it up right but a lot of new showers have some sort of sequence they need to run the first time they are turned on.
Something along the lines of turning on with it turned full cold and warming it up slowly.

This may well be covered in the instructions / instalation guide, but I would double check it.

Cheers Iain

simonfbarnes – Member

You'll need a compression joint to connect it to the pipe.

this is part of the shower

OK fair enough – it's knocking on ten years since I did it, but I had to buy a compression joint for the one I put in.

Just in case you were bothered, legally you do need to be a qualified elecrician to do this. Regs an all…