Electricians help please, electric shower switch

Hi,

I’m having the bathroom ceiling plastered so thought I’d remove the old electric shower switch.

I thought I’d be able to remove the switch unit and remake the circuit with those joining blocks, that didn’t work as the main switch keeps tripping out at the circuit board. I then tried to put the old switch back on but I didn’t take note of how it was wired up!

Looking at the pic, the left hand side is marked L and the right N, both top holes are marked Load and the bottom Supply.

The wires are older black and red ones and neutral

Any help on to fix it or re wire the switch greatly appreciated

Ta

I’ll try and post a couple of pics to help

find out which cable is which first

then just connect up – the supply goes back to board – the load goes to shower

don’t forget to secure earthing to terminal

if this doesn’t make sense get a spark in before you do some damage

swisstony – Member
Hi,

I’m having the bathroom ceiling plastered so thought I’d remove the old electric shower switch.

The wires are older black and red ones and neutral

Neutral, live and earth.

Supply neutral and live go at the bottom of the switch, load neutral and livego at the top. Earths go together in the bottom left earth point

Trace the cable that goes to the shower – that goes in the ‘Load’ side, other cable goes in the Supply side

Personally, I’d get a new switch whilst doing it

(Don’t forget the possibility that an idiot might have wired it incorrectly before you, and the colours could be incorrect)

You shouldn’t remove it anyway, it can be used to isolate the shower easily if you have a problem/emergency. Plus if you do remove and wire it directly it still shouldn’t trip mcb.

Thanks all, I’ll give that’ a go.

I do want to do away with the switch altogether, what’s the best way to this so I can hopefully push the wires back up and plaster over the hole?

how do I tell which wires are load and which are supply, trial and error?

as above you don’t want to do this – any joins in the cable should be servicable

i.e you should be able to access them

if you want to do what you are suggesting you need a complete new run of cable – or joint it somewhere else using a properly rated junction box

I hope this thread is a joke.

No joy, I’ve tried wiring it up either way but it’s still tripping the mcb????

I hope this thread is a joke.

I’m not sat in the dark with no tele just for fun 🙂

Well there’s nothing else to do but go to bed!

If I buy a proper junction box tomorrow to mount on the ceiling ‘should’ it just be a case of joining the wires togther via the box?

Thanks for all the help

My sparkie mate reckons……..get a sparkie in.

Have you made a will?

Switch has to be in place for safety, it’s not an optional extra. MCB units have been known to develop faults.
Call a competent person and get it fixed (your comments show that you do not meet the criteria for competence with electrics).
IANAE.

Echoing others comments, please pay someone who knows what they are doing – the shower circuit has plenty of potential to burn your house down after you’ve finished playing…
The fact that you’re managing to have the breaker tripping after you played and that you think you have a red, black and a neutral says you are a long way out of your depth.

It is really clear as others have said that you are out of your depth.

A shower is one of the heaviest loads in the house, if you don’t connect the wires properly in the correctly rated connections they Will burn out. I have frequently been called in to replace shower switches where the conections have not been tight enough, they are a real fire hazard. Just the other day a Fireman friend was telling me of a house fire with an electric shwer in our town.

For all the price of getting in an electrician, at least you will be able to use the shower and not have to worry.

It is not a good idea to join shower cables, the switch is there for a reason.

nothing huge to add – shower at work tomorrow and get a spark.

Normally i am not one of those who say get a spark but your first post scares the shit out of me- – also looking at the switch its not rocket science but based on

“
The wires are older black and red ones and neutral.”

Thats why your getting **** up – this is not what you have – live neutral and earth from load and supply is what i see both hanging out the roof and on the switch. How ever as above which is which is another matter i wouldn’t blindly connect anything up as per what it “should be” without checking continuity with the meter which cable is going which way.

As above potential for fire is strong in this one.

rewired my house after finding hte previous owner was a have a go hero.

numerous faults – including lighting circuits with twisted pair flex and insulating tape – the whole garage wired up to a 6amp lighting circuit spur and the wrong fuse wire in rated fuses on the board.

Most scary was this – which i found when i pulled the shower apart- its a 9.5KW shower – it had big cable down to the switch then from the switch to the shower regular socket cable plastered into the wall behind the tiles. It has begun to burn back – either from poor terminal in the shower block or simply from being undersized. I only investigated when the shower started tripping out on us shortly after we moved in.

Hard to get a sense of scale, but that wiring doesn’t seem very beefy for an electric shower.

Also, don’t know if it’s an ‘approved’ method, but a sparky for my parents fitted their shower with a wall mounted switch in the airing cupboard, downside is that means it’s often left on.

Undersize cable was also my second thought, (after if you can’t work out how to wire a very basic 2 pole switch plus earth, you really should get an electrician)

Yikes. glad you’re getting an electrician in OP.

you definitely need an isolating switch for your shower. Since you’re getting someone in to fix it you could get it moved to the wall outside the bathroom. Though that’ll not be cheap to do.

There are a few myths going around in this thread.
It is 6mm T+E cable. That can be good for a 9.5kW shower, it all depends on the route the cable takes from the Consumer Unit to the shower. If in plaster, or on the surface all the way, it’ll be good.
If it is surrounded by insulation, then it may well be undersized for the current load.
Shower switches – unless the Shower Manufacturer says there must be one, then there is no need to fit a ‘local isolation switch’.
It makes sense to fit one, but the Wiring Regs clearly state that it is not needed.

As said above, get someone in. There seems to be a problem somewhere, and get/fit a better switch while you are at it – any switch with 2 screws for each termination would be what I use – they are one of the most common cables to burn – mainly as the terminals in the switch are never tight enough, or, the switch is of poor quality.
You have very little conductor wire showing on one of the Line cables, so that must be a poor connection. (It’s called Line now, not Live – both the Line and Neutral are Live wires.)

This should help you out

Chris
Electrician

Thanks for all the replies, I’ll call an electrician later.

For the record though, the red, black ‘neutral’ was a typo and should have been earth. I’m also confident (and compitent) that I’ve wired the switch correctly but there must be another fault that’s tripping the board.

I do know my limits though!

Thanks again

Good move.

Best to be safe, especially with something like a shower.

Electrician came round this afternoon, I had wired the switch up correctly but the mcb in the consumer unit had blown.

He went to get a replacement but phoned to say he was couldn’t find one anywhere and it might be a while before he could fix it. I’ve just googled though and found them in loads go shops for £2.50?! It’s a 3 year old Wylex unit.

I’ll see what he says tomorrow!