shower causing burning smell?

[matt 2LT]

Recently the electric shower has started making a very slight burning smell and the incoming cable into the fuse box gets quite hot aswell as the shower fuse.

So anyone anyone any ideas?

Im assuming the shower is taking too much currunt for some reason.

[Trevelyan]

Could be a loose connection on the wiring somewhere. Turn the power off at the fusebox then check that all the terminals are tight, and look for any sign of arcing / burning around them, particularly the neutral.

Also check the terminals in the pull cord switch for the shower if you have one as this is a classic location for the terminals to burn out.

[Doofus]

You've got the water too hot, and it's setting fire to the pipes.

[GuinnessMK]

We had this with our old shower.

Loose wire, melted insulation, melty plastic cover, ex-shower.

Replaced it with a new one, which went the same way within a fortnight. When we phoned the company to complain, they sent an engineer to fit a replacement the next day.

[GreenDog]

On the subject of electric showers ours doesn't seem to be heating the water half as well as it used to. The incoming feed might be a bit colder at this time of year but I suspect the fact that we have hard water may have something to do with it. Is this likely and if so can I do anything about it other than fitting a new shower ?

[timbobalob]

GreenDog said:

On the subject of electric showers ours doesn't seem to be heating the water half as well as it used to. The incoming feed might be a bit colder at this time of year but I suspect the fact that we have hard water may have something to do with it. Is this likely and if so can I do anything about it other than fitting a new shower ?

We had this in our last house with the electric shower - like you, I put it down to the incoming water being so much colder from the ground temperature (we'd always have to have the shower on a higher setting in winter than summer). Not sure if this helps though!

[PH5121]

How big is the shower in terms of kw and what size cable is feeding it? If the cable is getting warm it sounds like a high resistance joint such as a loose connection, but I cannot imagine that you would have a loose connection at the shower and the consumer unit at the same time.
Take the cover off after isolating the supply and make sure there are no signs of over heating / burnt cables / melted connector blocks.

Often people up grade the shower but neglect to uprate the supply cable. Older installations may have 4mm or 6mm cables, the largr showers which are now common can require 10mm or 16mm cables.

[dave0010]

have a look at the cables in the fuse box a friend of mine had the exact same thing with a slight burning smell turned out the earth in the fuse box was f****d how old is your fuse box???