Teardown of a British electric shower that went bang. 

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.

"This is Ralphy, my brothers shower" Ralphy is a strange name for a shower. But I am glad your brother named it.

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

My nan doesn’t think I can think fix the electric shower. Well, she’s in for a shock

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.

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...!

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.

Ralfy: Did you fix my shower, Clive? Clive: lolno bro I tore it apart and made a youtube video

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.

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.....

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.

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.

Started spraying water everywhere, eh Clive? Isn't that what it's for? Sorry. :P

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.

This is a direct result of water hammer finding the weakest link.

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!

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!

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.

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.

had one of these (25 years ago) in a house i lived in, a cat could pee on you faster and warmer.

_"BANG! and the dirt is gone!"_ .. Barry Scott

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.

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!)

"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.

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 :)

Ralphie set the shower temp to extra bang

Poor Ralfy, that malty messy martyr of mechanical malfunction!

I've certainly never seen anything of this sort in Canada!

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.

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

Ah of course, mains voltage and water! What could possibly go wrong?

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"

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.

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.

"Americans don't think electric showers are very safe" Say the same people who use un-fused un-grounded plugs. xD

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"

The best part about these showers is that when the boiler stops working, you can still get hot water.

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.

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).

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...

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.

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.

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?

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.

So Ralfy has been a very dirty boy......well, until you replaced his shower.

10 years ago ISH, maybe it was Les, in Edinburgh, Scotland, the water company increased the bar pressure after they replaced the old pipes with new, thereby blowing up lots of showers of this ilk! Many happy shower fitters/plumbers 😬

water and 240 volts......perfect combination!

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).

“Should I look inside this?” *nods yes*

This was clearly a good one, the cheap ones only had one heat setting, hot (element in use) or cold (element not in use), plus of course the flow regulation.

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

I used to repair they showers for ScottishPower in its day. Fairly reliable shower. Only thing I hated was that it needed a really good mains water pressure to work properly

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.

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.

"So when do I get my shower back, I have the replacement diaphram?" -- Ralph

Triton showers are pretty reliable, I had one for years, i now have a wicks hydro LED, touch control , a bit pricey, but a good shower. I chat to a few people in the U.s and they think we are mad having electric showers. Myself if this was my own place i would have one connected to my boiler, better pressure.

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

I am used to 2 sets of water pipes - hot/cold, people told me this is environment friendly. Seems like you can save on all the piping and use electric through flow heaters saves money.

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 lived in a house in Brazil in the 1970's that had electric shower heads. It was "normal thing" to feel electrical tingling from them.

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?

In the Netherlands we have either central on-demand gas heating warm water or tank stored (heatpump) warm water. So when I moved to UK for my studies, this was a kind of shock for me. 32 Amp in the shower cabin! And it was rubbish, poor flow, low amount of water. Even a heatpump tank would give you 4x more efficient hot water at a constant amount.

Interesting to read the jaw dropping comments, these units are very, very common here in the U.K. and are very reliable.

I have no idea why that Triton has electronics in it. My 10 year old Mira Sport has no electronics. I’ve repaired it at least three times so far and it’s working great.

The idea of messing around with a 240 V device in the shower makes my skin crawl.

I had a shower that failed in a similar way. Think it was Mira one. Was not possible to find a replacement unit with the same pipe positions, but I did fix it by buying an old stock spare part.

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 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 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

You're right I'm an American and that whole assembly, that unit freaks me out! Here in America we don't mix electricity with our water especially in our shower or bath. In North America we turn that heater water and a whole house sense one big hot water heater supplies hot water to every hot water tap. We do have electric hot water heaters but what I seen in this video is kind of frightening to me and what I am accustomed to and what I'm accustomed to installing. North American building code doesn't let water get near electricity very often

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.

The diaphragm is probably part of a pressure switch to tell the control board water pressure is too low and may lead the unit to overheat, or maybe to activate it. This electrical shower is really impressive and complicated, having only a few temperature settings. I have never seen something remotely close in Brazil, where electric showers are king because boiler systems here not so popular due to the high cost. We do have electronic showers where you can control the water temperature by turning a pot that controls a TRIAC like in a traditional bulb dimmer, and you can also get hotter or colder water by controlling how much water is passing through the heating elements by opening or closing the water valve slightly. Most heating elements here are just bare wires arranged like a coil, expensive showers may employ immersion elements that are electrically isolated from the water.

Oh Boy! You wait to see the electric showers in Brazil....

As a Canaduan these things make my hair stand on end....when I lived in the UK we had 3 choices, cold showers, tingly current leakage from one of these ( yes it was mounted in the shower enclosure under the shower head! ) or exploding gas geysers....great way to start your day!

I'd love to see an AvE teardown of this.

My parents had a shower unit like this in the UK in the 90s they were fairly common, but pretty weak when it came to water pressure. I now live in SE Asian and they're very popular here as houses don't have heating only aircon so they make sense.

This looks a bit more complex than the brazilian showers.

We had one o those Tritons for years. Solenoid went a couple of times and was easy to replace but eventually the heater started to weep so it had to go. The new Triton isn’t a patch on the old one though.

Heater looks like the kind used in a senseo coffee machine

Reminds me of my nans house on Bootham cresent when I was a kid. Thanks Clive

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.

Yes to water hammer, it was a direct path across from the inlet. Strangely they have the safety pop-off in a place where the inrush of water would need to fill the chamber before the pop-off would see the pressure. Now if they would have put the pop-off directly across from the inlet then they would have had a winning safety design. The inlet chamber safety was designed with the idea that the chamber would always be full of water, but it's not when it's not. Good video, well explained.

Mains Voltage in a shower what can go wrong? But who am I to judge we have bagged Milk.....

Being an engineer, I've never been comfortable with electric showers if there's an internal leak . But hey you didn't mention your brother's funeral so I guess he's OK 🤭 Presumably every single installation on the planet is earth bonded and RCD protected 🤔

I had that for 13 years and it was old then, worked awesome. Can't fault it

On an intellectual level, I understand that is a very safe unit with many safeguards to keep bad things from happening. On a purely instinctual level having electricity that close to water bothers be so dang much. I think I will stick with a natural gas water heater, thank you

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.

As a Brazilian, I'm used to electric showers, but I admit I didn't like this British solution. Some of you may have seen about our "suicide showers" here, but believe me, those are exceptionally bad installations and very, very cheap models. There are many nice quality models today, all with fine temperature tuning and some with digital thermostat ("hydra quadratta plus" for example). I personally like our system because it doesn't use that weird wall mounted hand shower head. I've hated every bath I had in one of these showers.

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

I think the (broken) switch element is used to prove that there is water in the system before it turns the power on. Maybe someone else said that already, or maybe, I'm wrong. Enjoy though. Best wishes.

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.

Solenoid valve and flow regulator - sounds like potential building blocks of diy garden watering system...

You're a good brother, Big Clive!

Thanks for the video. I think Clive was thinking of the shower hear "furring up".

That won't fly in America. You know, code and all that. We have instahot unites, but they hang on the wall. No mains inside the tub area! I am sure that's to save us from our selves!!!

RU-vid said its now this videos time to go to everyone's recommended

this seems like such a dangerous system to me. i really dont understand why anyone would want one of these

As an Australian visitor to Britain since the late 1970s, I have often wondered why showers seem like some sort of novelty household accessory. This sort of contraption can only mean that hot water systems themselves are deemed superfluous. Most odd.

I reckon a bit of reverse engineering and a 3D resin printer could have printed you a new part for the price of a new shower.

I'm guessing the double heating elements in the copper section are for the dual-setting heat. So one of the elements is used for the medium setting, and both for the high setting.