Monday, 23 November 2020

Electric showers how they work


Electric showers how they work



Firstly your electric shower must be plumbed in correct and wired correctly with the correct size wiring and circuit breaker, calculation of this is done by professional electricians so if your unsure you need to get a professional opinion.

Before opening an electric shower ensure you have isolated it from the supply, locked of the supply and tested it to with the correct isolation test procedures. 

The water supply can  usually be turned off on the supply pipe by the use of a isolation valve you need to turn the slot with a screw driver and facing horizontal to the pipe to ensure water is off and inline with the pipe to ensure it is on. 

The electric supply should be isolated at the main circuit board or consumer unit and locked off so it cannot be turned back on again without a key to open it , there should be a second pullcord switch inside the bathroom or a switch somewhere just outside the bathroom usually in a cupboard

Firstly when you first turn on the shower the solenoid valve with be operated which lets main pressure water into the shower flow control valve which can be set to allow a set amount of water through the main heater element heat exchanger ( flow controls temperature ) it will also operate the pressure micro switch, the pressure micro switch will not operate if there is not enough mains water pressure .

The heating elements will not turn on unless the thermal cut out is not tripped , this would trip if the water temperature rose to much if there was a flow problem or blockage or kinked pipe and the heater will not turn on unless the micro switch inside the show above the flow valve is turn on.

some common issues 

The solenoid valve usually cuts the shower off completely after about 2-3mins of operation and will then turn back on again.( shower turns on and off again).

Flow control valve , some times turning the heat will not alter it, its the same temperature or very similar so its the same from hot to cold,  this can be a symptom of a bad flow valve but check the heater elements first though.

Pressure switch is basically a diaphragm valve that operates the micro switch , the micro switch sensing pressure will them turn on the heating elements.

Thermal cut read the temperature of water in the heat exchanger if it sense it is too hot it will disconnect the electric supply to everything basically. Sometime they will not reset and need replacing.

Heating elements , if one goes it will feel cold even at full temperature if both go it will obviously make the water very cold so you will need to replace in either case test thermal cut out and elements first.


              Whats inside an electric shower and how they work video below




 

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