[HELP] Electric Shock from Shower

[JordanFern]

Not sure where else to go (so please don't get mad), our family electrician has run out of ideas so turning to forums for any help.

Had a new central heating cylinder fitted which allowed me to have a new mains shower fitted (replaced an old electric shower).

Every time i touch the wall (provided its wet), or the body of the shower its self, i get a 'mild' electric shock. (See video, 57V)

So i immediately called the plumber (as it didn't do this before he replaced the shower) he had no clue... so the electrician came round and earthed everything he could find (see pictures below). Removed the old electrical shower power, and did a full sweep to ultimately become stuck.

What do i do? No one seems to know the answer and I'm stuck here getting shocked every morning i shower...

[video=youtube_share;cGQgyhz9RWw]https://youtu.be/cGQgyhz9RWw[/video]

[video=youtube_share;cJSLpt63_mg]https://youtu.be/cJSLpt63_mg[/video]

[video=youtube_share;ANIRS0HTjio]https://youtu.be/ANIRS0HTjio[/video]

[video=youtube_share;uuhMQOjtIkc]https://youtu.be/uuhMQOjtIkc[/video]

 

[Midwest]

This may well be were a cable has become mechanically damaged. This could of happened in you refurbishment, or could of happened some time ago, and perhaps the new pipework has been better earthed, although I think you said you had an electric shower.

As an example; a colleague told me of an instance when a property was having a bathroom refurbished. While the room was stripped out, the plumber was getting a shock off the copper pipes. The electrician put one end of a tester on the wall and other to the copper pipe, he had a voltage. After alot of work, it was found a cable going to a nearby light switch, had a screw put through it. Only the live conductor had been screwed into, and not broken so the switch/light still worked. This had been done some years previously. The end effect was that the whole wall was 'live', but only was noticed when a person was in contact with a good earth, the copper pipe.
In any case, you will need to get competent electrician in and it may take some time to locate the fault. Think we would be all interested to see how you get on.

 

[JordanFern]

Time to track this problem down systematically! Post No 19 is your next logical step. This will at least indicate which circuit the voltage is coming from. Also check if you got any earth continuity from the shower head back to the origin?


Edit: just spotted something in the videos. I’m willing to wager there is no earth continuity between the shower head and the origin.

Are you asking if its earthed to the fuse board? Yes it is.

I planned to get round this at the weekend but otherthings took priority

Ill start tonight, ill stand outside the shower and ask my mrs to flip each of the mains fuse switches to see if i can isolate which cirucuits its happening on...

Will report back tomorrow

 

[GrahamBrighton]

Had a similar issue, customer was getting a mild shock when in the bathroom vs the pipes. Turns out there was a screw through the floor beneath the tiling into the lighting below. The whole floor (well, wet grout channels) were live. Thankfully he had some plastic pipe fittings which actually saved him from getting a full 240v belt off the pipework.

Get an electrician to perform a long lead test back to the MET and place the probe on the surfaces in the area, in theory the location with the highest voltage is probably where a damaged cable is leaking voltage.

 

[JordanFern]

right, so with everything turned off (literally every switch turned off) there is still a residual 0.3V in the shower. (http://s2.postimg.org/x15hasfyh/IMG_0098.jpg)

toggling each switch one by one makes negligible difference (turning on a socket under my stairs made it go up 0.1V).

The spike was at 'RCCD Switch', here are a few photos:

 

[Kamikaze]

You’re either not checking it properly or you have a physics defying problem. A quick google check throws up 151 electrical contractors in the Derby area. Make some calls, they can’t all be busy and difficult to get hold of.

 

[JordanFern]

haha love the stargate avatar...

I assume the voltage reading at 0.3 was the multimeter slowly resetting back to zero.

The electrician is back round tomorrow

 

[Barry White]

The RCD needs to be on then turn on each circuit one by one to pinpoint which circuit it is, The only photos showing are a consumer unit and a link to a testmeter showing 0.223v

I would advise as above get in an electrician

 

[JordanFern]

Ah, so RCD on (everything else off) then turn the rest on one by one?

Yes the electrician is back tomorrow

 

[Kamikaze]

I bet Colonel Carter would have worked it out by now…lol. So don’t keep us in suspense. How did it go today?

 

[JordanFern]

So he was here 4 hours today, has removed pretty much every plug socket in the house and retested the shower, narrowed it down to the USB plug socket I have in the main bedroom and the sockets that power the TV - BUT - even with these removed there was still a small voltage reading from the shower

He has also been round and checked all the sinks / taps etc and made sure the earthed

He is back at the weekend...

 

[snowhead]

So he was here 4 hours today,

I don't see why it's taking so long to find a screw in a cable in the bathroom wall.

 

[JordanFern]

I don't see why it's taking so long to find a screw in a cable in the bathroom wall.

There's no cables anywhere near the shower though, only power in the room is the shaving point and the spot lights, which all have been checked

you can see directly down the void where the pipes go from the loft to reach the shower (video on the first page). There's no cables anywhere near these.

 

[Octopus]

There's no cables anywhere near the shower though, only power in the room is the shaving point and the spot lights, which all have been checked

you can see directly down the void where the pipes go from the loft to reach the shower (video on the first page). There's no cables anywhere near these.

what work was done in the bathroom? Any changes to the floor? There are almost certainly cables in the floor/ceiling void below

 

[Midwest]

There's no cables anywhere near the shower though, only power in the room is the shaving point and the spot lights, which all have been checked

you can see directly down the void where the pipes go from the loft to reach the shower (video on the first page). There's no cables anywhere near these.

The example I gave in #31, the damaged cable was a light switch on the landing, couple of meters from the bathroom.

 

[marco86]

U ever get this sorted?