Only getting 170volts between line and neutral on shower?

[nicebutdim]

As Avo Mk8 has already said, with 70 volts disappearing between isolator and shower, at shower current, the location of the fault should reveal itself.

The simplest of radial circuits with clear indication of the point at which this problem appears.

 

[Avo Mk8]

Spark I work with is going round tomorrow to take a look. I'll report back what he finds. I might even tag along and annoy him for a bit.

This doesn't make sense to me either. What was the shower doing when you were measuring 170V across it? You said it was ON, but was water flowing, and if so what temperature was it?
i.e was it on as an 8kW+ load with water flowing, or was it just 'on' (but no water flowing, so not a load), in other words 'off'!

 

[TheConduitKing]

This doesn't make sense to me either. What was the shower doing when you were measuring 170V across it? You said it was ON, but was water flowing, and if so what temperature was it?

No, that's why I was confused. No water flowing at all no matter what setting I put it on. But the indicator light was on however it was very dim.

I even shut off the mains water and checked the filter and it wasn't blocked or anything. Again like I said solenoid was reading 3.5k ohms and the microswitch was working when I checked continuity across it.

It's a Triton shower if that makes any difference. Only reason I know to check the solenoid is the solenoid broke in my own Mira shower and I was able to fix that. Apart from checking those things I know very little about showers.

 

[Avo Mk8]

No, that's why I was confused. No water flowing at all no matter what setting I put it on. But the indicator light was on however it was very dim.

I even shut off the mains water and checked the filter and it wasn't blocked or anything. Again like I said solenoid was reading 3.5k ohms and the microswitch was working when I checked continuity across it.

It's a Triton shower if that makes any difference. Only reason I know to check the solenoid is the solenoid broke in my own Mira shower and I was able to fix that. Apart from checking those things I know very little about showers.

So I'm guessing no 8kW load from the elements is activated, because they haven't been turned on, because the solenoid isn't letting the water through because there's something like a 2.5 kohm fault somewhere in the supply acting as a potential divider with the 3.5k solenoid
So if I'm right (good chance I'm not!) there's about 40mA flowing in the faulty circuit with the shower "on". About 3 watts being dissipated somewhere!

 

[brianmoooore]

So I'm guessing no 8kW load from the elements is activated, because they haven't been turned on, because the solenoid isn't letting the water through because there's something like a 2.5 kohm fault somewhere in the supply acting as a potential divider with the 3.5k solenoid

Only a minute current flowing. A much more likely scenario.