My five year old Mira advance shower started flashing it’s power light in quick succession & turned itself off.
I had an electrician to look at it & he said I needed a new shower.
The new shower was installed yesterday and seemed ok when we tried it. However I went under it last night & the same happened as with the old one. The green power light started flashing & the shower cut off.
I have been scouring the internet & it seems it could be a problem with the water pressure.
Do I ring the water board or a plumber. Is there anything I can do myself? Should I get a pump for it?
My son in law installed it for me & I know he did it right. He’s not a plumber but a very keen DIY enthusiast. He’s already installed his own bathroom.
I am almost crying with frustration here. I don’t think I needed to buy a new shower after all…
Yes, a drop in water pressure would allow the shower to overheat and eventually trip out Carol.
They are very sensitive, try turning the heat down.
I don’t think that you can fit a pump to an electric shower Carol.
Might also be worth checking that no other water is being used in the house whilst you shower, which would also reduce the pressure. We had that problem at our last house so if either one of us was showering then the other wouldn’t turn on a tap or flush a loo elsewhere in the house!
I can remember a friend with this problem and the answer was a leak on the incoming mains water pipe. This had caused the pressure to fall AND start to swamp the front boundary wall foundations. All was cured when the water supply company fixed the leak
Carol we’ve had exactly the same problem with our Mira shower, also 5+ years old.
It “plays up” from time to time.
Our plumber (who installed it) said it needed a reset…sent a great screed of instructions in an email.
What we did was turn off the electric switch on the wall and then turn it back on after an hour or two.
Goodness knows why but this seemed to work.
But we never ever change the Low/High button, always keep it on Low and it seems happy.
So yes I believe it’s to do with water pressure.
I have found out the water board are doing repairs about half a mile away. I also discovered Severn Trent water were open today so I rang them. They confirmed that the waterworks half a mile away could affect my road as the pipes come that far.
They took my details and are going to run an outside pressure check tomorrow & get back to me. I asked my neighbour who has an electric shower & she confirmed she had been having problems with her shower turning cold.
If it is the water pressure I would hope we will be back to normal soon & no need to get another workman in to sort it for me - fingers crossed.
I told the WB that I had bought a new shower thinking mine was broken but they just said I should have phoned them first.
I am angry because we weren’t informed of any of this. if i had known i would not have gone in a panic & bought a new shower that I didn’t need!!
Sorry to hear that,Carol, it’s at times like this that I’m glad I have a bath.
All that money you must have paid out, when it was the water board ,all along, …which of course now makes sense as to why the light was flashing, because of the water pressure…what a waste of money.
Remove the shower head and run the shower on cold setting so that you can judge the water flow. Run the same test, but on high hot-water setting. If the flow is the same on both tests, replace the shower head and run the shower on the hot setting once again to see if the problem reoccurs.
Sometimes, a problem like this can be traced back to the pull switch (or wall mounted) that is used to isolate the shower - it’s probably burning out. Look for any yellowing or small cracks on the switch, or smell it. If you detect a fishy smell, that usually points to melted plastic.
Carol, there’s a useful phrase, which I often use, in these circumstances.
It’s completely made up, but has worked in the past!
When talking to them, say “Oh, my cousin is a solicitor, and he thinks that some compensation might be appropriate because of the lack of notice of the changes!, he’ll be getting back to me, today!”
They might offer something, or they might not, but it’ll wind them up a bit!
Thing is Judsy, you employ these good men and trust them to get on with it and do a good job.
You don’t ask them what they’re doing and check up on them all the time because unless you’re an electrician or a diy expert you wouldn’t know!
However you do expect them to give you a resume of their work when they’ve finished.
I do think that we women are at the mercy…
Just to clear this up - the electrician didn’t do anything.
He looked at it & straight away told me the fault wasn’t electrical. He knew this because he said any electrical fault would trip the power but there was still power going into mine - ie: the flashing lights etc… That made sense to me.
He advised me to get a new shower - unfortunately he didn’t say anything about water pressure - but then again he’s an electrician.
He was a friendly chap we’ve known for years. He didn’t charge us for looking at it.
Perhaps they didn’t have the required pressure to start with Bruce. I would imagine that fitting a pump to electric showers here would result in the heating element not being able to heat the water fast enough, resulting in cold showers…
I thought the complaint was that the water pressure was low which cut the shower off… I know they do have to switches one for flow/pressure one for temperature both of which turn off the power and flow
Start at about 3 minutes in. They appear to be the same as the ones I have seen in Asia.
My parents house when I lived in the UK had a tank in the roof which supplied the house - the water pressure from that was pathetic (2.3ft head of water = 1psi)
