Anyone replaced a shower pull cord switch?

A2Z · 20 May 2015 at 17:35

Broke mine pulling down the cord too hard as it was getting very hard to turn it on and off.

Bought a replacement 45a shower pull cord switch. From reading online seems simple enough - turn off the electricity, take off the cover, note where the 3 wires go into, put them in the same place in the new switch, screw back on.

Although I like doing fiddly stuff such as replacing iPhone screens, I've never done any electric stuff around so wanna make sure I don't do anything stupid... just wanna make sure it really is as easy as it sounds?

A2Z · 20 May 2015 at 17:42

Rroff said:
Double check the power is actually off - you never know what the state of some people's wiring is like :S I've seen people bypass the fuse box and/or even meter before.

That was my main thought, but Im gonna switch off EVERY switch on the MCB, especially the red switch, not just the shower one, to make sure EVERYTHING is off!

A2Z · 20 May 2015 at 20:24

Thanks for the advice.

Just finished it now and it's all working. Was a bit puzzled as the new one had the Load and Supply on opposite sides to the old one, but in the end I had to turn it 180 degrees anyway cos I couldnt screw in the earth wires as the wall was too close, so I just had to move the Live and Neutral back to front. Was a bit tricky as the wires are hard!

This is what it looked like when I opened it up..seems some of the insulation for the wires has been burnt a bit...and the two reds are more or less black lol...(the thick black near the front is supposed to be black neutral, the two to the side are supposed to be red)

Is this common or something I should look into sorting out somehow? What would happen if the insulation was burnt through and the Live and Neutral wires touched, and was turned on? Would there be a major thing or would it just short circuit and turn off safely?

A2Z · 20 May 2015 at 20:37

wazza300 said:
shouldn't be burnt like that,what size cable is it do you know? ive just ugraded my cable from a 6mm to a 10mm because the new 10.5kw shower kept cutting out

I don't know what size cable it is. I just remembered the switch was changed about a year ago as it just wouldn't turn on one day. It was done by a family friend so I might try and find out if the cables were like this already back then, or if its a recent thing.