Shower fuse and fishy smell!

[lauren24]

Hi everyone .....quick question:

I've been noticing an unpleasant fishy smell in my living room when i use my new shower I've googled it and I've come to the conclusion that it must be the fuse burning, as you can also hear a slight buzzing near the fusebox when the shower is on.
My shower is 9.5KWh made by Gainsborough and I only had the shower engine replaced, as the heating element in my older Gainsborough shower broke. Anyway, the older Gainsborough shower was also a 9.5KWh so I assumed all the correct cables and fuses would already be in place for the new 9.5KWh.
There was no info or instructions supplied with the shower as it was a replacement part. Can I just upgrade the shower fuse in the fusebox to a 45 fuse? Is it as simple as that or does there have to be special wiring for it?

Thank you for your help

 

[Spark123]

The smell is probably bakelite getting hot.
It isn't quite as simple as just swopping a fuse for a bigger one, checks need to be made first so the best advice to give is don't use the shower and call in a qualified electrician.

 

[kevmcdo9]

do you by any chance leave the isolator switch on most of the time ?

 

[lauren24]

oh i thought i could just swap fuses willy nilly

kev: Is the isolator switch the pull down string that turns on the heater of ur shower? if so, then yes! am i not meant to do this? but i used to leave it on with my previous shower and it never caused a problem.

 

[sherlockholmes]

do you by any chance leave the isolator switch on most of the time ?

I often forget to pull mine, is that bad?

 

[kevmcdo9]

well....i'm not an electrician or a plumber for that matter but my friend works for a kitchen and bathroom supplier and she would not let me buy a gainsborough shower because of the amount of them that end up going on fire !! not trying to alarm you the manual that you get with them reccomends that you switch the isolator off after every use......a spark will probs be able to shed more light into this tho

 

[lauren24]

well i'll definitely not be using it whilst it's like this! i'll call in an electrician see what he says

 

[sherlockholmes]

Usually when ladies have a fishy smell a shower is the solution rather than the problem.

 

[lauren24]

ha that's gross.....but funny!

 

[Taylortwocities]

The fishy smell is because one or more of the connections is not made properly.

If the termination is not tight then the cable will heat up and melt the insulation. That is what makes the fishy smell.

You'll need to find where the problem is and then the cable will need to be cut back to bright copper and made properly.

Do remember to turn off the power while investigating!