Shower pump overheating

fuzzy12

Hi,

I think my shower pump overheated today. Bad smell of burning and smoke from the hotpress. I killed the power and it went away. It's not properly ventilated in there either. It's a small Techflow Q45-2, do you think it's fcuked?

Thanks.

Stoner

Well this is one of those times where we just say "get a qualified person in to look at it" the risk of fire is to great for an on line fix IMHO.

Burning and motors is not good, for cheaper motors the cheapest thing to do is to replace it as they are not worth fixing.
However it might be cable or something else burning, but it's not worth guessing TBH.

fuzzy12

Plumber on the way. thanks for info.

Davy

Probably a bit late now, but if it is the pump thats gone, you might consider increasing it slightly. What you using it for, how much? The one you have is a 1bar pump afaik and if your getting a new one get a 2 bar. It wont be any different to your system everything will work exact same with old pipework just the pump wont be under as much pressure. Chances are he wouldn't be doing a swap today unless he had an old one, so you could talk to the plumber about it.

fuzzy12

Stuck in a reconditioned 1.5bar pump. 550euro all in.

Davy

Least its a bit more powerful and got you out of a hole quickly. I would say a he made a few quid on the pump being a Saturday morning call but once he gives you a warranty and genuine guy nice to have it fixed real quick

fuzzy12

Yeah. Found another problem after though. I did a fault loop impedance test on it after it was installed - while he was still there - and the RCD wasn't tripping. It was tripping on the test button but not from the tester. I had one so put it in and it's fine now. Glad I got that one sorted. Dodgy sparks me thinks.

fishdog

fuzzy12:

I did a fault loop impedance test on it after it was installed

This test should help you work out if the fuse/MCB protecting this circuit will operate within the specified time (5 seconds in this case, for a fixed applience).

Note:
1) This has nothing to do with the operation of your RCD.

2) A poor earth fault impedence result would not cause the pump to fail!

cnocbui

fuzzy12 wrote: »

Stuck in a reconditioned 1.5bar pump. 550euro all in.

Ouch. I picked up a 3bar Stuart Turner monsoon off ebay for £245 including postage. I had some fun with the flex fittings not working with Irish pipe sizes, but with some bits of UK size pipe and some O rings out of Irish push fittings, I was able to get it all to work.

davelerave

Do you have an old model loop impedance meter that trips rcds in circuit maybe?

fishdog

As davelerave has pointed out some older earth fault loop impedence testers could cause the RCD to operate. But they are not designed to test the operation of the RCD.

I think it is inportant that the OP knows that the RCD could be doing what it is designed to do with that circuit even if the earth fault loop impedance is far too high. Also the earth fault loop impedance value can not have caused the fault to occur in the pump.



As far as I know the shower pump does not have to be on the RCD anyway. I am open to correction on this.

Davy

fishdog wrote: »

As far as I know the shower pump does not have to be on the RCD anyway. I am open to correction on this.

It doesn't need to be, one of the few things that are the exception.

fishdog

It doesn't need to be

Thanks

one of the few things that are the exception

...along with the cooker, alarm panel, boiler, lights and almost all other fixed appliances

Davy

fishdog wrote: »

...along with the cooker, alarm panel, boiler, lights and almost all other fixed appliances

ye, i was meaning more of the ordinary stuff should have explained it better

fuzzy12

Hey lads,

I know that the RCD didn't cause the pump to fail. It was just coincidence that with the pump failing and me deciding to just check the rcd after the new pump was fitted that I found the rcd to be faulty.

I put in a new one and everything works fine since, it trips on the test. New pump is great, same rating 1.5 bar as old one but shower pressure is much better.

fishdog

I know that the RCD didn't cause the pump to fail

Thats good!

Traditional

and the most common mistake is not using the right fuse , its a 5 amp fuse that should be used otherwise pump could burn out or your house could burn down !