Is It SAFE? Electric Hot Water Tap with Shower Head

I decided to install a tankless instant hot water heater tap that you an buy cheap on Ebay and Amazon. I'm not sure if it's dangerous or even legal though?! After all, electric and water don't mix well do they!
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About me:
I'm Aiden and I'm documenting what was supposed to be my barn conversion, which has now ended up being a new build. I don't have a trade, I just have a go and I'll be doing lots of work myself. This is the boring bit in grand designs that you don't get to see. Subscribe and follow along to find out how our future home turns out.
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[@spackerinternational6131]

Please read this comment. I am a UK spark now living very rural ex soviet europe. These taps are very very common. The problem with them is this: If you lose water supply to that unit for whatever reason and the tap gets turned on by a cat or something, it will absolutely will, without a shadow of a doubt catch fire! I lost half my barn this way. It was on a 16amcb and didn't trip until it was really on fire. I'll never ever fit one for a customer.

[@wagwan6248]

I’m in 🇧🇩 we have one recently fitted to the bathroom. I nearly burnt the house down because I didn’t know this. Luckily I was close by and was able to put out the fire.

[@alisonsabin-hope7171]

would turning the power supply off at the plug work to fix that?

[@rage9067]

I am from nepal and today I bought this and tried and mine one also got red hot and finally melted. Don't know the exact reason but maybe it is because of low water pressure. Found this video while looking for a tutorial to assemble the tap heater. *DO NOT BUY THIS THING IF YOU LOVE YOURSELF OR YOUR FAMILY.*

[@MM-cg8cg]

Buy the one with a float switch. Simple!

[@drincogni]

Dear people, these tap are safe if installed and used properly, to start you connect it to a power outlet which is earthed. Then you have an on off switch connected to the tap so only when u want to use it do u turn the swich on. U can also install a small circuit breaker to the system if u want it to trip directly instead of the whole house or system.There is a guy who says well cat will turn it on and it burns the shed how can it be on without power to it?similar all my water faucet or taps have a stop valve beneat the sink or basin so i can stop flow anytime independant to the mains. I am not even a plumber or electrician i planned like that. Id like to add also since the last 38 years we have in our houses electric showers ,never been electrocuted or fires. Of course stupid people will get into problem so😂😂😂😂.also when i used any electric heater i turn heating off let the water get cold then turn off so the internal do not keep hot water inside.durability of components.

[@triax7006]

The 13A fuse in the plug means that if it draws more than 13A over a period of time then the fuse will blow preventing the plug & wiring heating up. The UK supply voltage is 230V +10% -6%, so in theory the supply voltage could be closer to 250V meaning more power for that 13A max. It certainly is safer to keep it on that wiring & the 13A fuse as the safety of having the 13A that will blow versus having it a breaker at a higher amperage like 16 or more will mean the heater could draw more power beyond the 3000W rated max. I personally think these are an excellent idea especially in areas where people are going to intermittingly washing their hands & not having to wait to run the hot tap to finally draw some hot water.

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Thanks for the useful info 👍

[@sdgelectronics]

It's a roughly 3000W heater, so the flex already attached to it looks fine (1.25 or 1.5mm²?) as you said. Pointless replacing that short length, but I'd run at least 2.5mm² from that commando socket on the cabinet given it's length. Ideally get a 32A MCB fitted though and build a small board with a garage type consumer unit and some proper 13A sockets from that outlet for the washing machine/tumble drier/shower.

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Thanks Steve. It's supposed to be 3000w but it's actually 3400w, does that make a difference at all? The cables are 2.5mm2 up to the fly lead. I'm abit concerned about the plug as the tap is running at 14.5amps All the extension leads are temporary anyway, I've got space on my consumer unit for the electrics downstairs which I'll get sorted in the new year. I'm planning on having a 32amp industrial socket for my table saw etc too so I could use that for this tap or maybe I might have sorted the upstairs sink and water heater by that point 😂

[@sdgelectronics]

@@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT It's not ideal, the fuse won't blow at 14.5A but it will get very hot if used for long enough. The 16A MCB is all you need if you were to replace the 13A plug/socket with a 16A commando plug/socket.

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Hummm, it'll only be used for about 5mins each time... I think I'll swap over the plug just in case though 😁

[@TechOne7671]

The plug top will be fine for intermittent use but used continuously will heat the plug up. Also cheap inferior or damaged plugs and sockets will have a poor connection where the pin meets the socket. I have seen both live and neutral pins welded into sockets. Ideally get a temp 10mm armour in to power the house board. Although the blue 16 and 32 plugs will be more suited to your needs.

[@ojmbvids]

13amps is the safe limit for continuous load on the fuse because you don't want it running hot. It'll probably take up about 20a before blowing.

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Hummm, so will it run too hot and melt the plug/socket if it's running at 14.5amps?

[@spackerinternational6131]

@@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT it will take a while bit yes, eventually. As a conductor gets hotter it gets less conductive and so gets hotter... It rarely runs away but it reaches a slowly decaying equilibrium. The added heat and such contributes to conductive fatigue and eventually it will get worse untill it fully melts a hopefully pops the fuse. Also, read my other comment I put on your video.

[@yvonnenagel9279]

Where the element sit the cap keeping popping out why does this happens

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Sounds like the thread has gone on yours, why don't you try glueing it on?

[@0liver0verson9]

I think the answer is probably if you have doubts about the safety of something, it's likely unsafe lol. Just because it's a manufactured product definitely doesn't guarantee it's safety. Arthur is a star by the way.

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Haha you're probably right. I'm hoping someone with the knowledge can give us the answer in the comments 🤞

[@flymolow76]

Very often the CE mark is actually for Chinese Export.

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Haha no way! I couldn't actually find anything to say where it was made which is strange

[@RuthTappinGilder]

Totally looks dodgy to me, reminds me of my kitchen in the workshop. I have a wall mounted water heater. I got a plumber to fit it and he didn't use any ptfe so it leaked. Did a butter job myself. 🙄 Totally get the not having any one to bounce ideas off. 😁 nice to be in the 30% I'm thinking of putting the best stuff at the end of videos just to reward the die hards and sod the rest 😁

[@agomodern]

Glad I won't be sodded. You sent me over to this channel, btw.

[@RuthTappinGilder]

@@agomodern 😁

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

I know the ones, they're a little more expensive so I thought this would be interesting to test out. It's holding up so far! I have managed to get my retention up in recent times, I think it really depends on the content and length of the video 👀

[@HaiLsKuNkY]

I bought one of these and was just about to fit it but after reading the review I will just bin it and use a kettle for hot water, sounds like it’s not worth it

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Mine is still working 👍

[@jembemasusa3057]

Where can i get it and how much each

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

They're on ebay, I think about £30

[@agomodern]

If it gets blazing hot, why do you say it only works ok?

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

🤔 I said it works but it wasn't great. Not alot of water comes out really when you have to slow it down that much to heat up. It is also really flimsy. Obviously I wouldn't expect it to be better considering how cheap it was. So I'm not going to describe it as the best thing since sliced bread but it does the job for now 😁 I'd like to say it's great because of the value for money but I can't cause I think it's abit dangerous 😂

[@ShadoW_one_woman_band]

Did it worked well?

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Yes, works fine for washing up. Still using it every day

[@Sean006]

Aiden, you are opening up a whole can of worms. No two electricians will want to do the job the same way. I suspect they will always want to over-specify everything. I'm no electrician but I do sort of know that circuit breakers & fuses protect the wiring. The circuit breakers and fuses should be rated less than the maximum capacity of the wiring down stream. Fuses behave differently to circuit breakers under fault/overload conditions. The Fuse 'probably' takes longer to blow and may require higher peak currents to go open circuit (trip). So a 13 amp fuse would 'probably' take an overload current of 15 amps (especially for a short duration). It is good you are creating a cheap set-up to work out what features you want the utility area to have....then spend the real money on the final solution when you are ready. I would say you need a bigger basin....or a smaller dog (unlikely!!) PS It is probably wise to have an electrician check the final solution....if you have one doing some work on the property.

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Haha Arthur is small for a French bulldog but a bigger sink would definitely be better. The whole utility set up is just to get us through as I'll have the proper sink and water heater upstairs in the next couple of months. The whole lot will come out when I have the house done as there's a proper utility room in there. I'm planning on building a dog wash station in the cloakroom too, although I'm not sure how big I can make it as that toilet needs to be wheelchair accessible 🤦‍♂️ we're going to get a boxer at the end of 2023 too 😂

[@stephenhudson3496]

Think I would have bought a cheap electric shower from a reputable maker and wired it as per their reccomendations

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

That's an idea but I'd have to get the electrician in and that wasn't gonna happen this side of Xmas 😬 if it was more of a permanent set up I probably would go down that route.

[@stephenhudson3496]

@@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT yea. I understand only three wires to the shower I’m sure you know, just need the right size cable 6mm possibly 10 I know Arthur is very precious to you so any risk from a risky appliance is not worth it in long term respectfully

[@rayhaanadam9520]

Mine started off fine but now it's not safe 😭..

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

What happened to yours?

[@rayhaanadam9520]

@@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT you can't touch the metal pipe on the unit, you can't touch the metal part of the tap in the shower away from the unit and even 2cm ( 1 inch) from the unit in the flow of water you can feel the current. It's sad because it's not even 4months old. There is no return policy, I'm from South Africa 🤣🤣. I need to invest in gas water heater now.

[@triax7006]

@@rayhaanadam9520 That sounds like a grounding issue. The unit may not be grounded properly or it may even be your electrics that are not earthed well. To be safe have it checked & if possible have a RCD (residual circuit breaker) installed in the consumer unit so any issues like that will mean the RCD will trip - very useful for any work outside as water can get into electrics (hence why RCD's are on some extension reels or you can fit them just before any tools).

[@iwo2024]

CE Marked at the time of inspection or it's probably self certified. I would'nt risk it. 👎

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

It's been fine so far 🙈 definitely not a permanent solution though. I still think it's dangerous 😬

[@goonigoogoo5868]

issue you are in England. and they are illegal to use in your country

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

I had no idea 🤷

[@SlackHoffman]

I spent 2 years living in Mazatlan, Mexico 🇲🇽 and they had electric ⚡️ (death showers 🚿) shower 🚿 heads 😱😱that heated the water 💦 as it passed through the actual shower 🚿 head 😱😱😱😱.There’s quite a few deaths every year lol 😂 as you can imagine I’m sure 😧

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

😬🙈

[@triax7006]

Those showers are because the live wires are not insulated & the water is in direct contact with the element & the live wires. In theory it will not electrocute because the resistance of the water & the element (the heating wire of the element) is lower than the resistance of your body so it will always flow via the easiest route. Of course that is in theory :)

[@BozesanVlad]

A brick, or a rocket, could be unsafe if wrongfully used. And you have what you pay for anyway.

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Good point

[@rage9067]

I am from nepal and today I bought this and tried and mine one also got red hot and finally melted. Don't know the exact reason but maybe it is because of low water pressure. Found this video while looking for a tutorial to assemble the tap heater. *DO NOT BUY THIS THING IF YOU LOVE YOURSELF OR YOUR FAMILY.*

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

What part melted?

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

What part melted?

[@guttenflax]

dude... so boring. Skip to 6:50 if you want to see the tap being tested.

[@THE-AIDEN-PROJECT]

Sorry mate, errrm lots of my audience like a full explanation and background but can appreciate that's not what every person likes. I suppose I do more of a vlog style to try and build up a relationship with my audience so they will come back and watch more of my stuff, rather than an impersonal demonstration where someone will watch a video for 2 minutes to get what they were looking for and then f off never to return again. It's quite hard trying to make a successful channel. So I'm guessing that the title of this video mislead you into thinking you were just going to get a quick demonstration? Is that the case? Maybe I can try and address that

[@drmoonie]

Yes, I absolutely love the chat as it’s what we all go through and certainly makes me feel normal - it’s reality not fantasy. Getting bored says more about the bored person?