Any plumbers? Electric shower advice please

[garynortheast]

Triton electric shower. Got out after having a shower and turned the dial to off but it kept running at full pressure. After turning it on and off a few times it eventually shut down but not fully. Water is still trickling from the shower head and if I put my ear to the unit I can still hear water flowing slightly.
I replaced the solenoid valve about 18 months ago and it’s worked fine since then until last night.
Any ideas please?

[shiftin_gear98]

Sounds like it might almost be time for a new one. How old is it?

[garynortheast]

Not that old actually Martin, about 5 years and aside from this works fine. I suspect it's either the solenoid switch again, the flow control, or it has some limescale in it. Just wanted to see what anyone in the trade thought.

[Seeker]

If water is flowing with the power off it must be a leaking solenoid valve (disclaimer: I'm not a plumber), that's the whole point of the valve to allow water flow with power on, stop it with power off.
I had an electrician around 6 weeks ago putting in a better cct breaker for my shower and I asked him how long an electric shower would normally last - he said about 10-12 years. My inherited Triton Ivory is at least 18 years old, fortunately for me my late father always bought 2 of everything so I have a new Ivory 3 in a box.

I always let the shower run cold before shutting off which is recommended and, apparently, the newer showers do automatically. The electrician did suggest fitting a magnetic scale inhibitor to prolong the shower's life.

[shiftin_gear98]

Seeker, I love your idea of new.
Fingers crossed your new one isn't jammed up with oodles of time.

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by shiftin_gear98

Seeker, I love your idea of new.
Fingers crossed your new one isn't jammed up with oodles of time.

how about: New, Old Stock (NOS)?

[shiftin_gear98]

Fair enough, however.

That all depends on if it's a brake lever and time can't really harm it (nowhere for the oodles to get stuck), or a shower with many many plastic gubbins and whatsits.

Fingers crossed it works the day you need it.

Gary, fingers crossed you get it fixed.

[garynortheast]

Had the solenoid and valve out of the shower for a look this morning. There's a crappy little shaped plastic mesh filter on the inlet side of the valve which has disintegrated. I shook a couple of bits out of the valve and pulled the remains of it out of the inlet. I suspect a piece of it has gone into the valve and embedded itself into the valve seal, which is preventing the valve from shutting fully.

I'm going to see if I can dismantle the valve and clean it out but not until I have a new valve, which will now not be until next week as the online store is shut for the holiday. So we will have a trickling shower for the next few days.

[shiftin_gear98]

Best bung the end in a watering can, so you can water your beds.

[R1ffR4ff]

My old electric shower went a couple of years ago after I kept it running like the OP so fitted a new Cheap cheap Triton like this,

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Triton-T8...kAAOSwd1Jeff4p

£52.62

I do have qualifications in domestic house wiring but anyone with decent mechanical and basic electrical skills can do it. I found some useful Youtube videos to help as well.

I did of course take safety precautions inasmuch as turning off the Stop-**** whilst working and isolating/switching off the mains.

HTH