
Inside a heated shower head. (suicide shower)
About this video
BigClive tears down a heated electric shower head of the type common in some countries, often called a suicide shower. He examines the construction and the dangerous fault conditions, such as poor insulation and missing earthing.
Why it appears in the archive
HN commenters cite it as a teardown from a YouTuber who dissects appliances, showing live wires in contact with water.
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From the Hacker News discussion
Big Clive also did a teardown and analysis of them, including the fault conditions that would make it dangerous [VIDEO] He also did one on a UK-approved unit for comparison [LINK] The units aren't dangerous if installed properly, but they're not many failures from delivering a nasty shock.
Read original comment ↗The difference is that in Scotland and Europe, it’s just one or two insulated heating elements that the water flows past. There are numerous safeties, overheat protectors, usually an RCD - in short, you’d be very unlucky to get a shock. In South America, I’ve seen two types. One: an element, but it’s uninsulated and has no safety features. This is usually operated by a water pressure switch and operates by heating a thin resistive element up. High danger of faults to earth (you’re earth). The other kind has me rather gobsmacked - the water is the element. The idea is to just pump in enough juice that the water starts to flash boil, and forms a plasma channel that then heats the surrounding water. Ostensibly safe, if earthed, but I really disliked the 60hz skin tingle - later discovered that they’d hooked earth up to the third phase in that house, when I plugged my laptop in. Metal case, leg, funky chicken. I guess the shower is reliant on skin effect to not kill you. There’s a really great YouTuber who is forever tearing domestic appliances apart - it’s actually quite amazing how some stuff is built, both in a good way and a bad way. Links to showers: [LINK] [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗Electroboom did a video on the subject. It seems that they are actually safe. Not sure I'd be willing to try it though. [LINK] And bigClive [VIDEO] diodeGoneWild [LINK]
Read original comment ↗I remember this video [1] from bigclive about it. I had no idea it was so common to have live wires in contact with water. At least they are grounded sometimes? [1] [VIDEO]
Read original comment ↗