Hahaha, I'm Brazilian. And I have used this kind shower all my life (25 years). And you are absolutely right about the conditions to get a shock. This already have happened with me but the shock never was a big one, just a small fright. But happened this is a common fact.
I'm Brazilian too. Unfortunately old houses do not have a ground wire and most electricians are not concerned about safety. They don't connect the ground wire even when one is available because they are just too lazy to connect one more wire after having seen so many showers working with only two wires connected.
@@davidca96 It is so rare to see something grounded here in BR that when someone decides to talk about it, they usually like to make it sound as if it were a supernatural complex subject that is not worth dealing with, so it serves as an excuse to leave things ungrounded.
All you would need is to install one of those over an old metal bath with an earth/ground wire attached or a metal drain pipe and you have a disaster in the pipeline... even taped up with the power cable right for 32A if the cable joint gets wet you have mains voltage on top of you, add an earthed metl frame shower screen and you have built a death chamber.
As a Guatemalan, I find this video quite fascinating. I've used those showers all my life and I never thought of them as any particular hazard. I've received a couple of shocks, but I never thought seriously about them. Also, I've never met anybody with a shocking experience (pun intended.)
Really? As a Peruvian, I grew up shocked and scalded by these devices. (Well, not every time, obviously, but let's say I haven't forgotten!) Perhaps they have improved a little since the 80s and 90s.
@@haraldhelfgott195I used similar when I lived in Callao in 1992. Got shocked a few times because I’m tall but I lived. Moving to the Philippines in February and buying one of these for there.
Even in Brazil, all new electrical panels have differential current breakers, so the simplest version of this shower no longer works. The trend is towards insulated heating element units, and central heating units are seen more and more these days. Indeed it is very rare to hear about accidents related to this shower here, knew about 1 or 2 cases in my 40 years. OTOH people here are very afraid of gas heaters (those old units that went into the bathroom) because many people have died of carbon monoxide poisoning. This shower works in Brazil because water is very "soft" (little dissolved minerals), water is around 20-25ºC already. Most houses don't have too big water pressure and don't desire it, otherwise too much water would come out and the shower would not be able to make the water warm. Less pressure = droplets = no conduction.
No groud, latin america stile! I`m from Brazil. I used things like that all my life. Never hear anyone how died because one of these showers. But I learned the hard way not to switch power when the water is running. Little shock on the fingers. Hahahaha... I liked that you tested without the ground wire. Like you said, most installations are done like that. Another very common and very dangerous thing that is done here is that the circuit breaker that was originally installed for the shower was, lets say, 30 amps. The installed shower needs 35 amps, so the breaker is switched to a higher value without changing the wiring that was designed to handle 30 amps. Also, since it is very common to have these showers here, the lowest tax we can pay for energy already covers one of these showers. We would not get any discount by getting a boiler. Cheers!
Your Brazilian circuit breaker boards recalled in memory our circuit breaker boards in my childhood. It was at Soviet era where 2-3 room apartment usually had two 250V 6.3A circuit breakers. Nominal current for apartment was considered 10A. Wiring inside apartment walls was accordingly thin with thicker wires only for electric stove socket. Usual wiring also had room lights and wall sockets connected. In result more demanding appliances or two electric room heaters in winter was not usable together with other appliances and blew away circuit breakers together with room lights. But people realized that they can have power longer if they use thick wires and nails instead of circuit breaker fuses. It kinda worked till their apartment wiring started to act as fuses :) With house fires sometimes in result.
Brazilian here. In normal operation without grounding you normally fells a light shock only when touching the faucet if you have an open cut in your hand despite that they seem to be pretty safe. Interesting fact that we often see on the local news people that got killed by natural gas powered showers but not by these so called suicide showers. Anyway nice video :)
@@imeakdo7 me parece que sera peligroso en tanto no se instale correctamente, si se siguen las recomendaciones del fabricante y se aterriza la termoducha, tal y como viste en el video, no hay peligro alguno, el problema esta en la mala instalación, pero eso le puede pasar a cualquier equipo eléctrico y de igual forma terminar siendo peligroso.
This is the best video so far on the "suicide" shower. I think I would feel comfortable using one especially if I installed it myself. I would replace the ground wire with a 20 gauge, stainless steel wire and seal the wire connections with silicone caulk. In a country without a ground connection, I would use a proper pipe clamp further on up the pipe and check it with a multimeter to make sure it was good. If plastic pipes were used, I would install a good grounding rod into the ground outside the bathroom and bring a wire through the wall. In all, I would have no problem using this dodgy contraption. I likely wouldn't even have a problem with my kids using it if I had installed it myself. I think I would install a water resistant switch away from the shower as an emergency shut off in case the contacts got welded together, and the thing caught fire.
Indeed a bit of engineering and it should be more safe then some other stuff in bathroom ( cases are nominaly grounded but they do like to somehow get current inside and if paint peels off while they won't kill you or anything it's unpleasant like 9v on the tongue )
- In a country without a ground connection, I would use a proper pipe clamp further on up the pipe... One of your spiritual relatives one floor above my apartment grounded his washing machine to water pipe and nearly killed me. I would sue you for negligent homicide try in such case.
Quick safety suggestion, when grounding yourself ground the same arm (ie with an arm band). Grounding yourself with the opposite arm is just about the worst thing you can do, a lot of the current can flow through the heart and it doesn't take that much to cause arythmia. Still, great video & shocking (pun intended) how someone can sell such a product.
Wow amazing two videos. So well explained. I live in South America and these showers are quite common. I actually always used these showers all my life (more than 30 years). The most problems are minor shocks once in a while when ground is disconnected, but once the ground is fixed never have even a tingling. Nothing. Surprisingly they are quite efficient, believe it or not. Thanks for the video. I always wanted a professional and detailed review of it and you did a great job. Sometimes was scary and you made me nervouss. Thanks a lot!
Those things require maintenance, it's very common that the ground wire gets oxidized and it breaks and falls off, the automatic mechanism gets dusty and it gets stuck, also the contacts get oxidized and the shower stops working or they weld themselves. It's not a bad idea to put a knife switch with a cord, so that children can turn it off in case of emergency. If you want to use it you should know how to operate it safely or in a safer manner, which most people don't know, for example if you close the water and it keeps making sound it means that the mechanism got stuck or the contacts got welded, so you simply open the water again (before turning off the breaker) to avoid fire hazards, they are usually pvc so they don't catch fire like plastic, they get mostly carbonized buy yet dangerous.
The "suicidal" shower that is not suicidal at all. Absolutely nothing in the world sticks its head to the shower. You are always more or less half a meter below. This is VERY secure. The pipes are plastic, by the way.
Oh just a hint. These showers are made to be really high at the top of the room, really close to the ceiling. So usually people will be very far away of the head. Oh and this is a really dodgy and low end model, there actually are some that the resistance is closed and dont touch the water, so no shock foe the people! Unfortunatly they are a bit more expensive and usually its resistance cant be replaced so many people dont buy them. Nice test!
It was developed here in Brazil in the mid 30's, in every house in Brazil has at least 1 shower we are a tropical country and so we have the habit of bathing every day, there are more than 200 million peoples taking baths every day in the last 85 years if you compare with the numbers of accidents with showers they may be considered safe. They must be installed correctly at the proper heigth, any electrical equipment is dangerous when used improperly.
Doctor here - creating a possible current path from your left hand across the chest to your right hand is a great way to give yourself a cardiac arrest. I love your videos and want to see more of them - please be careful!
There are electric showers with a 100% metal body. In the past, everyone was like that. If they are correctly grounded it is the safest shower, otherwise, it is the biggest source of accidents.
tmo72 I agree, but I don't see how it could possibly work properly in let's say a European country. You'd obviously ground it and all houses built after the 70's have one or two RCD's connected to all of the circuits in the house. Bathrooms (like the guy in the video) trip at 30 mA in Europe so dropping a hair dryer in your bath tub won't kill you. But a lot of modern houses have 30 mA for either the entire house or just for the dry circuits and 10 mA (yes, ten!!!) for the 'wet' circuits like kitchen, garage, outside and bathrooms. So this device would never work when properly installed, because the RCD will trip all the time. Unless you disconnect the ground wire, but no one would do that? And there's not really a way to fix it, because there will always be current going through the water touching the ground wire. They could've made it a lot safer though by making it longer, so the water would be droplets (don't hold voltage anymore), then come together and then go through the nozzle for a nice stream of water. They could even allow you to connect a separate hose with your own shower head, because it's impossible there's still any sort of current in the water
Here in mexico i had one of those it was the 120v version and had a dedicated circuit supplied by a gfci pigtail breaker at that time there was no problems with it but later in a few months as shown in the video the heating element corroded and broke but since i now had more budget i upgraded to double phase 240v and installed a rheem 18kv electric tankless water heater
I like that you did the most common way, used here and showed that the worst you can get is an uncomfortable shock. That's the experience of more than 100m brazillians. Sometimes we got those shocks but nothing happens at all Unpleasant but not as dangerous it seems.
I wish someday there'll be part 3 special edition which includes running salt water😍😍 through the shower head and aslo running the heater without any water.. No cat was harmed during the video 😶 Nice drawing 👍👍 Nice video 👍👍 ❤️❤️❤️
Somehow i think i will give it a mis lol :-D Now that "chocolate block" connector strip is the "Dogs bollocks" , oh you added it, the best part of the unit :). Keep the thick resistance wire element, great for making a variable load for psu testing :-D.
Loving this video. Watching it already the 4th time. That shower head is so obscure and dangerous but for me as a German also total fascinating that lots of people around the world are actually using it on daily base.
hahaha you afraid in the end make me smile. Is a very common shower hear in Brazil. Even with the shocks with bad instalations we not hear that they cause deaths. In the last years electric instalations in homes are getting better in Brazil and the electric shower are getting more safe and is becoming rare get shocked by one of this.
@@highflowhighflow9896 Almost everything in Brazil is very expensive, electric energy, cooking gas. We have the option of solar heater, but it is an expensive system..
I was doing an exchange in brasil in 2013. I took a shower in a shower like this, and got a nice stingy shock from it. The owners of the house told me to shower myself wearing flip flops LOL. It actually worked HAHA
At least here in Chile is really uncommon to see this kind of devices because any appliance sold here needs a certification from a goverment agency called SEC, and this device will certainly not pass the certification process. Most of us use a LP gas powered water heater or in newer houses a electric water tank. Really good video
What. The. F**k. I would never, in a million years, guessed that this was actually a thing. Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to even make one, much less mass produce them? Wow...lol
So, gotta add something regarding showers and electricity. We just purchased our sixth rental property. It was turnkey...hardly a single thing to do.........except this blank outlet cover that sat just inside the shower off the door frame. It's where the old light switch used to be. Instead of removing the conduit box and putting it in the attic (they moved the switch to the other side of the door), they just caulked around a blank cover. I didn't feel like crawling in the attic, cause it's close to 100 degrees outside, so I just flipped the box to the hallway and bought a matching tile to fill in the hole. It always amazes me that people will find 1,001 ways to do something wrong when like 10 minutes would make it code compliant. To my surprise though, it did pass the occupancy inspection, in which safety in the home is paramount. Lazy remodelers, lazy inspectors...
It's just part if life to them. Heat water cheaply. Keep your distance from the outlet, replace the element when it burns out, replace the entire head when it melts down, LOL!
@@ernieschatz3783 thats just not true i used eletric showers my entire life i am 18 and we only had to replace the shower once and not because it melted because that model didnt had more resistences to sell btw gas powered showers are really expensive and most people don´t have piped gas in their homes
The real big problem comes out if you have not grounded the shower (or the ground wire becomes damaged by corrosion) and accidentally one of the two 'power wires' disconnects. In this accidental configuration all the current coming from the live wire that is still connected has to flow down towards and trough you to the sink... as the pipes are somehow often grounded...
First of all. All metalic part of bathroom instalation should be grounded to one point in european countries, so 7V between the water pipe and PE sounds like something abnormal, maybe showing, that something is not grounded properly. Its very often in Czech and Germany. But. There is some simple measurement that was not done, which could be interesting. The first one is diference between the incoming and outgoing current, which means current, that flows to the ground not through the wires (N, PE lines). It's simple to measure, just put your clamp A-meter over the whole cable and the readout is current, that flows through all alternative ways. It's quite useful in situations, where you dealing with problems caused by improper grounding, like ground loops, especially in cable TV/antenna systems. But it would be interesting also in this case. The second measurement is resistance between the water and the heater. It's also simple to measure. Lock the pressure switch in ON position and submerge the lower part of the gadget into stainless steel pot making sure, you are submerging only the part that is normally filled with water, not the switching part. Then the pot could be used as an electrode, the second one could be L and N wires connected together. The shower head should lay on the bottom of the pot making the watter trails to be the shortest possible. This will show you the lowest possible resistance between the heating resistive wire and the water. It could be also measured according to different voltage, because in my opinion, the V/A characteristic is not to be linear, especially when it is measured on higher voltage, like 200V and more. However. I found your video quite interesting, because I know virtually nothing about theese heating shower heads, because I do not have enough courage to test this on my own. You proved, that it wasn't as lethal as I'd expected. Nice (and hazardous) job :3 :3
I've used this and another way to get a shock is if while you are in the shower the resistance breaks, those resistances die one day to the other. Is not pleasant but it does give you the time to jump out the shower.
DGW... You are an amazing person !! Every test is so detailed and thorough with detailed drawings. Love them all. Thank you so much for being on YT. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Hey man, very interesting video! Whenever I found one of these in my hotelrooms in Brasil and Mexico, I searched for another hotel. Interestingly, this method of water heating was (and is?) also used in Europe. At least the older professional flow water heaters were using the same priciple, however on a more professional base. In my former appartment (built 1996) there were 21kW Siemens flow water heaters installed. Since I switched the old hydromechanical one (they were notorious for temperature oszillation) to a more modern with an electronic thermostat (also from Siemens), I had a chance to "inspect" the old one. I was surprised at that time, to find a heating element inside, where also the heating coils were directly in contact with the water. However the whole enclosure of the element was made from metal and safely connected to the PE (protective earth) wire of the 32A power cable, as were the inlet and outlet pipes (copper). The installation manual of the new one btw. also mandated a proper connection of the device to PE. This indicates, that also the modern flow heaters still use this principle. Since in Germany generally not only the PE but all metal objects in the house (e.g. metal bath tubs, water pipes, etc.) must be connected to the main-earth-rail, this installation seems to be electrically safe, especially since the device is wall-mounted with fixed power cable connections. OTOH it makes clear, why such an installation should be only done by an electrically qualified person, since the safety of the installation depends completely on the quality of the PE connection. Thumbs up and subscription you have! Cheers Andreas
Very funny stuff. If the shower head is mounted very high, that'll give the water droplets time to separate a therefore open circuit... and you are safe!! :-) So only tall people get zapped! :-O
well, if the heating element lost it's connection near the neutral side, it would no longer be a resistive divider. The voltage in the water would double and so would the leakage current.
Normally when this occurs you just jump out of the water immediately because of the cold water. I`m from Brazil, so I know this stuff personally. Hahahah
They sell those here in some places, but they are not popular. Buildings from 40 years ago have very thin wiring, mostly made for lighting and low power appliances where 1.5mm2 is not uncommon. Given this scenario, this devices will cook the wiring in minutes. I had seen this happened. The ones that are more "popular" are the tank style, its a 20L tank that hang on the shower input and has a small showr on its base. They are 1200W. They take 20minutes to heat the water and you can unplug it once it is done. They are mostly used in rural areas were propane tanks are VERY expensive and there is nothing like a central boiler, it has no sense. But the suicide shower is uncommon, probably dont meet the electrical safety regulations. You cant sell (in theory) appliances without the certificate. But ... you know ... In the cities, propane is delivered to the buildings through pipes, and this contraptions are rarely used.
This gadget reminded me of what I saw inside one of those electric hot water bags that comes on for a few minutes and remains hot for a long time: a spiral of bare wire dipped directly into the water. .. to me it seemed impossible but apparently not!
This lines up with other videos I've seen on it. Even if you don't ground it and measure 40+ volts on the water coming out, there's basically no current backing that voltage so when it hits you and your body loads the circuit, it drops to 0 volts. The voltmeter may measure up to 1mA, but that's not what you would feel. I guarantee the current would drop to microamps once you stand in the water flow.
True, but if there was enough natural gas to suffocate me, it would have to be a major (and immediately noticeable) leak. The combustion chamber in this heater is sealed. It brings outdoor air in for combustion, and a fan pumps all of the exhaust fumes outside. If that fan ever stops working, the burners shut down immediately.
Holy crap man, I wouldn't have gone in the same room as that thing after water was hooked up to it. I guess if I ever go on vacation anywhere and see something that looks like that I know what I'm dealing with!
You only get a shock close up because the water is actually separating into individual drops and only looks like a continuous stream, so little or no continuity. Well done! But very dodgy!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Freeking crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do hotels in Brazil have a gold plated version just for better conductivity???....LOL....also the english accent is very entertaining ))))))
This is totaly madness! It is basicly like bathing with a toaster, with exposed heating elements and connections direct in contact with the water!😱 It's unbelievable that these shower gadgets are allowed to be sold out with that low caution in mind by using them.🤯
It would be interesting to imagine what happens if the neutral connection fails for some reason and the head is ungrounded or there's no safety switch (RCD) in the mains line...
If the neutral breaks and it´s not grounded, you will have about 2x the voltage anywhere in the water compared to normal operation. So definitely more dangerous.
Most of the houses in Brazil does NOT have GFI/RCD breakers (which is called DR - "Disjuntor diferencial Residual") also does NOT have grounding wires. And DOES have the suicide shower head! HA HA HA
the reason you have so much voltage in the sink is because your water pipe is metal, usually those showers are used in pvc piping water installations
2 роки тому
I think people think it's danger because showers around the world are close to you but here usually is at least 2 meters from the ground, almost never we get a shock, just when something is wrong
I'm brazilian, here I never had a problem but when I was in Cuba I felt a bit of a tingle, so I opened the shower and found that it was somewhat clogged probably with rust coming from the pipes. So I cleaned ghe showerhead and showered wearing rubber flip-flops and done
The real problem with this device is when the heater has a malfunction. If the heater coil breaks (corrosive/chlorine water, wear and tear) and the ground is not properly connected, the circuit can be completed through you. Even if the ground is connected, then it would set all grounds in the house to some kind of live potential.
Dude, the resistance always breaks. It's like at least one every 6 months if you use the highest setting and very little water so to gets very warm. And nobody dies. 5 euros and you put a new resistance on it in minutes.
By my experience as a South American that uses an ungrounded and two-phase shower, what happens when the resistance breaks is nothing at all. You only get cold water and get pissed as hell. But no shock at all
The odds of you touching the shower at the exact moment the coil breaks is negligible. Normally you never touch the shower unless you want to change the season setting, and you should never do that when the shower is on (as instructed in the manual). Normally you only get pissed because of the cold water like Marcos T. said. In general they are pretty safe.
i still live with my parents and they have used these things since the 80's. these thigs have always scared the shit out of me and thus i always try to take a bath somewhere else, i have always told them to get rid of it but they have brushed me off as being paranoid and apparently having a hot bath is more important. My house has a ground connection but none of the "electricians" bothers to connect it to ground since "its not necessary". oh, they also dont bother to use screw terminals. here in panama nobody bothers to use ground and screw terminals, we are a suposedly rich countries but there are absolutely no safety standards when it comes to electrcity. there is nothing forbidding you from connecting a 50a device into a light switch rated for 15a, or using pigtails instead of screw terminals, not using ground or using these devices. i would prefer to take a bath with the asian version of it which is a tankless water heater connected straight onto one of these shower heads you can hold in your hand and they are made by reputable brands like panasonic.(you can find images about it by searching something like shower water heater panasonic or siemens instead of panasonc )
I shower in one of those every single day. And is not grounded off course (the old apartment building where I live has no ground connection) and well, no shocks. Also my kitchen faucet have a identical heating device, but usually is off to save power.
This thing is the paragon of everything why civilization needs professional associations like IEEE or DIN/VDE that implement a standardisation system and everything that an end-user gets in his fingers has to have a type-approval.
Interesting. So you can't have it both grounded and connected to an RCD. But if you have it on an RCD without a ground, at least the RCD will protect you from being electrocuted if too much current flows. It looks like a good idea to connect the ground to the neutral if it can't be connected to ground. Then it will work properly without tripping RCDs. Just that if the neutral ever goes open, you're more likely to get shocked because then the ground wire right behind the spray becomes live. But you'll still be protected from excessive current if the break is after the RCD. If it's before… I don't think RCDs work without a neutral? So if connecting the ground to the neutral allows you to have the device both grounded and protected by RCD/GFCI, I wonder if it's worth doing that, even if you could have grounded it normally.
Well yes, ground is not intended for permanent return currents. You could say that a "solution" would be to first make the water pass an electrode that is connected to neutral (which removes most of the leakage) and then a second electrode that is connected to ground (your safety backup). Of course if you are interrested in safety you would prevent the electricity to run through the water at all.
Maybe the water in South America is pretty clean. Where I live it's >500ppm crap and you can feel some current with a hot wire in the water like that, like you did. If it were "normal" clean water I'd imagine you'd have to make an effort to feel it. Reminds me of the Hollywood hair dryer in the bath tub scenes killing people, and that cars regularly explode in a massive fireball when crashed. Once a friend refused to take a call on a cordless phone while she was in the bath because she was afraid it could kill her. Yes I said cordless. Thanks a lot Hollywood... I do agree that showerhead is kinda iffy, quality wise, which is typical for china. So while I wouldn't be worried about shock, I would worry it'll catch fire, which from the pix in your video it apparently has done many times. If the quality was better I'd consider it. Good video and I appreciate you taking the time to make it and all the other interesting things you do. Very very few people would do this stuff, and very few of those would video it and share, so thanks :)
Wow I can't believe these are a thing!!! If you go on holiday and stay in a place with one of these showers with no ground wire connected, It could be an idea to connect the loose ground wire to the neutral, so there is a return path for the residual current with a low impedance so you are not the return path
Well here are some points: the test was ok even though this brand is very crappy and the houses put this kind of showerhead higher on the room (usually near the ceiling/roof) about 2,40m from floor. And there are better versions of electric showerheads :)
It is not the brand. The Lorenzetti in this video: ua-cam.com/video/FuQ_AAkkgIg/v-deo.html ... uses exactly the same design. Do there exist proper designs? I don't doubt that. But I think the point is that these unacceptably designed showers are in wide use, and videos like this can raise awareness about their unsafety.
I try to understand the fear of strangers with this shower. Call it suicide shower? In Brazil it is easier for you to be killed by a stray bullet, run over by a drunkard or even a heart attack. When the installation is carried out correctly, the risk of electric shock is low. All these photos shown in the video can not serve as a basis, most houses in Brazil need the installation of ground wire to avoid shocks. So guys, do not be afraid. I'm 30 years old and I'm still alive.
ok, where I live that would be an automatic power turn off device (as ALL circuits are RCD protected, but in our case, the lighting circuit is not RCD protected, which isn't actually compliant with the regulations (even the lighting circuit should be RCD protected))
mysteries of electricity! you deserve two like for each of us for the courage that you have had to do these experiments directly on your skin. Years ago there were similar things here in Italy but they were done much better: the resistance was isolated like that of the washing machines and the control lever acted both on the switch and on the flow of water, so there was no danger of turning on the shower and forget to open the water, but they have been put out of business because of their danger. Looking from the sole point of view of operating costs, certainly the consumption is very high, but if we think that is only realized for the time necessary to take a shower or to fill the bathtub I would say that perhaps it is cheaper than the other systems heating water currently known .... (let alone the realization, we speak only of the principle of operation). Surely for how it is realized I would put in jail of maximum security who has built it, but you have shown that the principle of operation is correct. hello and the next video ... less dangerous though!
17 Minutes of DiodeGoneWild's Accent and information! Made my day ;)
Yo Day same >:)
Yo Day same >:)
It's definitely an electrifying shower... he-he
please see my comments its all bull shit
@@mernok2001 Why Why???? Now I'm binge watching this Kreosan channel , LOL. I don't understand shit in Russian but the guy is hilarious
So with 5 Volts and 1 Amp, you can charge your phone while taking a shower - that's nice!
At 2 Amps, even Quickcharge.
Is AC,you need to rectify it first and get a voltage regulator if you dont want to blow up your phone battery.
@@mernok2001 noted, bring rectifier and regulator first before taking phone into shower
Hahaha, I'm Brazilian.
And I have used this kind shower all my life (25 years).
And you are absolutely right about the conditions to get a shock.
This already have happened with me but the shock never was a big one, just a small fright. But happened this is a common fact.
I'm Brazilian too. Unfortunately old houses do not have a ground wire and most electricians are not concerned about safety. They don't connect the ground wire even when one is available because they are just too lazy to connect one more wire after having seen so many showers working with only two wires connected.
@@andrelange9877 Sad but true, they only do the least effort to get it to work.
@@davidca96 It is so rare to see something grounded here in BR that when someone decides to talk about it, they usually like to make it sound as if it were a supernatural complex subject that is not worth dealing with, so it serves as an excuse to leave things ungrounded.
you can haz internet in HD but you can no haz safe shower
@@UA-camSupportTeams That's because in BR stupidity is the rule, not the exception.
You need to add more salt ! :)
Haha, best video of him :D
"Even more saaalt " :D
All you would need is to install one of those over an old metal bath with an earth/ground wire attached or a metal drain pipe and you have a disaster in the pipeline... even taped up with the power cable right for 32A if the cable joint gets wet you have mains voltage on top of you, add an earthed metl frame shower screen and you have built a death chamber.
As a Guatemalan, I find this video quite fascinating. I've used those showers all my life and I never thought of them as any particular hazard. I've received a couple of shocks, but I never thought seriously about them. Also, I've never met anybody with a shocking experience (pun intended.)
Really? As a Peruvian, I grew up shocked and scalded by these devices. (Well, not every time, obviously, but let's say I haven't forgotten!) Perhaps they have improved a little since the 80s and 90s.
@@haraldhelfgott195 I still get a shock in Peru even under new devices (the ground wire disconnected as usually)
@@haraldhelfgott195I used similar when I lived in Callao in 1992. Got shocked a few times because I’m tall but I lived. Moving to the Philippines in February and buying one of these for there.
Even in Brazil, all new electrical panels have differential current breakers, so the simplest version of this shower no longer works. The trend is towards insulated heating element units, and central heating units are seen more and more these days. Indeed it is very rare to hear about accidents related to this shower here, knew about 1 or 2 cases in my 40 years. OTOH people here are very afraid of gas heaters (those old units that went into the bathroom) because many people have died of carbon monoxide poisoning. This shower works in Brazil because water is very "soft" (little dissolved minerals), water is around 20-25ºC already. Most houses don't have too big water pressure and don't desire it, otherwise too much water would come out and the shower would not be able to make the water warm. Less pressure = droplets = no conduction.
"this is getting very dodgy" 😂😂 my favorite sentence
This channel should be named "DiodeGoneDodgy" or "DodgyGoneWild" :D
Lol
"Now it's getting very dodgy... of course."
"Thatss Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice"
No groud, latin america stile!
I`m from Brazil. I used things like that all my life. Never hear anyone how died because one of these showers. But I learned the hard way not to switch power when the water is running. Little shock on the fingers. Hahahaha...
I liked that you tested without the ground wire. Like you said, most installations are done like that.
Another very common and very dangerous thing that is done here is that the circuit breaker that was originally installed for the shower was, lets say, 30 amps. The installed shower needs 35 amps, so the breaker is switched to a higher value without changing the wiring that was designed to handle 30 amps.
Also, since it is very common to have these showers here, the lowest tax we can pay for energy already covers one of these showers. We would not get any discount by getting a boiler.
Cheers!
i used this in my house but many times one wire in the socket getting melt or burn what shall i do give me some idea bro.
Your Brazilian circuit breaker boards recalled in memory our circuit breaker boards in my childhood. It was at Soviet era where 2-3 room apartment usually had two 250V 6.3A circuit breakers. Nominal current for apartment was considered 10A. Wiring inside apartment walls was accordingly thin with thicker wires only for electric stove socket. Usual wiring also had room lights and wall sockets connected. In result more demanding appliances or two electric room heaters in winter was not usable together with other appliances and blew away circuit breakers together with room lights. But people realized that they can have power longer if they use thick wires and nails instead of circuit breaker fuses. It kinda worked till their apartment wiring started to act as fuses :) With house fires sometimes in result.
Before you install it you must have applied teflon tape into it for avoid leaks
That's the least of your worries if you're using this 😂😂😂
@@brookerobertson2951 Não é não. Os pingos de água fria que caem atrapalham bem mais que os rarissimos "choquinhos".
Brazilian here. In normal operation without grounding you normally fells a light shock only when touching the faucet if you have an open cut in your hand despite that they seem to be pretty safe. Interesting fact that we often see on the local news people that got killed by natural gas powered showers but not by these so called suicide showers. Anyway nice video :)
Well, old-fashioned Brasilian natural-gas showers would not pass inspection in many countries either! (Used one in Rio in 2007.)
Great research and testing of this dangerous device. Your drawings are awesome. Keep up the great work.
but if you call it dangerous among poor latin americans you get brushed off as paranoid, that's what has happened to me
@@imeakdo7 me parece que sera peligroso en tanto no se instale correctamente, si se siguen las recomendaciones del fabricante y se aterriza la termoducha, tal y como viste en el video, no hay peligro alguno, el problema esta en la mala instalación, pero eso le puede pasar a cualquier equipo eléctrico y de igual forma terminar siendo peligroso.
@imeakdo7 Yes you a paranoid,
This is the best video so far on the "suicide" shower. I think I would feel comfortable using one especially if I installed it myself. I would replace the ground wire with a 20 gauge, stainless steel wire and seal the wire connections with silicone caulk. In a country without a ground connection, I would use a proper pipe clamp further on up the pipe and check it with a multimeter to make sure it was good. If plastic pipes were used, I would install a good grounding rod into the ground outside the bathroom and bring a wire through the wall. In all, I would have no problem using this dodgy contraption. I likely wouldn't even have a problem with my kids using it if I had installed it myself. I think I would install a water resistant switch away from the shower as an emergency shut off in case the contacts got welded together, and the thing caught fire.
Indeed a bit of engineering and it should be more safe then some other stuff in bathroom ( cases are nominaly grounded but they do like to somehow get current inside and if paint peels off while they won't kill you or anything it's unpleasant like 9v on the tongue )
- In a country without a ground connection, I would use a proper pipe clamp further on up the pipe... One of your spiritual relatives one floor above my apartment grounded his washing machine to water pipe and nearly killed me. I would sue you for negligent homicide try in such case.
@@KrotowX This is quite a baffling comment
Quick safety suggestion, when grounding yourself ground the same arm (ie with an arm band).
Grounding yourself with the opposite arm is just about the worst thing you can do, a lot of the current can flow through the heart and it doesn't take that much to cause arythmia.
Still, great video & shocking (pun intended) how someone can sell such a product.
he knows this..
I'm pretty sure he knows this
Wow amazing two videos. So well explained. I live in South America and these showers are quite common. I actually always used these showers all my life (more than 30 years). The most problems are minor shocks once in a while when ground is disconnected, but once the ground is fixed never have even a tingling. Nothing. Surprisingly they are quite efficient, believe it or not.
Thanks for the video. I always wanted a professional and detailed review of it and you did a great job. Sometimes was scary and you made me nervouss. Thanks a lot!
Great video, love your drawings they allways put a smile on my face 😁
Those things require maintenance, it's very common that the ground wire gets oxidized and it breaks and falls off, the automatic mechanism gets dusty and it gets stuck, also the contacts get oxidized and the shower stops working or they weld themselves. It's not a bad idea to put a knife switch with a cord, so that children can turn it off in case of emergency.
If you want to use it you should know how to operate it safely or in a safer manner, which most people don't know, for example if you close the water and it keeps making sound it means that the mechanism got stuck or the contacts got welded, so you simply open the water again (before turning off the breaker) to avoid fire hazards, they are usually pvc so they don't catch fire like plastic, they get mostly carbonized buy yet dangerous.
The "suicidal" shower that is not suicidal at all. Absolutely nothing in the world sticks its head to the shower. You are always more or less half a meter below.
This is VERY secure.
The pipes are plastic, by the way.
Oh just a hint. These showers are made to be really high at the top of the room, really close to the ceiling. So usually people will be very far away of the head.
Oh and this is a really dodgy and low end model, there actually are some that the resistance is closed and dont touch the water, so no shock foe the people! Unfortunatly they are a bit more expensive and usually its resistance cant be replaced so many people dont buy them.
Nice test!
Alex Tarasov Yep, basically. Way more safe.
Very interesting and bold tests! All possible questions answered :)
9:35 There's about...60 Volts in the pipes. THAT'S NIIIICE! :D
It was developed here in Brazil in the mid 30's, in every house in Brazil has at least 1 shower we are a tropical country and so we have the
habit of bathing every day, there are more than 200 million peoples taking baths every day in the last 85 years if you compare with the numbers of accidents with showers
they may be considered safe. They must be installed correctly at the proper heigth, any electrical equipment is dangerous when used improperly.
Doctor here - creating a possible current path from your left hand across the chest to your right hand is a great way to give yourself a cardiac arrest. I love your videos and want to see more of them - please be careful!
The Post Office trying to destroy it, is probably doing you a favour!
G W Will they ship a box of copper and iron dust if you bought transformer on ebay ?
There are electric showers with a 100% metal body. In the past, everyone was like that. If they are correctly grounded it is the safest shower, otherwise, it is the biggest source of accidents.
Those bathroom bird tiles are really nice
You have courage, I'll give you that.
rpbajb no he have knowlege. No sane man will eletrocute himself just for youtube video.
I have used this kind of shower all my life, luckly I think it has always been properly grounded xD
@Exterioris-vallem it is not crazy if it is properly grounded.
and hasn't fallen on you bringing the live mains cable with it. lmao. you're lucky you're even alive muh bro
It's surprisingly 'safe' considering I was expecting a proper shock from it. It might be useful as a backup I guess
tmo72 I agree, but I don't see how it could possibly work properly in let's say a European country. You'd obviously ground it and all houses built after the 70's have one or two RCD's connected to all of the circuits in the house. Bathrooms (like the guy in the video) trip at 30 mA in Europe so dropping a hair dryer in your bath tub won't kill you. But a lot of modern houses have 30 mA for either the entire house or just for the dry circuits and 10 mA (yes, ten!!!) for the 'wet' circuits like kitchen, garage, outside and bathrooms. So this device would never work when properly installed, because the RCD will trip all the time. Unless you disconnect the ground wire, but no one would do that?
And there's not really a way to fix it, because there will always be current going through the water touching the ground wire.
They could've made it a lot safer though by making it longer, so the water would be droplets (don't hold voltage anymore), then come together and then go through the nozzle for a nice stream of water. They could even allow you to connect a separate hose with your own shower head, because it's impossible there's still any sort of current in the water
I guess you can fill the bucket with the hot water so you don't get the danger of killing yourself
And this one is the cheaper that you can get, probably a chinese crap
the brazilians brands have more security, but the quality can be expansive
@arnemaeschaelck5012 Dont know how to say to you but in Brazil the things you suggested already exist
Here in mexico i had one of those it was the 120v version and had a dedicated circuit supplied by a gfci pigtail breaker at that time there was no problems with it but later in a few months as shown in the video the heating element corroded and broke but since i now had more budget i upgraded to double phase 240v and installed a rheem 18kv electric tankless water heater
*9:26** - "Now it's giving me a shock....... ...... ..... that's very unpleasant". - ROFLMAO!!!!*
I like that you did the most common way, used here and showed that the worst you can get is an uncomfortable shock. That's the experience of more than 100m brazillians. Sometimes we got those shocks but nothing happens at all
Unpleasant but not as dangerous it seems.
this is the type of bravery that only true mastery in your trade can provide. This man knows his stuff
I wish someday there'll be part 3 special edition which includes running salt water😍😍 through the shower head and aslo running the heater without any water..
No cat was harmed during the video 😶
Nice drawing 👍👍
Nice video 👍👍
❤️❤️❤️
Faysal Khalashi™ its not possible to run the shower without water since the water completes the circuit
EVEN MORE SALT !!!
@@Sebastian-gj9tc you can run it by just connectiong the heater to the mains directly
Somehow i think i will give it a mis lol :-D
Now that "chocolate block" connector strip is the "Dogs bollocks" , oh you added it, the best part of the unit :).
Keep the thick resistance wire element, great for making a variable load for psu testing :-D.
I see untapped potential in this. Maybe if enough of us ask Electroboom to do his version of reviewing this show head.
Hehe by now the potential has been tapped: ua-cam.com/video/06w3-l1AzFk/v-deo.html
Loving this video. Watching it already the 4th time. That shower head is so obscure and dangerous but for me as a German also total fascinating that lots of people around the world are actually using it on daily base.
Not dangerous at all.
Your pronunciation is even deadlier than the shower. Live long and prosper, pal! :D
hahaha you afraid in the end make me smile. Is a very common shower hear in Brazil. Even with the shocks with bad instalations we not hear that they cause deaths. In the last years electric instalations in homes are getting better in Brazil and the electric shower are getting more safe and is becoming rare get shocked by one of this.
I bath everyday in a Lorenzetti Acqua Duo
Tem que ser muito rico pra nunca ter tomado banho em uma dessas! Hahahaha
you only need one shock , is life so low value in that sunny tropical country?
@@highflowhighflow9896
Almost everything in Brazil is very expensive, electric energy, cooking gas. We have the option of solar heater, but it is an expensive system..
I was doing an exchange in brasil in 2013. I took a shower in a shower like this, and got a nice stingy shock from it. The owners of the house told me to shower myself wearing flip flops LOL. It actually worked HAHA
At least here in Chile is really uncommon to see this kind of devices because any appliance sold here needs a certification from a goverment agency called SEC, and this device will certainly not pass the certification process. Most of us use a LP gas powered water heater or in newer houses a electric water tank. Really good video
What. The. F**k.
I would never, in a million years, guessed that this was actually a thing. Who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to even make one, much less mass produce them? Wow...lol
So, gotta add something regarding showers and electricity. We just purchased our sixth rental property. It was turnkey...hardly a single thing to do.........except this blank outlet cover that sat just inside the shower off the door frame. It's where the old light switch used to be. Instead of removing the conduit box and putting it in the attic (they moved the switch to the other side of the door), they just caulked around a blank cover.
I didn't feel like crawling in the attic, cause it's close to 100 degrees outside, so I just flipped the box to the hallway and bought a matching tile to fill in the hole.
It always amazes me that people will find 1,001 ways to do something wrong when like 10 minutes would make it code compliant. To my surprise though, it did pass the occupancy inspection, in which safety in the home is paramount.
Lazy remodelers, lazy inspectors...
a brazilian. i'm not kidding.
Brazilian engineering in it's best form. Cheap, effective and safe
It's just part if life to them. Heat water cheaply. Keep your distance from the outlet, replace the element when it burns out, replace the entire head when it melts down, LOL!
@@ernieschatz3783 thats just not true i used eletric showers my entire life i am 18 and we only had to replace the shower once and not because it melted because that model didnt had more resistences to sell
btw gas powered showers are really expensive and most people don´t have piped gas in their homes
Surprisingly, after all these shocking experiments, he's still alive.
The real big problem comes out if you have not grounded the shower (or the ground wire becomes damaged by corrosion) and accidentally one of the two 'power wires' disconnects. In this accidental configuration all the current coming from the live wire that is still connected has to flow down towards and trough you to the sink... as the pipes are somehow often grounded...
Definitely won't be trying this at home. Well done DGW. love your videos, best wishes from Northern Ireland.
Some guy has multimeter
Same guy who has multimeter: grounds himself and measures voltage
First of all. All metalic part of bathroom instalation should be grounded to one point in european countries, so 7V between the water pipe and PE sounds like something abnormal, maybe showing, that something is not grounded properly. Its very often in Czech and Germany.
But. There is some simple measurement that was not done, which could be interesting. The first one is diference between the incoming and outgoing current, which means current, that flows to the ground not through the wires (N, PE lines). It's simple to measure, just put your clamp A-meter over the whole cable and the readout is current, that flows through all alternative ways. It's quite useful in situations, where you dealing with problems caused by improper grounding, like ground loops, especially in cable TV/antenna systems. But it would be interesting also in this case.
The second measurement is resistance between the water and the heater. It's also simple to measure. Lock the pressure switch in ON position and submerge the lower part of the gadget into stainless steel pot making sure, you are submerging only the part that is normally filled with water, not the switching part. Then the pot could be used as an electrode, the second one could be L and N wires connected together. The shower head should lay on the bottom of the pot making the watter trails to be the shortest possible. This will show you the lowest possible resistance between the heating resistive wire and the water. It could be also measured according to different voltage, because in my opinion, the V/A characteristic is not to be linear, especially when it is measured on higher voltage, like 200V and more.
However. I found your video quite interesting, because I know virtually nothing about theese heating shower heads, because I do not have enough courage to test this on my own. You proved, that it wasn't as lethal as I'd expected. Nice (and hazardous) job :3 :3
The current in the grounding is not so relevant as most installations in Latin America aren't grounded
And it's funny because all those rules are similar here but nobody follows them as a whole
No shock... But still I would suggest you to stay away from such products...
It may fail and shock you
I've used this and another way to get a shock is if while you are in the shower the resistance breaks, those resistances die one day to the other. Is not pleasant but it does give you the time to jump out the shower.
Kolik sousedů se při natáčení zaklepalo ve sprše :D Je to mazec no, nechápu, že se to někde používá :)
RIP
MA741, MA4558,MAC150,MAA503,MAB356,další tuzemské operáky neznám z hlavy
DGW... You are an amazing person !! Every test is so detailed and thorough with detailed drawings. Love them all. Thank you so much for being on YT. 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
Hey man, very interesting video! Whenever I found one of these in my hotelrooms in Brasil and Mexico, I searched for another hotel.
Interestingly, this method of water heating was (and is?) also used in Europe. At least the older professional flow water heaters were using the same priciple, however on a more professional base. In my former appartment (built 1996) there were 21kW Siemens flow water heaters installed. Since I switched the old hydromechanical one (they were notorious for temperature oszillation) to a more modern with an electronic thermostat (also from Siemens), I had a chance to "inspect" the old one. I was surprised at that time, to find a heating element inside, where also the heating coils were directly in contact with the water. However the whole enclosure of the element was made from metal and safely connected to the PE (protective earth) wire of the 32A power cable, as were the inlet and outlet pipes (copper). The installation manual of the new one btw. also mandated a proper connection of the device to PE. This indicates, that also the modern flow heaters still use this principle. Since in Germany generally not only the PE but all metal objects in the house (e.g. metal bath tubs, water pipes, etc.) must be connected to the main-earth-rail, this installation seems to be electrically safe, especially since the device is wall-mounted with fixed power cable connections. OTOH it makes clear, why such an installation should be only done by an electrically qualified person, since the safety of the installation depends completely on the quality of the PE connection.
Thumbs up and subscription you have!
Cheers
Andreas
snowflake
Very funny stuff. If the shower head is mounted very high, that'll give the water droplets time to separate a therefore open circuit... and you are safe!! :-) So only tall people get zapped! :-O
8:32 I think you really want to hurt yourself.
I'm glad you didn't get an idea to add EVEN MORE SALT to the water!
It will be even more dangerous when heating element blown!
well, if the heating element lost it's connection near the neutral side, it would no longer be a resistive divider. The voltage in the water would double and so would the leakage current.
Normally when this occurs you just jump out of the water immediately because of the cold water.
I`m from Brazil, so I know this stuff personally. Hahahah
@@DiodeGoneWild that is the idea to have it properly grounded.
It's shocking
The way he says "That's Nice..." That phrase will make me die of laughter.😂
I'm still scared of those shower head..
Four Kings i am from brazil and Used this shower Head for my entire life and i am still alive
@@areagaming6996 u got lucky :v
@@1994flowerhornBrasil the country of the lucky
They sell those here in some places, but they are not popular. Buildings from 40 years ago have very thin wiring, mostly made for lighting and low power appliances where 1.5mm2 is not uncommon. Given this scenario, this devices will cook the wiring in minutes. I had seen this happened. The ones that are more "popular" are the tank style, its a 20L tank that hang on the shower input and has a small showr on its base. They are 1200W. They take 20minutes to heat the water and you can unplug it once it is done. They are mostly used in rural areas were propane tanks are VERY expensive and there is nothing like a central boiler, it has no sense. But the suicide shower is uncommon, probably dont meet the electrical safety regulations. You cant sell (in theory) appliances without the certificate. But ... you know ... In the cities, propane is delivered to the buildings through pipes, and this contraptions are rarely used.
This gadget reminded me of what I saw inside one of those electric hot water bags that comes on for a few minutes and remains hot for a long time: a spiral of bare wire dipped directly into the water. .. to me it seemed impossible but apparently not!
This lines up with other videos I've seen on it. Even if you don't ground it and measure 40+ volts on the water coming out, there's basically no current backing that voltage so when it hits you and your body loads the circuit, it drops to 0 volts.
The voltmeter may measure up to 1mA, but that's not what you would feel. I guarantee the current would drop to microamps once you stand in the water flow.
I'm now really thankful for my mains gas powered boiler and tight electric codes where I live.
Oh my! Those photos at the end are scary.
I'm feeling pretty grateful that my water is heated by good old natural gas!
You're never 100% safe. Natural gas can leak and blow up or suffocate you. Also a carbon monoxide can go back if there's a poor air flow.
True, but if there was enough natural gas to suffocate me, it would have to be a major (and immediately noticeable) leak.
The combustion chamber in this heater is sealed. It brings outdoor air in for combustion, and a fan pumps all of the exhaust fumes outside. If that fan ever stops working, the burners shut down immediately.
Great testing. Loved it. Great photos. Great job. "Nice shipping box" Hilarious. Thanx for risking your life to test it in use. LOL.
6:13 Dude, this cut scared the hell out of me 😂😂😂😂
Holy crap man, I wouldn't have gone in the same room as that thing after water was hooked up to it. I guess if I ever go on vacation anywhere and see something that looks like that I know what I'm dealing with!
Yay! I was waiting for the second part! And i ringed the bell :D
You only get a shock close up because the water is actually separating into individual drops and only looks like a continuous stream, so little or no continuity. Well done! But very dodgy!
Very smart person
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Freeking crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Do hotels in Brazil have a gold plated version just for better conductivity???....LOL....also the english accent is very entertaining ))))))
Gold is actually a worse conductor than copper, it is just often used for contacts because it doesn't corrode
As an electrician in the UK, if a customer asked me to install that I'd throw it in the bin! 😮😂
Is it even IP rated??
This is totaly madness!
It is basicly like bathing with a toaster, with exposed heating elements and connections direct in contact with the water!😱
It's unbelievable that these shower gadgets are allowed to be sold out with that low caution in mind by using them.🤯
All users say it has worked well so far, because all the dissatisfied are dead.
As an American this is one of the most janky post-apocalyptic devices I've ever seen. Makes me appreciate my gas water heater a lot more
It would be interesting to imagine what happens if the neutral connection fails for some reason and the head is ungrounded or there's no safety switch (RCD) in the mains line...
If the neutral breaks and it´s not grounded, you will have about 2x the voltage anywhere in the water compared to normal operation. So definitely more dangerous.
Most of the houses in Brazil does NOT have GFI/RCD breakers (which is called DR - "Disjuntor diferencial Residual") also does NOT have grounding wires. And DOES have the suicide shower head! HA HA HA
the reason you have so much voltage in the sink is because your water pipe is metal, usually those showers are used in pvc piping water installations
I think people think it's danger because showers around the world are close to you but here usually is at least 2 meters from the ground, almost never we get a shock, just when something is wrong
Love your videos !
They are informative and funny at the same time :)
I'm brazilian, here I never had a problem but when I was in Cuba I felt a bit of a tingle, so I opened the shower and found that it was somewhat clogged probably with rust coming from the pipes. So I cleaned ghe showerhead and showered wearing rubber flip-flops and done
I love the way you say "that's nice" 😂
Really enjoy your videos. Thank you for sharing. Keep them coming!
The real problem with this device is when the heater has a malfunction. If the heater coil breaks (corrosive/chlorine water, wear and tear) and the ground is not properly connected, the circuit can be completed through you. Even if the ground is connected, then it would set all grounds in the house to some kind of live potential.
Dude, the resistance always breaks. It's like at least one every 6 months if you use the highest setting and very little water so to gets very warm. And nobody dies.
5 euros and you put a new resistance on it in minutes.
By my experience as a South American that uses an ungrounded and two-phase shower, what happens when the resistance breaks is nothing at all. You only get cold water and get pissed as hell. But no shock at all
The odds of you touching the shower at the exact moment the coil breaks is negligible. Normally you never touch the shower unless you want to change the season setting, and you should never do that when the shower is on (as instructed in the manual). Normally you only get pissed because of the cold water like Marcos T. said. In general they are pretty safe.
Nice video Nice experiment, it is almost impossible to be eletric shocked !
excellent job explaining what happens
Excellent pair of videos. I did notice that the cat stayed wisely away from the water and electricity.
i still live with my parents and they have used these things since the 80's. these thigs have always scared the shit out of me and thus i always try to take a bath somewhere else, i have always told them to get rid of it but they have brushed me off as being paranoid and apparently having a hot bath is more important. My house has a ground connection but none of the "electricians" bothers to connect it to ground since "its not necessary". oh, they also dont bother to use screw terminals. here in panama nobody bothers to use ground and screw terminals, we are a suposedly rich countries but there are absolutely no safety standards when it comes to electrcity. there is nothing forbidding you from connecting a 50a device into a light switch rated for 15a, or using pigtails instead of screw terminals, not using ground or using these devices. i would prefer to take a bath with the asian version of it which is a tankless water heater connected straight onto one of these shower heads you can hold in your hand and they are made by reputable brands like panasonic.(you can find images about it by searching something like shower water heater panasonic or siemens instead of panasonc )
ive heard people say that if ur head gets to close to the water stream, you can hear the sound of buzzing and electricity flows through you
I used an electric showerhead once. I don't trust lightswitches in high humidity but gas heated water is pretty unstable and gets cold very often
I shower in one of those every single day. And is not grounded off course (the old apartment building where I live has no ground connection) and well, no shocks. Also my kitchen faucet have a identical heating device, but usually is off to save power.
I tell you I literally closed one eye for most of the video...I think I was more scared in this than most horror movies...lol
Wow, nice (and shocking!) video ...hard to believe that a lot of countries use this type of shower head on a daily basis!
Ta výslovnost je fakt masakrální :-D tjů handerid :-D Ale informačně jsou videa super!! :-)
The most scary part is after sometime the earth wire get rusty or the heater open circuit , then the 220V life may leak out from water
This thing is the paragon of everything why civilization needs professional associations like IEEE or DIN/VDE that implement a standardisation system and everything that an end-user gets in his fingers has to have a type-approval.
Interesting. So you can't have it both grounded and connected to an RCD. But if you have it on an RCD without a ground, at least the RCD will protect you from being electrocuted if too much current flows.
It looks like a good idea to connect the ground to the neutral if it can't be connected to ground. Then it will work properly without tripping RCDs. Just that if the neutral ever goes open, you're more likely to get shocked because then the ground wire right behind the spray becomes live. But you'll still be protected from excessive current if the break is after the RCD. If it's before… I don't think RCDs work without a neutral?
So if connecting the ground to the neutral allows you to have the device both grounded and protected by RCD/GFCI, I wonder if it's worth doing that, even if you could have grounded it normally.
Well yes, ground is not intended for permanent return currents. You could say that a "solution" would be to first make the water pass an electrode that is connected to neutral (which removes most of the leakage) and then a second electrode that is connected to ground (your safety backup).
Of course if you are interrested in safety you would prevent the electricity to run through the water at all.
Maybe the water in South America is pretty clean. Where I live it's >500ppm crap and you can feel some current with a hot wire in the water like that, like you did. If it were "normal" clean water I'd imagine you'd have to make an effort to feel it. Reminds me of the Hollywood hair dryer in the bath tub scenes killing people, and that cars regularly explode in a massive fireball when crashed.
Once a friend refused to take a call on a cordless phone while she was in the bath because she was afraid it could kill her. Yes I said cordless. Thanks a lot Hollywood...
I do agree that showerhead is kinda iffy, quality wise, which is typical for china. So while I wouldn't be worried about shock, I would worry it'll catch fire, which from the pix in your video it apparently has done many times. If the quality was better I'd consider it.
Good video and I appreciate you taking the time to make it and all the other interesting things you do. Very very few people would do this stuff, and very few of those would video it and share, so thanks :)
Wow I can't believe these are a thing!!! If you go on holiday and stay in a place with one of these showers with no ground wire connected, It could be an idea to connect the loose ground wire to the neutral, so there is a return path for the residual current with a low impedance so you are not the return path
Well here are some points: the test was ok even though this brand is very crappy and the houses put this kind of showerhead higher on the room (usually near the ceiling/roof) about 2,40m from floor. And there are better versions of electric showerheads :)
It is not the brand. The Lorenzetti in this video:
ua-cam.com/video/FuQ_AAkkgIg/v-deo.html
... uses exactly the same design. Do there exist proper designs? I don't doubt that. But I think the point is that these unacceptably designed showers are in wide use, and videos like this can raise awareness about their unsafety.
I try to understand the fear of strangers with this shower. Call it suicide shower? In Brazil it is easier for you to be killed by a stray bullet, run over by a drunkard or even a heart attack. When the installation is carried out correctly, the risk of electric shock is low. All these photos shown in the video can not serve as a basis, most houses in Brazil need the installation of ground wire to avoid shocks. So guys, do not be afraid. I'm 30 years old and I'm still alive.
ok, where I live that would be an automatic power turn off device
(as ALL circuits are RCD protected, but in our case, the lighting circuit is not RCD protected, which isn't actually compliant with the regulations (even the lighting circuit should be RCD protected))
mysteries of electricity!
you deserve two like for each of us for the courage that you have had to do these experiments directly on your skin. Years ago there were similar things here in Italy but they were done much better: the resistance was isolated like that of the washing machines and the control lever acted both on the switch and on the flow of water, so there was no danger of turning on the shower and forget to open the water, but they have been put out of business because of their danger.
Looking from the sole point of view of operating costs, certainly the consumption is very high, but if we think that is only realized for the time necessary to take a shower or to fill the bathtub I would say that perhaps it is cheaper than the other systems heating water currently known .... (let alone the realization, we speak only of the principle of operation).
Surely for how it is realized I would put in jail of maximum security who has built it, but you have shown that the principle of operation is correct.
hello and the next video ... less dangerous though!