Suicide shower head teardown

[Sbampato12]

Yes, this is the most commom shower around here. I run the risk to say almost all of them.

To put the things right, a lot (a real lot) of homes, and companys (hotels included) doesn't have a proper earth installation, even if you see the green wire connected, that doesn't means a lot.

In many, many cases, the people just don't connect the earth wire to anything, or connect it to the neutral wire 

And, yes, a very few people get electrocuted this way. The most dangerous moments are when you touch the shower to change the temperature or to change the resistence (when bad or broken).
This do not make the thing better. They should get things done better. You doesn't get an option most of the time when buying this.

I've saw pictures of some of the worst products (showers) even get melted...

But anyway, it is much more dangerous to walk on streets here at night than touch a real live wire (read that with the psicho killer song on mind!  )

The majority of homes just don't follow any rules regarding projects, when the do, just the civil engineering. Not plumbing, electrical or any other.

[rrinker]

 You want crazy, when I was a kid I picked up a book of projects at the library, it had some neat stuff like making your own motor, and a generator with a water wheel to put in the sink or such. But one was pretty nuts. Cook a hot dog with 120VAC. It was a board, with 2 nails driven through a hot dog length apart. Then take an old lamp cord, and connect one wire to each nail. Stick a hot dog on it, then plug it in. Perfectly safe! I do wonder if the book had a version for countries that use higher voltages.

[MagicSmoker]

You want crazy...Cook a hot dog with 120VAC. It was a board, with 2 nails driven through a hot dog length apart.

Even crazier is that this was an actual product:



http://blog.kevmo314.com/presto-hotdogger.html

[rrinker]

 Yes, I forgot to add that - I later found out there were commercial models. Slightly safer - as long as you remembered to unplug it before adding or removing the hot dogs (though that one may have a cutoff switch when you lift the lid.....or not. Different times back then. The book probably did date from the 50's or early 60's, but it was the mid 70's when I read it.

[MagicSmoker]

I remembered it because we had one when I was a kid, but my mom got rid of it after a few uses because the hot dogs tasted weird... Gee, I wonder why?

 

[rrinker]

 Sorry, we've veered way off topic here, but - nothing beats a good roller doggie!

[vinicius.jlantunes]

So... you're probably not going to die if you're a reasonable distance from the shower head.

A shortass like Dave is probably completely safe. Me? I'm 192cm (6'4") tall, I'll be very careful if I ever go to South America.

There are tall people around here and they don't die while taking showers. Just saying, not trying to convince you of anything - you think it's unsafe and I get that, it's fine.

I'm sure there's plenty of people who find a 50Hz tingle very invigorating in the morning.

We actually like 60 Hz tingles around here, even more invigorating! :-P

[AF6LJ]

I knew the UN was working on a population reduction program....
I didn't think it was this diverse.

What a piece of garbage.

[oldway]

I knew the UN was working on a population reduction program....
I didn't think it was this diverse.

What a piece of garbage.

But that piece of garbage explains how thousands of Brazilians who live in poverty, with less than 200 bucks a month, managed to be perfectly clean and maintain a perfect hygiene.

[AF6LJ]

I knew the UN was working on a population reduction program....
I didn't think it was this diverse.

What a piece of garbage.

But that piece of garbage explains how thousands of Brazilians who live in poverty, with less than 200 bucks a month, managed to be perfectly clean and maintain a perfect hygiene.

So I guess it's okay if a few of them die off every year from electrocution.

[nrxnrx]

We actually like 60 Hz tingles around here, even more invigorating! :-P

110V may be tingly, but try that crap in 230V countries and it varies between it hurts like hell and you die. It's insane to accept that even at half voltage, considering how easily the (vital organ known as the) heart gets wonky.
I'm pretty sure everybody here have a decent understanding of the risks. What angers me is that the great majority of the users of these will not be aware of them. I've witnessed my mother getting downright dangerous products because they were "cheap"*. I'm grateful that she normally calls me to fix and fit things.

When your product has 0.01% chance of killing the user, it means that for of 10000 sales, you kill a person! (on average  ).
While some dangers cannot be avoided (within reason, "impulsive people" will allways get their hands in the blades).

--
Mihai

* I'm not putting that full-stop inside the quote.

[Zero999]

We actually like 60 Hz tingles around here, even more invigorating! :-P

110V may be tingly, but try that crap in 230V countries and it varies between it hurts like hell and you die. It's insane to accept that even at half voltage, considering how easily the (vital organ known as the) heart gets wonky.
I'm pretty sure everybody here have a decent understanding of the risks. What angers me is that the great majority of the users of these will not be aware of them. I've witnessed my mother getting downright dangerous products because they were "cheap"*. I'm grateful that she normally calls me to fix and fit things.

When your product has 0.01% chance of killing the user, it means that for of 10000 sales, you kill a person! (on average  ).
While some dangers cannot be avoided (within reason, "impulsive people" will allways get their hands in the blades).

--
Mihai

* I'm not putting that full-stop inside the quote.

vinicius.jlantunes location says Brazil, where they most likely use 220V for heating appliances, such as showers. Just because it's 60Hz, rather than 50Hz, don't assume it's 120V not 220V.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mains_electricity_by_country#Table_of_mains_voltages_and_frequencies

[vinicius.jlantunes]

Yeah as Hero999 points out, some states here in Brazil have 127V phase to neutral / 220V phase to phase, and some have 220V/380V - all 60 Hz. There is this theory that it has to do with the origins of the companies that drove the electrification efforts - German companies tended to use 220ish, american companies tended to use 110ish.

Where I live it's 127V/220V, and more powerful appliances are typically wired at 220V for obvious reasons.

[jitter]

I was just watching Clive's video and decided to view some more... jeez... who thought running shower heads off mains voltage was a good idea?!?!
Then I realized I'm sitting here in my apartment that was built in the late fifties and it hasn't got an RCD! Oh yeah, and this is supposed to be a developed country with regulations up to the hilt...

Surprisingly it does have earthing wires running to all sockets, which wasn't all that common until it became mandatory for new constructions and renovations in (I believe) 1996.

[MrSlack]

My house had wax and cotton insulation on some of the wiring when I moved in this year. Had to rip it all out. Total mess. Someone had just whacked a consumer unit in and ticked a box somewhere.

[oldway]

So I guess it's okay if a few of them die off every year from electrocution.

Bad installation of the shower is not a problem of the product, only stupidity of the user/installer.
As it is made and correctly installed, it can't kill nobody.

[jitter]

My guess is that authorities over here would think otherwise...
Those shower heads wouldn't stand a chance of being allowed here.

[Hydrawerk]

http://www.liveinbrazil.org/electricity-in-brazil-220v-or-110v-when-travelling/

[CatalinaWOW]

Clearly not an optimum design for safety, but also is clearly an absolute failure as an execution device.  It is actually a wonderful thing in most ways that our lives have become so risk free that something like this is actually a subject of horror.  But this obsession with safety is one reason the western world has essentially no manned space capability now.  Someone who wouldn't risk one of these shower heads couldn't possibly be launched in any space vehicle because even the best of them (the Suyoz) has a better than 1 in 1000 chance of killing you. 

[MagicSmoker]

Clearly not an optimum design for safety, but also is clearly an absolute failure as an execution device.  It is actually a wonderful thing in most ways that our lives have become so risk free that something like this is actually a subject of horror.  But this obsession with safety is one reason the western world has essentially no manned space capability now.  Someone who wouldn't risk one of these shower heads couldn't possibly be launched in any space vehicle because even the best of them (the Suyoz) has a better than 1 in 1000 chance of killing you.

A bit of a red herring... manned space travel is a complicated and dangerous endeavor, whereas taking a shower shouldn't be either of those things.

My big problem with this gadget is that it relies on proper installation and/or a combination of fortuitous events to be safe.

[Fungus]

We've only seen statistics for "death".

No numbers at all for "the shower really woke me up today!"

[Kleinstein]

In hot regions like most of brazil I would have expected to see more solar power, even if just a hose on the roof to warm up the water. Even if not that hot, I would prefer this over such an electric death trap. Also electricity usually is not cheap.

If properly installed and all intact the device is resonabley safe, especially at 2x127V. But once the earth ground is missing or a broken case it can get dangerous and the short cables are just plain stupid. The other thing i don't like is that it will hardly work with a RCD/GFI. Especially with poor appliances a RCD could save quite some lives.

It also denpends on what you are used to: Coming from europe to the US, I was also somewhat horrified by the US power plugs and extension cords, while US persons usually have a bad feeling about 400 V  3 Phase outlets, which is no problem in europe.

[MrSlack]

Those US two prong ones scare the crap out of me coming from the UK. Managed a set fire to half a wall with one in Nevada once. Every time I've been to the US it has scared me in one way or another.

[HackedFridgeMagnet]

It doesn't seems the be enough statistics regarding causes of eletrocution in Brazil,  so we are mostly talking about our own experience.

The best data I could find while googling around is from Abracopel (Brazilian Association for Awareness of Eletricity Dangers - rough translation), and it's from 2014:

http://abracopel.org/blog/numero-de-acidentes-com-eletricidade-em-2014-dao-um-salto/  (in Portuguese)

In brief, it reports a total of 822 electric shocks, with 627 deaths. The third graph shows that the majority of accidents happens at home (Residencia):


and this table indicates the typical death causes:



There were 3 cases reported when manipulating or fixing eletric showers, while 89 deaths while manipulating plugs, extenders or extension cords. If this makes any tourists coming to Brazil feel better or not, I can't say.

so thats about 2 deaths per year per million population.
As far as I can tell Austalia is not doing much better. Maybe about 1 per per year per million population.

http://www.ncis.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/NCIS-FACT-SHEET-Electrocution-related-deaths-final.pdf

apparently of the unintentional deaths 96% are men!

[wblock]

Seeing this made me think that maybe divorce was not legal in Brazil.