Screw heads stripped on electric shower

Conmaicne Mara

We've a problem with the electric shower in my girlfriends house. The shower goes very hot and very cold when in use. She found a thread from a couple of years ago saying to take off the cover and clean out a filter inside.

Turned off all the power in the house to discover the fupping screw heads are stripped :mad: Haven't got my own toolbox with me and I'm not sure I've anything that would be of use anyway, philips head screws but they've been made into ****e.

How can I get these out?

DublinDilbert

you'll probably find that a small flat head screw driver will jam into them and allow you turn them, old "phase" tester electrical screw drivers are good for this. Failing that try grip them with a small snips / pliers. Then last of all, just slowly drill the heads off them. The screws are going to need to be replaced anyway, if they are badly damaged, just don't damage the shower unit.

You don't mention the make/model of shower, but if it has a filter on the incoming water, definitely worth cleaning it out.

johnam

two ways...both of which will be of little use to you i'm afraid.

1) get a philips bit one size bigger from the bit you should be using, and hammer it into the screw to make it score the screw and fit. Unfortunately as the shower is plastic, this won't work for you as hammering it will most likely break the plastic and ruin any chance you have of putting the cover back on.

2) get yourself a set of damaged screw removers. but again, these render the screw unusable after you have removed them, leaving you with no screws to reseal the shower. You can probably get those screws from the shower manufacturers, but chances are they are closed for christmas, so no shower until the new year for you.


Check out this link for more ideas

Conmaicne Mara

Good news / Bad news post.

The good news is I found a rough as hell philips head screwdriver come wrench yoke that came with a flat pack something or other and I got the screws out The filter was perfectly clean after all that.

The bad news is what I found, I'll start another thread on that when I get the photos up, I think it's new shower time, blackened inside front cover, water leaking internally onto connections :eek:

The photos will show what I mean, am no expert but it doesn't look safe to me. Will link from here once I manage to get them up, internet is clogged.

johnam

I wouldn't be too worried about the blackened front cover part, the brushes on the motor are made of carbon, and these wear down over time as with all brushes. When they wear down they leave a black dust.

Leaking water is another story.

Conmaicne Mara

New thread below:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=82380675#post82380675