Needless to say, when my electric shower started playing up this weekend I was none too pleased and didn’t relish the thought of having to fix it. The shower came with the house and, unlike my own practice of keeping them, the previous owners did not keep the instruction manual.
However a quick search on the internet came up trumps with the full installation and service manual (in 0.41 seconds to be precise by using the correct descriptive search terms) which became my Sunday afternoon reading material.A quick read of the manual and it seems that the shower simply needed a purge and a reset. The water company had just replaced my water meter so there was probably an airlock in the pipework. However, to purge the system meant having to remove the front cover and the manual stated that only a ‘competent tradesperson’ should be employed to do so…. Ahem….!
Well some recent experience with ‘competent tradesmen’ leaves me thinking that I’m just as ‘competent’ as they are (and in some cases even more so. That is to say that, yes.., I can read..., and I can also follow written instructions in a service manual!) So I sat on the edge of the bath thinking “Do I really want to hang around waiting for a week for someone to turn up and charge an extortionate call out fee for sucking air between their teeth and telling me that, actually, I’m going to need a replacement part that will cost £200+ and will take another two days to deliver and result in another days labour charge…?”… So out comes the screwdriver again… 
Very easy really. Simply ensured that all power was switched off to the unit at the main consumer board and on the double pole switch (and checked using an electrical screwdriver) before I opened the cover by removing a small screw at the bottom. Unplugged the ribbon cable and detached the front cover. Then, making sure no water would spray the interior of the unit (not a good thing to do!) pressed the air bleed button to purge the water through the unit. Reassembled everything then switched the power back on and re-commissioned the unit as per the instructions… Simples!!!
Then I was able to finish washing the shampoo out of my hair…
And put the cost saving into my ‘saving up for a Bugatti Veyron’ account…
