As external expert committee to SIRIM, I would like to offer some of the life saving technical fact here, and please help spread the news and educate the public.

1) The ELCB or (RCD) in the water heater can only protect if there is electrical leakage from WITHIN the water heater
2) If there is a leakage from anywhere else in the house, it is then rely on the main ELCB / RCD to trip and protect the user
3) If there is any electrical leakage within the house, and the main ELCB/RCD is not working, then almost all appliances will be electrified, including the water heater. And the water heater will likely be the last point to kill because of water, even though the leakage is not from water heater itself.

In the last few cases (and most likely including this case that KEVYEOH is mentioning :

- All has metal hose
- All were death holding on to the shower head
- All has burned hand and/or body part
- All can't find fault in the water heater
- All has electrified earth wire, leakage from somewhere else, kill thru water heater
- Should they have Non-Conductive hose, chances are they will survive


To prevent ELECTROCUTION, please do all 3 tasks below :

a) Make sure the main ELCB/RCD at home's main electrical box is functioning. This can be checked by pressing the "TEST" button once a month, see if it tripped.

b) Make sure the ELCB/RCD within water heater is functioning. Again, this can be checked by pressing the "TEST" button once a month, see if it tripped.

c) Make sure the shower hose & the control valve connected to the water heater is off non-metallic (non-conductive material). If it is, go buy a plastic one and change it. (Many argue that even it is plastic, there are still water within the hose to conduct electricity. The fact is, water is not totally conductive, having gone thru the length of the hose with the small diameter, the current conducted is not enough to kill anymore.)


Please help circulate this to all your friend and love ones to save life!!!

Hi KEVYEOH :

So sad to hear about your cousin. For study and educating the public, would you be able to provide more information, such as the photo of the water heater, and possibly investigation result?

This is quite misleading.

First, unless it is running off battery, otherwise they will still require AC to DC conversion, which still take in AC from the mains. Therefore anything wrong inside there are possibilities of electrocution.

Secondly, and MOST IMPORTANTLY, most of the electrocution cases are not leakage from the water heater, but from the external sources and KILL THRU WATER HEATER! Therefore it doesn't matter whether the water heater is powered by AC or DC.