+1

That's what happened to my case.

I had a 10yrs old plus panasonic instant water heater (with the digital screen type), for the past ten years quite frequent I used to test the ELCB by pressing the button, it did trip the circuit n seemed working like a champ.

Months ago, while showering, a loud 'pop' sound heard, i was shocked to see the unit 'exploded', white smoke came out from the part of the wire point. Imagine the toilet filled with white thick smoke. The plastic cover around that wire-in area went black.

The pana technician who came over to check told me it's the bad wiring caused the mini explosion, the wire was melted, i.e. overload for a prolong period, not sudden overload.

So, I bought a Alpha Smart 18i instant water heater to replace the pana.

This 18i came with this Auto ELCB checking feature, so everytime the heater switch is turned on the system ll go thru a few seconds checking routine, if the result is fine, the row of green led ll light up indicating the ELCB is functioning.

This 18i also came with something "Not Available" in the old Pana, known as "LED Line Fault Indicator". So if this led is Red meaning something wrong with the wiring connection to the unit.

After the technician carefully connected all three wires to the 18i and turned on the unit for testing, the unit auto check the ELCB for few seconds, all green led light up, meaning it's working fine. The water also heated nicely. But the "Line Fault indicator" led is Red color! The technician told me if the wires r connected wrongly the water wouldn't have heated. Sound logic also.

But thank god he's willing to re-connect all 3 wires again just to double check. Well, same thing happened. The line fault indicator still light up in RED.

Then he stepped out the bathroom, opened up the Heater Switch on the wall right outside the bathroom, believe it or not, he discovered the Earth wire from the bathroom heater to the Switch was NOT connected to the switch at all! That's why the 18i line fault indicator showing RED.

Okie, why would the Earth wire not connected to the heater switch? The reason was the Earth wire from the wall is TOO short to reach the Earth connector on the switch. Bcoz not every Switch's connector placement r the same. The technician got me another Switch that has the Earth connector 'nearer' to the short earth wire, and after some careful adjustment only he managed to connect all three wires to the switch properly.

I m lucky I chose the 18i that came with an effective line fault detection, else I will never know the so called Earth Leakage Circuit Breaker ELCB is for 'show' only, the god damn Earth wire is not even ground at all !!



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I think this is a must-have safety feature on top of the better-than-nothing ELCB feature.

This post has been edited by Ho Sun Sun: Dec 13 2013, 06:12 PM

U are absolutely correct!! The wires r not long enough due to the placement of the old pana heater and the technician so inconsiderate to simply twist n join another set of thinner wires to extend it.

But the new alpha heater was placed nicely so the original wires from wall r long enough for a secured connection.

I knew it's not the pana heater fault, the mini explosion has nothing to do with ELCB malfunctioning. I just want to highlight the fact that :

#1. simply pressing the ELCB button to check it's functionality is pointless if the earth is not grounded at all.

#2. hence, the alpha's 'Line Fault Indicator' feature i.e. the earth fault detector is very very useful. It checks the home’s earth wiring status, if there is an improper electrical connection it will be detected, and you will be alerted with the indicator light changing from green to red.

Okie, the pana technician who came over to check the unit advised me not to continue using the pana heater, on top of that, if u take a closer look at the pic above, the housing also cracked de, so can't fix the heater on the wall securely de...summore, the pana heater served me 10yrs plus de, still want to continue using it? lol..alwez safer to get a new decent condition unit even if i plan to get a RCD switch right

I understand your confusion on the blue and red statement lol..

The 3 wires connection to the alpha heater was actually all correct, and the ELCB is not Faulty, hence after the ELCB check, the status is good, so it continue to heat up the water.

On the other hand, The Line fault detection would only show a RED led if problem was found in the home’s earth wiring, it won't trip the circuit like what the ELCB is designed to do when there is a leakage to earth. My case was the earth wire was not connected to the heater switch outside the bathroom, so it was detected, and the RED led shown up to inform user like me.

By right, if the line fault led turned red, the heater should not allow further operation EVEN if the ELCB is in working condition bcoz the fundamental Earth is not grounded. But compared to heaters that don't even come with this Line fault LED indicator, it's better than none.

This post has been edited by Ho Sun Sun: Dec 14 2013, 09:03 AM

Yes u rite definitely will look into it, the RCD ! thanks otak!