Burning smell from the shower or pull cordwhat to check
Hot plastic, scorching or discoloured fittings on a shower circuit is an overheating connection. Switch the circuit off at the consumer unit and leave it off.
Stop — this needs an engineer
Get a qualified electrician to look at your electric shower
We do not pass enquiries to a repair firm, so there is no form here. When you book a qualified electrician, tell them the make, the model and the exact code or message on the display, and ask whether they carry parts for this make — that is what turns one visit into a repair rather than a quote.
What this means
This is the fault on an electric shower that is about fire rather than about showering, and it is worth being plain about why it is treated more seriously than anything else in the category. An electric shower is the largest single-appliance load in a normal house. A 9.5 kW unit draws around 40 amps continuously while it runs, which is more than a cooker, more than an immersion heater and roughly what the rest of the house uses put together. Everything in that chain — the cable, the terminals in the isolating switch, the terminal block in the shower — is sized for that current on the assumption that every connection is tight.
When one is not, the resistance at that point turns into heat, the heat degrades the plastic and the metal around it, and the joint gets worse rather than better because a hotter connection is a higher-resistance one. That is a runaway, and the smell is the middle of it rather than the beginning.
There are two places it usually happens and both are reachable. The ceiling pull cord is one, because it is the only mechanical switch in the run and its terminals are small for the job they do. The shower’s own terminal block is the other, particularly on a unit that has been swapped at some point and reconnected. The reason there are no steps on this page is not caution for its own sake: the diagnosis requires the cover off a live circuit or a proper isolation and test, and the failure mode while you are working out which it is happens to be fire.
What causes it
| Cause | What is actually happening | How likely |
|---|---|---|
| Loose terminal at the isolating switch | The pull cord carries the full load through small terminals. One that has worked loose heats every time the shower runs and browns the plastic around it. | Common |
| Loose or corroded connection at the shower | The terminal block inside the unit, often disturbed when a shower was last replaced. Damp in the room accelerates it. | Common |
| Cable undersized for the shower fitted | A higher-kW unit put on the cable that fed a smaller one. The whole run warms rather than one joint, and it will smell warm rather than scorched. | Occasional |
| Element or internal component failing | A failing element can smell hot before it fails outright. Less common than a connection but it presents the same way from outside. | Occasional |
Can you fix it yourself?
Stop — this needs an engineer
What it costs to fix
Typical repair cost
£80–£300
Time on site
1 hour
Remaking a connection or replacing a pull-cord switch is at the low end. A cable that turns out to be undersized for the shower on it means running a new circuit, which is the expensive outcome and is notifiable work.
Typical UK prices including parts and labour, updated September 2026. Your quote may differ.
Own this appliance and had this code? . Nothing is published until a person has read it.
Related electric shower fault codes
- Shower keeps tripping the electricsStop — call an engineerA shower that trips the breaker or RCD is reporting a real electrical fault. Do not keep resetting it to get one more shower out of it.Related: electrical-supply
- Shower completely deadGet it checkedNo neon, no water, nothing when you pull the cord. On an electric shower a total dead is almost always the supply rather than the appliance.Related: electrical-supply
- Fitting a higher kW showerUsually simple to fixA bigger shower is not a like-for-like swap. The cable and the breaker decide what you can fit, and that also decides whether the job is notifiable.Related: electrical-supply
- Shower runs coldGet it checkedWater flows but never heats. On an electric shower this is nearly always the supply, the flow through it, or an element that has stopped working.Related: same brand
- Thermal cut-out has operatedGet it checkedThe safety device has taken the elements out of circuit. Whether you can reset it yourself depends entirely on the brand, and the answers differ.Related: same brand
- Water suddenly scaldingGet it checkedAn electric shower that runs too hot is usually short of flow rather than making too much heat. The exception is a thermostatic model, which should not do this at all.Related: same brand
Related guides
Common questions
It only smells while the shower is running. Is it still urgent?
Yes, and that pattern is the giveaway rather than a reassurance. A connection that only heats under load is exactly what a loose high-current terminal does, and load is when the risk exists.
The shower still works fine. Do I have to stop using it?
Yes. A shower that works is not evidence that the connection is sound — the joint carries current right up until it fails, and it degrades every time you run it. Switch the circuit off at the consumer unit and leave it off.
What will an electrician actually do?
Isolate the circuit, open the switch and the shower, and look at the terminals. A browned or pitted connection is visible immediately. Remaking it, or replacing the switch, is usually a short job once the cause is in front of them.
Could it be the shower rather than the wiring?
It can be, and that is part of what the visit establishes. But the connections are checked first because they are the commonest cause and because they are the ones that get worse on their own.
Technical review
Not reviewed by an engineer
No engineer has read this page. Severity follows what the manufacturer publishes, and we would rather tell you that than let a byline imply a sign-off.
Sources and how we verified this
We establish the facts from the sources below and then write the explanation ourselves. We do not copy manufacturer wording and we do not host their manuals.
- Manufacturer technical and service documentation
This page has not been reviewed by an engineer, and we would rather tell you that than imply otherwise. The severity rating follows what the manufacturer publishes: where they say isolate the appliance and call someone, so do we.