Hi,

A friend works for a a local doctor's surgery and she asked me to pop in
and have a look at their leaking sink in the ladies loo.

It is a small hand basin fitted into a corner with an electric handwash
heater above. The sink is so tight into the corner that the pipework to
the heater has to come up the wall and across the top of the sink.

My concern is the electric feed to the handwash heater as it has a
flexible 3 core cable which comes from a flex outlet plate about a foot
below the sink on the wall. When I got there, water was able to run down
the cable and as there is no "rain loop", water is able to run into the
flex outlet although it doesn't appear to have done so yet.

I applied some sealant to the sink to stop water running down the flex
but I am concerned about having a flex outlet on the wall below a sink.
Am I right to be concerned or is this acceptable?

BTW: the installation of the handwash heater is fairly recent i.e.
within the last 18 months.
--
Regards
Phil

On Jun 13, 10:14 am, Owain wrote:
Phil wrote:
A friend works for a a local doctor's surgery and she asked me to pop in
and have a look at their leaking sink in the ladies loo.
My concern is the electric feed to the handwash heater as it has a
flexible 3 core cable which comes from a flex outlet plate about a foot
below the sink on the wall. When I got there, water was able to run down
the cable and as there is no "rain loop", water is able to run into the
flex outlet although it doesn't appear to have done so yet.
I applied some sealant to the sink to stop water running down the flex
but I am concerned about having a flex outlet on the wall below a sink.
Am I right to be concerned or is this acceptable?

A flex outlet below a sink is not unacceptable per se, but having the
heater flex so arranged that water can run into it is.

BTW: the installation of the handwash heater is fairly recent i.e.
within the last 18 months.

I wonder if there used to be an under-sink heater which has been
replaced by an over-sink one? which would explain the position of the FCU.

It sounds as though replacing the flex with a slightly longer one would
remedy the problem. You might also use a short length of plastic
mini-trunking to route the flex appropriately.

Electricity at Work Regulations will apply.

Owain

I noticed that the hand driers at work have their mains isolation
switches on the wall next to them, where they could be operated by
someone with wet hands. Is this allowed? Would hand driers normally be
transformer isolated upstream of the switch?

MBQ

In message , Owain
writes
Phil wrote:
A friend works for a a local doctor's surgery and she asked me to pop
in and have a look at their leaking sink in the ladies loo.
My concern is the electric feed to the handwash heater as it has a
flexible 3 core cable which comes from a flex outlet plate about a
foot below the sink on the wall. When I got there, water was able to
run down the cable and as there is no "rain loop", water is able to
run into the flex outlet although it doesn't appear to have done so yet.
I applied some sealant to the sink to stop water running down the
flex but I am concerned about having a flex outlet on the wall below a
sink. Am I right to be concerned or is this acceptable?

A flex outlet below a sink is not unacceptable per se, but having the
heater flex so arranged that water can run into it is.

BTW: the installation of the handwash heater is fairly recent i.e.
within the last 18 months.

I wonder if there used to be an under-sink heater which has been
replaced by an over-sink one? which would explain the position of the
FCU.

It sounds as though replacing the flex with a slightly longer one would
remedy the problem. You might also use a short length of plastic
mini-trunking to route the flex appropriately.

Electricity at Work Regulations will apply.

Owain

Thanks for the peace of mind.
--
Regards
Phil