I Can Never Remember If I Wiggle The Red Or Green Wire For Hot Water.
Submitted by: Daniel Silva’s friend via Submit a Kludge!
Favorite Comment: Fixer Joe says, “The paramedic’s dream accessory! It can clean off blood AND restart the heart!”
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ya its the red one…. u wiggle it and u P yourself…
Sure… It’s like electroplating, only in reverse. Gets you clean without soap!
That’ll wake you up in the morning.
Or put you back to sleep….for good
Uh…are you sure we shouldn’t call the bomb squad for this kludge?
No, we need the electrician’s version of pest control.
(Stick™ sold separately.)
Must be up to codes since electric tape was used!
Thats a standard Kevorkian #3 fitting, whats the problem?
WIN !
I agree. Much WIN!
Hmm, I sent a comment with links, but it didn’t get through?
Anyway, search for electric shower head heater in google, and you’ll find more of this. Is it still a klduge if you can buy it pre-kludged in a shop?
@pim: These things come standard with a stick, some bungee cord and dangerous electrical connects?
wow
What the heck?
That´s probably the last thing I´d install in a shower…
It’ll probably be the last thing a lot of people installed in their showers.
The world might be a better place for it.
It gives whole new meaning to an enrgizing shower
What a death wish!
220 Volts in a shower – it will be quick
Was this photo taken at Gitmo? Electric waterboarding is very popular there.
When I tell my wife I want showerhead, it usually involves a night out and jewelry.
Really? Your wife doesn’t make me do any of that stuff.
Just straight cash?
That’s an obituary waiting to happen.
At least the photos will make the police investigation easier.*shudder*
… The thing that scares me isn’t the taped-up wiring itself, it’s the fact that it is SOLD with the leads just sort of sticking out as seen in the above picture, knowing good in hell well that no shower is designed with electrical wiring in easy reach unless something electrical (and well insulated) is ALREADY installed! This is a lawsuit waiting to happen..
In middle America, this is more common than we want to believe. Mine worked quite well, even though I could see the bare copper. A friend of mine told me he felt a tickling feeling every time he went under the shower…
That “tickling sensation” would be the last thing one felt before the fulminating *ZAP*! lol
Now that would be a SHOCKING shower. Forget cold water, try electrons instead, a whole new showing experance.
Thats some scurry shit!!!
Holy crap! Whatever the hell it is you’re trying to do with this kludge, don’t. Just don’t. It’s amazing to me that anyone would even think for a moment that this is safe. Just amazing.
This photo is going to disturb me for the rest of the day.
natural selection at work.
Just another Darwin Award nominee
no no no, first you cut the red wire, then the LAST blue wires. that gets you the perfect temp of boliing cold water……or it blows the citys power grid, one or the other
Now all I have to do is line the bottom of the tub with shards of glass, throw in a handful of brown recluse spiders, close the shower curtain, and the guest bathroom will be all set for my mother-in-law’s visit.
I take it you don’t like her?
A better term would be “didn’t like her.”
Rest in peace…
BTW I bet 5$ the spiders would kill her. Did I win?
@Sarkasm
A better term would be, “spiders DID kill her”.
WIN
Brown recluse bites don’t kill immediately. The bites become infected. It could take days/weeks, if the victim died at all. Unless watching a slow death is your thing. I’d go with black widows.
Or funnel web. But they’re not eligible to import anywhere. I agree its in the win cat..
I find a hot shower in the morning a quite electrifying start to my day!
This is a tipically brazilian kludge as here electricity is more used to heat shower water than gas.To avoid the eletric boiler, they came up with that, but it’s quite safe when installed by someone not insane and too cheap to buy the rest of the necessary apliances
I’ve showered under worse. Try this one- in the middle of a cold southern Brazillian winter (just below freezing) my idiot landlord decided to rewire our outdoor freestanding brick bathroom shower head with it’s own circuit breaker after the current 15 AMP (110V at this location) breaker kept tripping. The idiot mounted it about 15 inches from the head, at the same height. When that kept tripping on the cold mornings, he created a “fuse” to bypass said exposed breaker, out of thin wire strands.
One cold morning during my shower I was treated to the snap of the breaker, followed immediately by a shower of hot sparks as the exposed fuse exploded, and then (within 1.5 seconds) while I stood there in shock, the water when from pleasantly hot to ice cold. His response was for us to just reset the breaker. I left soon thereafter.
When I first started vacationing in Costa Rica, mid 80s, these things were in any hotel that advertised “hot showers”. They all had the old style, exposed copper, rocker switch and 220. The tingly feeling was no extra charge.
the whole thing looks sparkly clean. probably only been used once. and been used as a setting for Forensic Files.
This must have been set up by the same KBR knuckleheads that built the showers in Iraq.
Either that, or its a screengrab from a KBR electrician training video
I like the guy wire holding the whole mess up. Very industrious.
I think that’s the ground wire.. probably attached to the vent fan.
I’ve seen this thing in Costa Rica and Mexico. It’s pretty common down there. And yes, that thing will shock the shit out of you when you want to adjust the spray. Apparently the ones I’ve used were installed by madmen.
I’am electrized! Where can i buy some like this?
KomboKludge! This is like a sampler dish of all that you can do wrong in home improvement. Splints, bungee cord, suspension wires, everything. I cannot believe that a kludge in a perfectly clean bathroom without zip ties or duct tape is still such a kludge.
Indeed, is a magnific installation! awesome, perfect! Who install this? I need one of this in my bath!
Now you can wash and blow dry your hair at the same time!
What!? What do you mean you won’t insure my home!? A fire hazard you say? That’s exactly why I put it in the shower, stupid.
It’s called a “suicide shower”. You’ll see them all over Latin America.
Oh, actually, search for “shower-head heater disaster” and you can see a picture of a molten version
Is that CAT5 cable coming out of the wall?!?
Found on another site:
“When a sensor in the shower head detects water flowing, the electical heating element turns on. An electrical element heats water as it enters and flows through the unit, drawing typically about 23 amps (when wired at 110V 2400 watts) or 13.5 amps (when wired at 220V 2900 watts).”
that is crazy stuff!
Hey, that sensor thing means you can only be shocked to death while there is water flowing. That means it’s perfectly safe while the shower is off. How nice.
Please notify the Darwin Awards. I think we have a winner!
This type of thing is common in Paraguay too.
The paramedic’s dream accessory! It can clean off blood AND restart the heart!
Apple-style steampunk device?
Ok, help me – european guy – out: what is that thing probably intended to do?! Besides steamboiling eggs? ^^
I’m not sure too, but hold both and you won’t be cold.
CAUTION! DO NOT use if you have a pacemaker.
Yeah, I’ve seen these in Costa Rica cabinas. We called them suicide showers.
Now complete with Massage, Gentle Rain and Electroshock settings! Available at your local Bed Bath and Beyond the Grave.
love it joe
I think I love you.
aww, anna… =( i love *you*
I’ll just stand at the sink and scrub between my toes with the green toothbrush, thankyouverymuch.
You mean the same one I used to clean the toilet bowl with?
Wow! I had better luck grabbing a 110v bare wire.
This water looks oddly like the time I tried to use “hydroelectrics” to power a toaster…
At least this one is earthed:
pangeagiving.org/images/Africa/for%20Bob%27s%202007%20Africa%20photo%20diary/Scary%20shower%20head.jpg
media-cdn.tripadvisor.com/media/photo-s/01/22/be/7d/death-trap-electric-shower.jpg (Honduras, Lake Yojoa)
Since there are crocodiles all around the hotel, being electrocuted by the shower is the least of your worries.
pbase.com/capercaillie/image/89763403/medium.jpg
I like this one:
http://i36.tinypic.com/2ldiw3q.jpg
BTW, these showerheads are quite common outside the US. I was recently in Brazil and most of the showers I took had an electric heating mechanism in the shower itself. Sometimes contained in the head, other times in a small tank-like apparatus below the head. I’ll give you that this particular specimen is poorly installed, but the general concept is very common and safe when installed properly. Not to mention, it’s very economic as it heats the water only when you need it rather than when holding it in a tank and attempting to keep it hot all the time.
Saves water too. It never comes out hot so you shower in 2 minutes. Or you open it just a trickle so the heater can keep up and use a gallon per hour.
Now, that’s all well and good, and I’d be quite impressed (momentarily was!) except…
a/ that’s gotta be one TINY immersion heater for the amount of instantaneous power it’s going to have blatting through it. Unless you don’t want to raise your water temperature by more than a few degrees. And the insulation could be tricky/minimal.
b/ my own, british, electric shower works on a similar principle. Mains water comes in, mains water flows through a high power (8.5kW, in this case) immersion-style heating element that can raise near ice-cold groundwater to a comfortable temperature when on max power, medium-low flow, or provide a healthy blast of not-too-warm water on half power in summer. Plus a small pump as well to ensure a safe level of pressure and flow.
Which is found contained in an arcane device known as a “WALL UNIT”, that is double insulated, isolated and fused to a simply paranoid level. Also makes it a bit easier to turn on and off and adjust if you’re short or your hands are slippery. Cold pipe goes into box, hot pipe comes out, water is never actually THAT close to the dangerous bits.
And all the wiring is hidden away running through the (false) wall. Whereas this looks like the spidery mess left behind by the clown who fitted the halogen lights in our bathroom ceiling which I then had to make safe and tidy up.
Its a picture of the shower on death row.
Shower head courtesy of Price-Pfzzzt!er
I’m sure this was installed for insurance money.
ZOMG Someboddy gonna die!
You have a problem with that? There are enough morons in this world already; simply let Applied Darwinism take its course.
I bet you could teach that course, too.
NOT THE RED ONE!!!! ARE YOU TRYING TO BLOW US ALL TO SMITHEREENS??? WHILE NAKED???
Wow. What else is left to say? I have seen loads of pictures of astounding lack of judgment, but this wins. Lets’ see… you can execute a prisoner, jump start a car, jump start a heart, fry a fish….. and… oh wait- sizzle yourself to the high heavens. And I thought my sister was an idiot when she washed a still plugged in electric frying pan.
This definitely meets Darwin’s criteria. Especially the “excellency” category (defined as astounding misapplication of judgment.)
Remember, you carry those genes.
True, I do share half my sister’s genes, but the frying pan incident was pure inattention. This is a conscious decision to do something epically dangerous. At least the frying pan wire was insulated
Of course, I am also related to a dad who weeded loads of poison ivy without noticing. Oddly, it was the frying pan washer who caught him.
When I first saw this, I was sure it was some sort of crazy redneck crossbow thingie.
Turns out the kludge is way more deadly than expected
MMMM. Do you call a plumber? electrician? or the coroner? or the next of kin?
Yes.
win
This is like the microwave of Chinese water torture, designed to get answers a lot quicker.
Just the very notion of a showerhead that is connected to mains electricity is startling… then you go and hook it up poorly, and hang it poorly… wow. Epic fail.
hmm… who would install an electrical outlet above the shower head.. oh well, might as well put it to good use.
Unfortunately I’ve taken showers in a rig very similar to this. Most people in Guatemala don’t have hot water heaters and these are very common, dodgy wiring included. Seriously.
This looks positively professional and safe compared to the one i encountered in Cuba in 1998. That one was just bare wires running into a bodgy metal showerhead. Needless to say i never flicked the big clunky switch nearby and settled for cold showers.
Reading the above comments, and learning from them that this is not an uncommon thing, I shudder with fright. Is that a heat lamp being used? It looks like light coming from it as well. The switch at the top right makes me shudder even more and reminds me of the last time I turned on the kitchen sink waste disposal with wet hands. Is the extra outlet on the lower left an accessory outlet to hook up to a coffee brewer?
Next stop The Darwin Awards
Aaah, I remember these from travelling iin Latin America. I especially liked the ones that were old and in ill-repair. And yes, they will zap you.
They also usually don’t work very well. You have to turn the water down low for them to heat it adequately. But..frequently the water flow fluctuates a lot…so it’ll go from just right, to a scalding trickle…to almost nothing (wherupon the showerhead turns off)…followed by a surge of ice-cold water.
Still….more convenient than the wood-burning water heater I used when I lived in Mexico for a couple months.
Think straight buddy. Is it this necessary to take a shower?
Yep, I’ve used these in Costa Rica, as someone else here mentioned they’re known as “suicide showers”. You get your choice of warm water or decent water flow, unless the main supply breaker trips because someone turned the stove on and pushed the current draw beyond the maximum for the entire house!
The ones I’ve seen have all been kludgy-looking things, though I never did get shocked by any of them. Then again I tended not to spend any longer than necessary under one, and took serious heed of the advice to not use them during a thunderstorm.
I’ve shocked myself a few times on these. They are all over Latin America and other places without the luxury of water heaters. The best part is when you are in the shower and realize that you didn’t turn the heater on, so you can either reach up and get shocked or you can turn the shower off, dry off, dry the shower head off and then flip the switch. Yeah, you just flip it quick so the shock isn’t bad.
I’ve had the pleasure of using one of these (also in Latin America…and installed a little better than this one). It worked fabulously for 6 days, then caught fire (while I was showering) on the 7th. Try explaining to your hosts in broken spanish that you caught their shower on fire.
I’ve had personal experience with these suckers in three separate apartments where I stayed in the Caribbean (definitely not resort quality establishments) and if you ground these things to the pipe, the hot and cold water knobs are at exactly the right height to cause a sound you shouldn’t hear coming from a human throat about 3 seconds after you hear (from the next room) the echo the soap hitting the porcelain tub. I didn’t say anything about it afterward, but my roommate did pester me about why I was spontaneously erupting into laughter for the better part of that day.
“…and if you call before midnight, you will get the “Homicide Shower” INSTALLED by KBR for the low low price of $950 million…!
I’ve been in the Brazil and I’m absolutly sure it’s brazilian heritage
Esta “improvisação” é brasileira…
Experiência própria.
This “improvisation” is Brazilian…
Own experience.
It’s clearly Brazilian.
Even though it looks odd and strange, this “water heating system” is extensively used there, and it’s surprising how they can have a shower and live to tell, but they do!!!
In bolivia when I was at my brothers house they had the same thing but new and a friend of him had one that was broken. He said he was going to shower with swimming shorts in case he would get electrocuted will showering he would die with some dignity.
Women who love to bring themselves to climax with a pulsating showerhead should avoid attempting similar experience with this device.
I can’t understend this wire