Costa Rica 220v and 110v

mikeinfwa

Que Chimba
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 20, 2002
1,977
15,713
Jacksonville FL
I’m not an electrician.

The 40 amp breaker is for a typical heated shower in costa rica.

Anyone ever seen this in the USA ?
97955fc5-783f-49a2-81d2-1c31e751128f.jpeg
 
I've been in the field for 25 years. A combination of residential, commercial, and a little industrial. Heated showers are nothing I typically see. I recently wired a shower with a steam generator and even those are far in-between. It all comes down to the heating element being used. Single phase 2 pole would be more common in the US.
 
View attachment 8551817



Any thoughts as to what caused this?

Heating element inside the shower head?

Moisture in the wall?

Loose ground connection?
The fuse that was used obviously is incorrect. Pull out that bolt, and install a proper .22 LR wrapped in tin-foil. Old electricians trick, to make it both audible and visually apparent as to which circuit is the issue when looking at the panel.

I thought everybody knew this...
 
c2227219-9ed0-435a-8679-653d6b1eb256.jpeg



a8114fe3-f145-4a5f-ae69-76707403425b.jpeg



1b31f138-48b1-4a3f-bd52-e12cc33e6b3f.jpeg

40 amp shower has the black wire connection

I would think the black wire connects to the blue on the shower head

The red connects to the white

The instructions are on the box 😆

Additionally, the landlord had removed the previous shower head wires denying me the previous connections as a guide for the new unit
 
Last edited:
When I lived in Latin America those fucking on demand shower heaters scared the shit out of me every time I got in one.
Yeah, as they should. Not one of somebody's better ideas.

But, there's not much difference between them and tankless water heaters. Other than possibly "Agency Approval". I generally detest UL (having worked from the manufacturing side, trying to get product approval from them), but with a product like this, the more stringent the requirements for approval, the better.
 
View attachment 8552359


View attachment 8552338


View attachment 8552366
40 amp shower has the black wire connection

I would think the black wire connects to the blue on the shower head

The red connects to the white

The instructions are on the box 😆

Additionally, the landlord had removed the previous shower head wires denying me the previous connections as a guide for the new unit
That is how I would do it if I had no way to check and was given those extensive directions. It’s a heating element after all so it probably doesn’t matter which way you connect the black, white, red and blue.
 
If it's anything like some of the extremely small point of use tankless heaters, run tge water 20 min with the heater off to get the air out. With the point of use heaters the slightest amount of air will cause the element to burn up.
 
View attachment 8552359


View attachment 8552338


View attachment 8552366
40 amp shower has the black wire connection

I would think the black wire connects to the blue on the shower head

The red connects to the white

The instructions are on the box 😆

Additionally, the landlord had removed the previous shower head wires denying me the previous connections as a guide for the new unit
Looks like the picture/instructions shows a double pole breaker being used and you have a single pole. Although the connection point in the shower looks to be a 220 configuration. You need a voltage meter to check at the connection point to see what voltage is there. If it's 220 you need to find where the red wire in the connection point is connected in the breaker box. Hopefully it is not connected to one of those 20 amp breakers.
There's a lot of wrong going on in your pictures.