Loy came up with the bright idea of using a WeMo switch made by Belkin just over a ago in our flat so we could remotely power on or off electronics around the flat. With the use of a smartphone, I could see switch on/off a lamp remotely via the internet, with the WeMo having already been setup to link to the wireless router I had at home. Sounds swanky.
The next bright spark (and you’ll realize why I use this description later) was to install it to our shower heater. With the aid of some DIY skills, the wiring of the shower unit was rewired to a home appliance plug , which then plugged into the WeMo Switch. This lasted a whole 2 months before the switch conked out which resulted in removing the WeMo switch and plugging the now unattached plug directly to the mains socket……that was until a few days ago.
The missus and I started to realize that the shower heater unit would on a daily basis not work, resulting in jumping out of cold showers. The remedy was slapping the above plug, which would throw off a blue spark or two, but did get the heater unit back up running again. This went on for a week or so until after a late shift at work I was once again doused in cold water, and no slapping of the plug would get the heater running again. Removing the plug I found half of the underside of the plug and the socket in which it was plugged into had half melted. You see, the mains electricity used to power something heavy duty like a shower heat unit is just too much for the puny wires you get in a home appliance plug. This meant 2 hours of rewiring the whole system with just the aid of y smartphones LED flashlight as I had to switch off the electricity supply at the mains.
Moral: just don’t mess around with the heavy appliance’s electric wiring in your homes!!
