bit of advice required

[numpty with a crowbar]

Hi folks - after a bit of advice on hot water flow from a storage tank. Got a problem with the bathroom sink and bath (mixer tap on bath). The hot water flow is utter bobbins due to the storage tank being on the same floor as the bath / sink, and the cold water tank being not that much above the hot tank so there's not much gravity at work. As a result when you use the shower head from the mixer and lift it up to a useable height the hot water trickles off to nothing - and my better half is a tad grumpy about this

From having had a dig about I'm starting to understand that I can get hold of a pump to up the hot water flow to the bath / sink a bit (not convinced that I need one for the kitchen downstairs as gravity seems to take care of the flow down there - although if it's easier / only possible to simply bolt a pump onto the "out" of the storage tank I'll do that instead and increase the flow all round), but how straightforward is this?? And will this solve my woes enought to give decent flow to the shower and thus save me getting a regular kicking from my better half?

 

[Bahco]

You could change your shower to an electric one which should give you 4 litres per min flow which may be an improvement OR raise your cold tank to as high as poss (bearing in mind the load structure will need to be assessed first).
Or fit a pump as suggested.

 

[numpty with a crowbar]

You could change your shower to an electric one which should give you 4 litres per min flow which may be an improvement

I'd love too, but my better half has spent lots of money on a lovely mixer & shower tap combined and doesn't want to have to get a separate shower as well . Plus I've just finished a re-wire and didn't put a cable in for a shower

OR raise your cold tank to as high as poss (bearing in mind the load structure will need to be assessed first).

Sadly can't as there's a separate tank for the CH directly above the hot water tank (one that uses that inhibitor stuff so needs to be separate from the hot water tank) and I can't face moving the CH one just yet

Or fit a pump as suggested.

Looks like that's the option to take - any idea how much they cost?? And how easy are they to fit? Is it something I can do in a day or is it an engineer job?? If it's similar to a boiler pump it's not a problem and I'm fairly confident - but if it's a bigger faff I may have to get an expert... Any opinions?

 

[kevplumb]

look here

 

[Bahco]

I've never fitted one but the plumbing looks straightforward enough.
I think you will need a sparky though to conform with part P.
The type of pump you will need is HERE

Beat me Kev

 

[numpty with a crowbar]

Right them - cheer for the tips thus far folks - looks simple enough to get hold of / plumb in.... And as for the sparky side of things the (qualified) mate who helped me re-wire the whole house will be able to sign it off (it's great having mates who work for beer )

But..... looking at the cheaper ones (being a tight wad and all) - they seem to suggest that I need to plumb in the hot and cold water to it.... Which leaves me confused.

So here's some more questions and a few other bits of info that might inform my half baked questions
Info: -
The bathroom sink and tap are fed off the same pipes that just tee off to the sink / bath respectively. The cold water is straight off the mains, the hot comes out of the storage tank on a 22mm pipe which tee's off to two 15mm pipes for bath / sink. The sink is 2 single taps, the bath is a mixer tap that has a shower coming out of the top of the mixer itself.

Questions:-
1) Can I get away with only increasing the flow on the hot side by only hooking up the hot pipe at 22mm and ignoring the cold side since the cold is on mains pressure and apparently I can't hook up at mains pressure (or can I put some kind of pressure reducing valve on the cold).
2) If I can't do option 1 is there a pump available for just hot water to jack up the flow
3) I'm assuming that once the water passes through the pump I can just hook the pump back into the pipes that run to sink and bath without having to re-route or anything?
4) How can I reduce the cold water pressure to fit it onto the pump if I need to have hot and cold water throguh the pump

Still confused.... But getting there....

 

[kevplumb]

try here