Shower Pump Fit to shower pipes only

[DazJWood]

I am in the process of planning out my new bathroom.

I am currently waiting for a new shower / spa bath unit to arrive.

This unit has bath with massage jets built in which are powered by it's own pump.

It also has a rainfall shower, hand shower head and 12 jets.

I am almost positive with this amount of jets combined with the shower that I will need a shower pump.

I have done a little research on them and the recommendation seems to be to locate them near the hot water cylinder.

I am sure this is probably a daft question but if I needed to install one, how would I only attach it to the pipes that feed the shower?

I haven't pulled any floorboards up as yet but I'm almost certain that the bathroom sink and current bath are fed by the same pipes and split within the bathroom. This would mean that the pump would come on when the sink taps are used. How do I get round this or isn't it really a problem?

Also I'm guessing the new unit would also have hot and cold delivered to it for the bath section and the shower part of the unit. Meaning the bath part of it would also enable the pump when it's turned on.

Hmm I am getting confused how these things should work.

Has anyone got any recommendations?

Thanks all,

Daz

 

[TicklyT]

It's normally recommended to install a shower pump on it's own dedicated outlets from the hot water cylinder and the cold water storage cistern, and run additional dedicated hot and cold feeds to the shower.

Sometimes a whole house pump is used to pump water to all the outlets, but that can have it's drawbacks, like the pump, which is usually quite noisy, running every time someone uses the loo. These still require dedicated inlet connections.

For the hot connection, use either a Surrey or Essex flange installed in the hot cylinder according to the pump manufacturers instructions, and fit an additional tank connector in the cold storage cistern below the hot cylinder feed outlet for the cold supply.

Bear in mind if you are going to 'turbocharge' the hot water outlet, you should consider 'race tuning' the cold feed system so it can keep up. Otherwise, there is a risk of the pump drawing air down the hot cylinder vent, or the chance the pump may syphon the whole system dry.

Have you considered how long your stored hot water supply will last when you are using your shower?

 

[Richard C]

Buying & fitting a spa bath unit is just the easy bit! You will need separate feed & pumped h&c supplies & TicklyT has covered the basics for you but I would advise you do a lot more research to determine what it will involve both in terms of additional pipe work & maintaining sufficient h&c water storage capacity which will be considerable if you ever intend to run the bath & shower units in one hit. The cost of the pump, additional tanks, pipe work & ancillaries can be considerable & the system must be properly designed; inappropriate layout, mistakes & cost cutting seems to be all too common with pumped systems & can be far more costly to put right in the long run.

You should also be aware that any electrical work in the bathroom (wiring for the spa bath at least) must be in accordance with BR’s & be undertaken by a suitably qualified & certified person; although DIY isn’t ruled out, it can be impractical!

 

[DazJWood]

Thanks for the reply I'm guessing this is not something that should be tackled by a amateur diyer then. Sounds a bit out of my depth.

Is there no type of shower pump that could be installed under the bath?

 

[DazJWood]

The unit specs say that a minimum of 2 bar water pressure is needed. Am I assuming right that this will need a pump. I don't really know what the standard sort of pressure is for a gravity fed system is.

 

[swidders]

The unit specs say that a minimum of 2 bar water pressure is needed. Am I asumming right that this will need a pump.

yes

I don't really know what the standard sort of pressure is for a gravity fed system is.

10m (about 30 foot) from water level in cold water tank to bottom of hot water cylinder would give about 1 bar pressure

 

[DazJWood]

10m (about 30 foot) from water level in cold water tank to bottom of hot water cylinder would give about 1 bar pressure

Ah right. Blimey that's a good distance then. I'm guessing mine's only about 1.5 metres at most so looks like I will need a pump. Blimey this is just getting more and more complicated. Me and my bright ideas about doing my bathroom

 

[Richard C]

The unit specs say that a minimum of 2 bar water pressure is needed. Am I assuming right that this will need a pump.

Yes & thats a reasonably sized pump that needs a system similar to the sort I was describing.