Showermate Eco S1.5 bar Twin stopped working

[thetcutkid]

Hi,

We have a positive head Stuart Turner Showermate Eco S1.5 bar Twin pump, Part No. 46502, fed from a cold water tank in the loft and a hot water cylinder in the airing cupboard (at the foot of which the pump is located) that has given 9 years faultless service.

With no obvious sounds of impending failure in the last few weeks, after two showers yesterday morning, it's stopped working.

I've taken the shower head off the hose and laid the hose on the shower tray and turned the shower on but you just get the unassisted gravity flow coming out. The pump is now making a sort of humming noise and you can feel a very gentle vibration if you put your hand on top but it never kicks into operation.

Is there anything I can try before considering replacing it?

Will this style of pump have filters on the inlet side, is it worth checking those or does this sound pretty terminal?

Thanks for any information you can provide.

 

[dilalio]

If the float switch is operating the pump, which it sounds like it does, then check all pipes for blockages... However, you said you are getting gravity supply at outlets so would seem the routes are clear... Is this both on hot and cold?
Try giving the pump a couple of blows at various spots.. See if that gets it going.

 

[thetcutkid]

Many thanks for the quick reply.

Yes, it's on both hot and cold I just checked.

Interestingly / worryingly, while I was moving the temp control from hot to cold, I also thought I'd disconnect the hose from the shower itself, the shower was running maybe for two minutes, I then started to smell a faint burning smell and the pump no longer makes any sound at all....have I truly knackered it for good?

 

[terryplumb]

The motor is burnt out ,replacement pump required.

 

[thetcutkid]

I've had the pump switched off at the mains for over half an hour, just thought I'd give it one last go to see if it was truly knackered, switched the power back on, turned on the shower and it worked perfectly.

I'm not sure if the pump sounds as smooth as it did previously but then again I've never stood in front of the airing cupboard with the door open when the pump is running, I'm normally in the shower!

Now of course I'm wondering if it's reliable.

 

[terryplumb]

Well that's a surprise ,given that you told us it smelled of burning,I would have thought it was knackered. As for reliability....time will tell.

 

[Johntheo5]

New capacitor maybe?.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Sticking pump, will fail again soon. Replace now before it happens again.

Andy

 

[thetcutkid]

I'm inclined to agree tbh.

At the risk of being told 'if you have to ask, you should probably get someone in' how easy are they to fit ?

The main issue I can foresee is that the main hot and cold pipes that are attached to the two flexible inlet pipes on the pump do not have isolators which is a bit of a pain - the flexible pipes on the pump do but not the main pipes from the cold water tank and hot water cylinder they are connected to.

Assuming threads and diameters are the same, is it feasible for me to keep the flexible inlet pipes from this pump (thus being able to use their isolators when disconnecting) and connect them to the new pump or is that considered poor practise?

 

[dilalio]

Use the existing flexis with isolators.
That's why they supply them.

 

[thetcutkid]

Perfect, many thanks

 

[thetcutkid]

Just to finish this off and say I fitted the newer version of the same pump from Stuart Turner this week and also took the opportunity to replace both shower heads as well and the shower has never been better. In hindsight, if I was doing it again, I might go up in bar pressure slightly but I'm still very happy with it.

Interestingly, the installation instructions for the new shower state in large, bold, font 'do not screw pump down' and when removing the old pump is was fixed to the floorboards with two wood screws. The new pump is so much quieter than the old one, you can't actually hear it running when you're in the shower so whether that's a combination of a newer model and being left unsecured I don't know but I'm not complaining!

Thanks for your time.

 

[dilalio]

Shower pump has rubber feet and if you screw it down, these become compressed and don't absorb the vibrations that can cause noise issues.

 

[Johntheo5]

Just to finish this off and say I fitted the newer version of the same pump from Stuart Turner this week and also took the opportunity to replace both shower heads as well and the shower has never been better. In hindsight, if I was doing it again, I might go up in bar pressure slightly but I'm still very happy with it.

Just a few pointers to anyone a bit uncertain as to what head pump to purchase, it obviously depends on the flowrates you require with a dedicated shower pump which will normally be located close to the shower, the showerhead will also have a big bearing on the head required.
If you require a flowrate of say 20LPM at 40C then you might think that 10LPM is required from both hot and cold but since the hot water is normally heated to 60C then you need 12LPM hotflow mixed with 8LPM coldflow at say 10C, this means the pump must have a sufficient head to overcome the various losses, piping, thermostatic mixing vale and showerhead, you can see from below that a 2 bar pump will deliver this (12LPM hot) at ~ 1.35M head and a 1.5bar pump will deliver it at 1.0bar or to put it another way if the shower resistance is such that 1.5bar is required to deliver a total flowrate of 20LPM then the 2bar pump will provide this, the 1.5bar pump will deliver 17.3LPM, but still good, a 3 bar pump would provide 24.5LPM through the same shower.

The other probably more important issue is that as the HW temperature falls the more flow the pump hot end must provide so at a required showering temperature of 40C then the hot end must pump all the required flowrate when/if the HW temperature falls to 40C.

 

[thetcutkid]

the showerhead will also have a big bearing on the head required.

Many thanks for the detailed info, very useful and yes, it's the new main shower head that made me think I should've gone 2.0 bar.

The old head was 170mm diameter and I really struggled to find anything remotely close to this size. Additionally I was rather taken aback at how much you can pay for a shower head, seriously north of £100 and some over £400 !!

In the end I bought a 230mm head from Screwfix for £12.99 but I was worried about how forceful the flow from it would be, although it was thinner than the old one so wondered if that might balance it out a bit.

Anyway, the flow is definitely not as intense as the 170mm head but it's actually quite nice, there's a LOT more water to get underneath, it's just a bit more gentle on your head!