Best shower to run off my current boiler system

Hi all and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Right, just moved into my new house, its a 1980s build, all rads seem to be 10mm piped, and i have a back boiler that makes a god-fearing thunderous noise when it turns itself off, pipes vibrating, banging etc, scares the bejesus out of me each time it happens.
Anyway, i digress; my electric shower is the sorryest excuse of a shower i've ever encountered. It's a 8.5kw peice of garbage from Wickes. i could pee warmer and faster.....but that's not the answer!

Where i moved from we have an Aqualisa shower which was fantastic, don't really know if it was an electric or power or electric-power shower, but it was great and ALWAYS supplied hot water as long as the tank had some in it.
My current shower gives a dribble of tepid water at best, and i need to replace it.
I can't afford to replace my boiler system, so the question is with a back boiler system what are my options for showers?
Cheapest alternatives first i guess.
Would simply replacing the 8.5kw model with a 10.5kw make a BIG difference? If not, what else can i do?

Thanks for any advice.

edit: does the type of wall you have dictate what kind of shower you can have? A friend reckoned that for a power shower you need a solid wall? Can't see that myself as most modern houses tend to have stud walls.

Is the shower fed from the mains or the tank in the loft?

All electric showers are weedy, and are useless in winter when the incoming water is very cold.

Have you got a hot water cylinder? Does it feed the bath taps? How close is it to your shower? Have you got a cold water tank feeding the bath cold tap? How near is that to the shower? How high is the cold tank in relation to the shower head?

kjacko said:

does the type of wall you have dictate what kind of shower you can have? A friend reckoned that for a power shower you need a solid wall? Can't see that myself as most modern houses tend to have stud walls.

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Nonsense

Ouch! thanks for the replies so far guys.

Is the shower fed from the mains or the tank in the loft?

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i honestly don't know, how do i check?

Have you got a hot water cylinder?

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Yes, in the airing cupbaord

Does it feed the bath taps?

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Dunno. How can i tell if it does? Actually i think it does, because when i moved in there was no hot water from any hot tap. then i realised the hot water tank was switched off, so after switching it on, and warming the tank up, hot water came out.

How close is it to your shower?

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The hot water cylinder? About 10ft as the crow flies, but it's only about 3ft higher than the taps at a guess.

Have you got a cold water tank feeding the bath cold tap?

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There is a cold water tank in the loft, dunno if it feeds the cold bath tap.

How near is that to the shower?

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Well, its (obviously) above it and about 10ft across.

How high is the cold tank in relation to the shower head?

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Well the cold tank is in the loft and elevated in some framework, but i'd say no more than 5-6ft higher .

Sorry if i'm a little hazy with my answers, if there is anything else you need to know in order to help me then i'll check tonight when i get home. I'm guessing i need to follow the pipes, but most are inside the walls so that will be awkward to tell when they feed from/to.

Thanks again fellas.

any more advice please folks?
I had to have a sit down shower this morning with a £3 shower hose tap attachment thingy from wilko's. Not terribly comfortable i can tell yee.

if you want to up the size of the electric shower, you will need to know the size of the cable feeding it.

as you have a gravity cold and hot water system, the best you can go for is a pumped thermostatic mixer shower.

which one you buy and how you fit it, is down to you, which is down to your competence and the pipe work in your house.

I'm not sold on another electric shower tbh. Even if i replaced the current one with a 10.5kW i've read that generally that will give me a 40% increase in flow over a 7.5kW shower. Considering mine is 8.5kW i'm not convinced i'd get a much better experience out of what i already have.

There is only one pipe coming out the shower and it goes up. So can i assume its taking cold water from the tank in the loft?
The whole bathroom is tiled floored to ceiling so if i want to change the type of shower i'm gonna end up bashing the wall around aren't i?

electric showers should be fed from the mains, not a tank.

you can get surface mount showers, Aqualisa do them for a start, they are not cheap, but they are easy to install and have very little impact on the room. which i mainly install.

the pump/digital unit are mounted remotely, in loft space or airing cupboard, the rail/control unit are screwed to the wall and through the ceiling to the supply from the pump.

If mains pressure is good, get the copper cylinder replaced with an unvented cylinder and world will be your oyster when it comes to picking a shower that matches your previous shower.

DP said:

If mains pressure is good, get the copper cylinder replaced with an unvented cylinder and world will be your oyster when it comes to picking a shower that matches your previous shower.

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Not sure what you mean DP, what copper cylinder?

The existing shower is a Gainsborough 850gsi which is no longer in production. It is fed directly from the mains, so i can only summise that the actual unit is half knacked because when i get the required water flow from the shower, its almost cold, whilst he correct temperature produces a mere dribble from the shower head.
It looks like the electrical cable is 10mm so i can safely get a 10.5kW shower, however without testing the water pressure will that be ok.
The manual for the 850gsi says 0.75bar is required, yet the 10.5kW requires 1.5bar. Does this sound right? And am i likely to get 1.5bar from my system?

he means replacing your hot water cylinder..

which is a bit over kill imo, becasue they aint cheap.

Well....
i bought a Triton 9.5kw shower from Screwfix, got it home then found out that the cabling for the existing 8.5kw isn't even up to standard. It looks like its about 6mm and only has a 30A fuse, whereas even the manual specifies 40A.
I was going to swap the Triton for the 8.5kw versions but seeing as the cabling aint right anyway, i may as well keep the 9.5kw and get the cabling sorted out properly.
Goddamit !!! Didn't need this extra mess, fuss and cash outlay.

Would be it any better/more economical to just install a thermostatic or power shower?