BIG Scale problem?

[OldJake]

I fitted a new electric shower in April last year. It's worked fine until about 6 weeks ago. The head was scaled so I bought a new one. When we started using it, something wasn't right. It would sound like it was boiling in the shower unit, water flow would stop and then it would blow a blast of steam out of the shower head and the shower would go cold.

I cleaned the old head up and refitted it. It was fine again for about 2 days. Then the flow started to drop. I took it apart again and it was full of what I would call scale. Small white flakes. I cleaned it out and it ran fine for 2 or 3 days before the same happened.

I've been going through the same cycle every 2 or 3 days - sometimes as little as 3 or 4 showers worth. When I take the head apart I get LOADS of these flakes of scale out. If I clean it all out over a bowl so I can see how much.

The cold feed isn't great in terms of pressure but the flow from the shower gives a nice shower.

It comes in from the ceiling, through an isolator valve and then a braided flexible hose from the isolator into the bottom of the shower.

One clue is the noise the shower makes. I'd bet my life that it's boiling on the element. The image is the output from this evening's clean. It's clumped together because it's wet.

Anyone got any ideas?

 

[dilalio]

What's your kettle like? Do you have to descale it a lot?

 

[OldJake]

The kettle is fine but we use a filter jug to fill it. The thing that strikes me as odd is that the shower was fine for 9 months ish. And the shower before that was about 12 years old. I replaced it when I refitted the bathroom.

 

[Agile]

You tell us all this but don't bother to tell us the make and model of shower. Have you asked them about it?

You will see that I am in London. But you have not included your location so that we can assess the likely hardness of the water in your area.

I must say I find showers so troublesome that I avoid getting involved with them if I possibly can.

Have never understood why a magnetic or electrolytic water conditioner is not always specified on the inlet of a shower to reduce lime scaling.

Tony

 

[OldJake]

Shower is a Triton Sensation
Location is Andover - hardish water but not to the degree where we should be getting that much out every couple of days when it worked fine for 9 months
It should still be under warranty but I haven't contacted Triton yet

 

[dilalio]

Maybe it got an issue with a air pocket inside and is super-heating the water, thus accelerating the scale build up! That would also explain the noises you're getting from it!

 

[OldJake]

The air pocket theory sounds plausible. I'm not a plumber but I'm not daft either (I think). In my head, it sounds like a pump cavitating, a bit like if you open a bottle of fizzy drink slowly. So could be air in there, or lack of water flow. I might remove the isloation valve and flexible hose temporarily so that I've got true 15mm straight from the supply to the shower. The tank is only about 10 feet away and there's an isolator there. I just fitted one near the shower for convenience. I don't think those braided flexible pipes let through the same flow as 15mm copper so it might just be a combination of everything meaning the flow into the shower is restricted too much.

Time to get the tools out and start playing

 

[bazdaman]

I would be changing the flex first, can we see a pic? Like you say it might not be passing enough water if kinked

 

[OldJake]

I think you're right, bazdaman. It's really tight in there so the flexible host is compressed where it does a turn to go into the shower - not kinked, but it's not fully open either. Just taken the filter on the inlet off and it's as clean as a whistle. Literally about half a dozen little dots of scale. That's going to be the place to start. Chucking the shower in with the existing fittings was always supposed to be a temporary fix until I could run some copper but it looks like the time has come.

 

[OldJake]

Replumbed this afternoon. Even used solder joints as some are on show and it's lower profile. First time for that! Only took me 3 attempts to get 8 solder joints water tight. First try they all leaked, second try one leaked and all clean on the third try.

Output seems much stronger. Only time will tell if it's made a difference!

 

[dilalio]

Is it still making kettling/boiling noises?

 

[OldJake]

I think it might be. It was fine when I tested it, and I had a shower for about 10 mins. The following morning my other half said that it clicked and went cold on her. I've checked it since, given the shower head a really good clean out and I can't get it to fail. I'm not sure if the noise it's making is kettling or just the noise of the water going through it.

The temp dial goes from about the 7.00 position (cold) round to about the 5.00 position. To get a shower that is the right temperature, just about the right side of too hot, we have it around the 9.00 position.