Condensation on feed to electric shower

[Redhotferrari]

Hi Guys,

Electric shower over bath, fed from under the bath, when running the shower bad condensation forms on the pipes due to how cold the feed is, water running down the pipe, following the 90 bend at the bottom and causing damp under bath.

What would you recommend to eliminate this?

Pipe is clipped to wall so not a lot of room for lagging.

Look forward to your advice

 

[tryitandsee]

The same thing happens on the wc cistern, the china gets cold and condensation forms and drips when the room gets steamy with baths etc.

I can only think of increasing the air temperature under the bath, allowing warm air from the room in. Or using the heat from the hot bath tap feed pipe to evaporate collection of drips (like the tray on the compressor in the fridge)

No, if you can stop this happening, it will be like inventing 'cats eyes'

 

[holty]

may help that the water isnt running down the pipe in the first place.

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

The same thing happens on the wc cistern, the china gets cold and condensation forms and drips when the room gets steamy with baths etc.

I can only think of increasing the air temperature under the bath, allowing warm air from the room in. Or using the heat from the hot bath tap feed pipe to evaporate collection of drips (like the tray on the compressor in the fridge)

No, if you can stop this happening, it will be like inventing 'cats eyes'

the way we get round cold cisterns in luxury homes is use a tmv and keep the temp of the water up.

 

[holty]

just wandering how do you keep the temp using a tmv without the risk of legionella

 

[Softus]

If you want less condensation on the pipe, then you have to either:

1. Have less moisture in the air;
or
2. Stop the air touching the pipe.

So either lag the pipe, or use Speedfit instead of copper.

 

[chrishutt]

Getting rid of the water vapour laden air via a decent extractor fan would be a start. If it doesn't condense on the cold pipe it will condense elsewhere, unless it's quickly diluted with warm air.

You could thread a length of 10mm plastic pipe down the inside of the 15mm tube, sealing the annular gap between the two pipes. This would result in the water to the shower flowing up the inside of the 10mm pipe and the water between the two pipes becoming static.

The static water and the outer tube would be able to warm to room temperature, so reducing condensation. The 10mm plastic pipe wouldn't conduct heat as well as copper so the cooling effect of the water flowing in the 10mm pipe would be relatively weak.

On second thoughts the static water might be considered a health risk so perhaps the ideal would be to allow a very slow flow in the annular space to ensure that the water was changed from time to time.

 

[holty]

but in doing so you could cut the flow so much, the elecky shower may have problems.

 

[chrishutt]

The flow through an electric shower is pathetic anyway - 3 l/min maybe, easily supplied via 10mm pipe if the pressure is half decent.

 

[Softus]

but in doing so you could cut the flow so much, the elecky shower may have problems.

What do you consider is the combined CSA of all the weeny little holes in the shower head?

 

[holty]

what im trying to get at is, some showers can cut out when e.g some one turns a tap on and the flow is reduced that much the shower trips out due to lack of flow

 

[chrishutt]

That's why.....

....if the pressure is half decent.