Hello, i tried posting this earlier but it wouldnt work so apologies if this has appeared twice. Ive just had a Park Lane (Bathroom Brands International Ltd) thermostatic shower valve installed in the bathroom on the 1st floor (not had a shower valve in place before this one). Ive got a combi boiler on the ground floor whilst the bathroom is almost directly above on the 1st. The boiler is a Ravenheat LS80T combi (yes i know its not exactly a great one but its actually cone ok for the money spent on it-i cant complain too much). No cold or hot water tanks are installed anywhere in the house. all taps in the bathroom (basin and bath) are connected via 15mm copper piping to he mains or combi and hot and cold flow is pretty good everywhere. However i get hardly any water (not even enough to spark the combi) out of the shower valve when it is turned on (in any configuration, all cold, all hot of any point between the two), no other taps are on when ive tried it. The shower valve is almost the same distance from the boiler as the basin taps except that the shower valve is 1.5 ft higher. Is the increase in height the cause for such a drastic reduction in flow or shoudl i consider getting the valve replaced under the warranty? The only other thing i can think of is there are approx six 90 degree turns in the piping from combi to the basin taps but about 9 to the shower valve (and all of the extra turns to the valve are in the last foot or so). The mains comes into the house on the ground floor on 15mm (where the stop cock is anyway) so would changing the h/w piping from the combi to the shower to 22mm actually make a difference? I wanted to see if the valve was faulty but the piping to it has been cemented and tiled in and there isnt enough play to pull the piping out after unscrewing the unions, also there are no check valves in the piping to the shower valve so i cant turn off the h/w or c/w separately in order to test in situ. Any advice on what i can try without having to rip the valve out would be much appreciated! Ive been waiting ages for the valve to be installed so its a pain in the butt that it doesnt, after all this time, i cant use it.
Flow problems:Park Lane (PWD1239) Thermostatic Shower Valve
- Thread starter needyahelp
- Start date
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check valves are not isolation valves.
check valves prevent backflow.
you sure that hot / cold don't have any iso valves.
because reading your message there is no reason for any flow problems.
check valves prevent backflow.
you sure that hot / cold don't have any iso valves.
because reading your message there is no reason for any flow problems.
wow that was a quick reply cheers! I will check along all of the pipework tonight, i only looked at the pipework int he bathroom as the pipework lower int he house is difficult to get to. Still worth a try though. Cheers.
just check the shower feeds where it comes from existing pipework
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hello, sorry for the delay. Ive checked the pipework and the only isolation valve is before the cold feed into the combi. There are no isolation valves between the combi dhw out and the shower valve. The valve has just been removed and lookign at cold and hot flow out of the pipes where the valve was connected i can see that hot flow is almost unnoticably lower than cold. The valve is yet to be tested. I have seen that the isolation valves themselves have a smaller diamater than the 15mm copper piping, would replacing the iso valve with a larger bore valve help?
when i said "the valve has just been removed" i was referrign to the shower valve and not the iso valve
I still have this shower valve in place, i never found out the exact cause because i tried several changes and one worked but i dont know which as i was so fed up with the issue i just threw a bunch of changes at the problem with no testing between so no clue which was the fix, probably did way more than i needed but it was all learning for me. Anyway just in case someone happens to have the same issue this is what i changed/noticed before the problem was sorted:
I replaced the last 8 to 10 feet of the 15mm hot water pipe to the valve with 22mm (the run included around 5 feet horizontal run in the ceiling below before turning to come up into the bathroom) but i reduced this back down to 15mm just before it went into the shower valve as that took 15mm
I also took out the last 4 90 degree bends in h/w pipe to the showervalve and used 45 degree fittings as i read something about sharp changes in water direction have an impact on things (no clue why the bathroom fitter used so may 90 degree bends so close to the valve but he did turn out to be a cowboy for other things i found years later)
I saw in the 15mm pipe which i unsoldered and replaced with 22mm was the way the pipe ends had been cut there was really bad crimping probably from using a blunt speed cutter, anyway the 15mm ends were more like 9 or 10mm so maybe this coupled with all the 90 degree turns didnt help flow
Lastly i do remember finding some grit in the pipes where they met the shower valve but i cant recall exactly which pipe but i flushed it all .
Hope that helps someone.
I replaced the last 8 to 10 feet of the 15mm hot water pipe to the valve with 22mm (the run included around 5 feet horizontal run in the ceiling below before turning to come up into the bathroom) but i reduced this back down to 15mm just before it went into the shower valve as that took 15mm
I also took out the last 4 90 degree bends in h/w pipe to the showervalve and used 45 degree fittings as i read something about sharp changes in water direction have an impact on things (no clue why the bathroom fitter used so may 90 degree bends so close to the valve but he did turn out to be a cowboy for other things i found years later)
I saw in the 15mm pipe which i unsoldered and replaced with 22mm was the way the pipe ends had been cut there was really bad crimping probably from using a blunt speed cutter, anyway the 15mm ends were more like 9 or 10mm so maybe this coupled with all the 90 degree turns didnt help flow
Lastly i do remember finding some grit in the pipes where they met the shower valve but i cant recall exactly which pipe but i flushed it all .
Hope that helps someone.
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