Have I got the wrong pump on my shower?

[wiresandwood]

Hi,

I'm been reading these forums for a while and looking for some advice as I have my first proper dilemma as a home owner. I just had a new shower (and heating system) installed, and am disappointed with the power of the new shower, but would like to check my facts before attempting to throw more money at this.

I have a Nabis 1.6bar positive head pump installed in the loft next to the hot and cold tanks, and a Grohe 3000 mixer.

The new shower seems to have less vigour than the shower in my previous house, which had a NewTeam variable 1.5 bar pump. On the fixed head in champagne mode the flows sag and meet around 12" from the head and therefore fall onto the occupant as one big heavy stream. This isn't really what I had in mind when I spent extra on the head to get this feature, and I'm worried that either the pump is simply not man enough for the bigger heads, that there is a fault in the system somewhere or that the pump is not working correctly.

Is flow rate the best way to assess whether there is a blockage or something not working to spec, and if so what kind of flow should I expect from 1.6 bar pump? Is there anything else I could examing before I go spending more money on this?

 

[Softus]

1.6 bar is the maximum pressure presented by the pump. The flow rate depends on the back pressure presented by the subsequent pipework, and the aperture from which the water emerges.

If you have a 'rainfall' type head, which can pass water at a high flow, then the speed of the water will reduce in inverse proportion. Conversely, if you had a shower head with a few tiny holes, then the water will emerge at a high speed, hence the 'massage effect' heads that make your skin feel almost as though pierced by needles.

 

[wiresandwood]

Okay, I appreciate that, I'm just wondering if there are some steps I can take to determine whether the pump is simply not powerful enough, faulty or maybe even that there is a fault elsewhere.

If anyone has the movario head and a 1.5 bar pump I would be interested to know whether they find it sufficient.