Hot Water problem

[jamesmi99]

First time poster - be gentle I'm a novice!!

Recently moved into my new house and with the weather being warmer I've switched off the central heating and just left it to come on twice a day (hour each time AM & PM) for water. My problem is when going for a shower I have too much hot water.

The shower has two power settings and we always leave it on No. 2 and the dial set to about 7 which gives us really fast & good warm water. Now we have to turn it down to No.1 and the dial set to 11 to get a trickle of water that's fairly warm otherwise we'd be scalded. Can't get any cold water on the second power setting even when the dial is on 1 but I can get cold water when on the 1st power setting and turned lower down. This has only just started since I turned off the heating and left it on water only.

The boiler is a Honeywell L641A1005 and the timer unit is a Lifestyle LP522 if that helps at all!? Is the shower on its way out or a different problem

Any idea's please?

Thanks
James

 

[Softus]

The boiler is a Honeywell L641A1005 and the timer unit is a Lifestyle LP522 if that helps at all!?

No - that probably doesn't help at all.

What shower do you have?

 

[jamesmi99]

Neptune Showers Exotic 9.5kw

 

[Softus]

In that case you have an electric shower, and its behaviour has nothing to do with the boiler or the programmer.

The shower has two power settings and we always leave it on No. 2 and the dial set to about 7 which gives us really fast & good warm water.

I'm wondering how recently this stopped being the normal setting.

Now we have to turn it down to No.1 and the dial set to 11 to get a trickle of water that's fairly warm otherwise we'd be scalded.

In warmer weather the incoming water is warmer, so the output will be warmer too. However, the trickle sounds odd.

Can't get any cold water on the second power setting even when the dial is on 1 but I can get cold water when on the 1st power setting and turned lower down.

This is normal.

This has only just started since I turned off the heating and left it on water only.

This is almost certainly because you turned off the heating when the weather got good, and the weather has also affected the incoming water temperature (see above). Other than that association it's a coincidence of timing.

 

[jamesmi99]

Is there any way to rectify this problem then?

 

[Softus]

Do you mean the problem of having too much hot water?

If so, then I actually don't understand the problem. Is there too much of it, or is is too hot?

If the former, then where is there too much of it?

 

[jamesmi99]

Sorry probably haven't made myself clear enough.

It's the latter, its too hot. We've never before had to turn the setting down to 1 on the power and then the dial to 11 as its always been on power 2 and about 7-8.

This all started about the same time I switched the heating off but as you said this could just be a coincidence.

 

[Softus]

Well, it's possible that it's scaling up - do you live in a hard water area?

 

[jamesmi99]

I believe that I do but from what I read somewhere else I'm concerned that the filter has broken within the shower unit.

 

[Softus]

Er, what do you believe that the filter does, and what you do expect the effect of a broken one to be?

 

[jamesmi99]

As I said before I'm only a novice when it comes to this and all I'm after is a bit of help & advice on whether or not the shower is broken.

 

[sambotc]

Hi mate,

If your shower is what you stated above, then it is electric. That means the water is heated inside the shower by an element, therefore not requiring any connection to your hot water system, just a cold supply from your main.

This is why there is no connection betwen your boiler settings (hot water) and your shower (cold main).

Hope that's helped

Sam

 

[Softus]

If your shower is what you stated above, then it is electric. That means the water is heated inside the shower by an element, therefore not requiring any connection to your hot water system, just a cold supply from your main.

This is why there is no connection betwen your boiler settings (hot water) and your shower (cold main).

I thought we'd dealt with that.

 

[jamesmi99]

Thanks Sam

Could it be that the element isn't working correctly and over-heating the water on the 2nd power setting then?

 

[Softus]

As I said before I'm only a novice when it comes to this and all I'm after is a bit of help & advice on whether or not the shower is broken.

I know that, and I'm here for you.

So - rather than suggest things that you think might be broken, let's concentrate on the behaviour.

Apart from the temperature being higher than before, and perhaps suddenly so, what other symptoms of problems do you have?

If none, then I genuinely and sincerely believe that there is no fault, and I maintain electric showers for a living, so I do know a little bit about them.

If you live in a hard water area, then the heating element will, evetually, scale up. It's usually more trouble than it's worth to attempt to descale - replacement (of the heater can) is much quicker and more effective.

If it doesn't overheat, or impede the flow so much that the unit detects it, the effect of excessive scaling will be too little heat, not too much.