How does our hot water work??

[GinaBee]

we have recently just moved into our first property so are relatively inexperienced and are having trouble with our hot water.

Our hot water is very inconsistent, it seems to work fine with the downstairs taps but as soon as we take a shower, it is hot for around 10 minutes and then goes cold and doesn’t heat up for a good couple of hours. We have also found that as soon as the shower goes cold so do the rest of the taps.

We have a Megaflo system in our loft and to be honest I’m not sure how it works, does the heating have to be on for the water to heat up or does it use electric?

Ive had a look at the system and have found one gauge that reads between 1-1.5, from different things I’ve seen this seems to be correct? I have also read a few things about re-pressurising the tank but don’t want to mess if it’s not going to fix the problem!

Any help at all would be welcomed!

 

[Mottie]

Sounds like you are running out of water after 10 minutes and it may not be reheated immediately as it might be on a timer. Try turning the hot water temperature up and switch it to constantly on (or reset the timer to coincide with your hot water usage) maybe?

 

[ianmcd]

Post up some pics of your set up and we will be able to help

 

[Madrab]

Yup, we need to see nice clear pictures of your Boiler, Timer - Programmer + hot water cylinder with the information/data badge showing.

 

[dilalio]

You 'might' simply be running out of hot water after 10 mins of showering... Depends on the size of your cylinder and the flow rate of your shower(s). As said... More info needed, including capacity of your cylinder which should be on the data badge. Pics of shower heads also useful.

 

[oldbuffer]

1. MegaFlo will probably be heated normally off the boiler, with two back up electric immersion heaters.
2. Boiler, on hot water programme, should heat up the whole cylinder of water.
3. Top immersion heater will heat up about the top third of the cylinder.
4. Bottom immersion heater will heat up the whole cylinder, but is often wired to use Economy 7 type electricity tariff, which is only on in the early hours of the morning.
5. Heating by electricity is 2 to 3 times as expensive as by a natural gas boiler.

Things to check:
A. Size of cylinder, as stated by earlier responders.
B. If you have a boiler for central or underfloor heating, is this also connected to the MegaFlo?
C. Is the top immersion heater on?
D. Is there a bottom immersion heater, and is this:
Di. Turned on
Dii. Connected to a cheap rate electricity tariff.

As stated by others above, pictures please, of MegaFlo, controls, boiler (if any) and controls.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Why not pay someone to come and check the system over and explain the ins and outs to you first hand?

 

[dilalio]

Why not pay someone to come and check the system over and explain the ins and outs to you first hand?

But what about the plumbing?

 

[GinaBee]

Hi, apologies were not quite moved in yet so haven’t been to take photos! Hopefully these will help! Someone mentioned the hot water temperature but I don’t even know how to turn the temp up or down thank you!!

 

[snb]

when you took the picture of the hot water 2 port valve ( white box with A and B on the side) i guess the tank was probably up to temperature as it is in the closed position.

Depending on the power of your boiler as to whether it can heat both heating and hot water quickly at the same time. Most installations would not achieve a fast recovery in the depths of winter with both on at the same time.

How hot is your current hot water water?

on the boiler what is the size of it ( the figures in the bottom righthand corner)
From the picture it looked like 9 Ri. if that is correct then the boiler would take about about an hour to reheat the hot water on it's own