Low Hot Water Pressure on Power Shower

[DamselinDistress]

Hi

Would anybody be able to give me a bit of advice please?

I have a Triton Jade Power Shower which has worked fine for years but last week my cold water tank started leaking and I had to have it replaced. It was a very old tank with a smaller hot water tank inside it and was situated behind my built in wardrobe.

The Plumber put separate hot and cold water tanks in the loft for me and since then the Low Pressure light has been on when I try to have a hot shower. Water still comes out but obviously not quickly enough to have a decent shower.

Will continuing to use the shower like this eventually bugger it up and what will I need to do to fix the problem?

Hope to hear back from someone in the know

Many thanks.

Rebecca

 

[JohnD]

can you post pics of the tanks and pipes please.
//www.diynot.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=129539

look out for any taps/stop cocks/service valves on the pipes that might be obstructing flow.

the pipes used should be at least 15mm (about the size of a man's finger) and preferably larger (22mm). If they are very long or have lots of elbows in them this will reduce flow.

when you say Power Shower, you mean it has an electric pump, right? and supplies water from a hot cylinder that has been heated already by a boiler or immersion heater?

Does it seem to have air bubbles mixed in the water now?

 

[DamselinDistress]

Hello again.

I've created an album called "Tanks and Pipes" which hopefully will show you all you need to see. I've numbered the pictures so that they are in order from the tanks down to the shower but am not sure if they will appear in the correct order in the album.

There aren't any air bubbles mixed in the water and I'm not really sure but think that the shower heats the water up. I'm pretty sure that it uses mains water.

 

[JohnD]

this one

1.

• DamselinDistress
• 10 Sep 2008
• 1

The tanks have now been put in the middle of my loft and the pipes run across to the side, above...

shows that you have a cold water tank, and the smaller one is the feed & Expansion tank for your boiler and heating system, which is a vented one

in this one

3.

• DamselinDistress
• 10 Sep 2008
• 1

This is where the pipes end up in the back of the airing cupboard.

it looks like the copper pipe with the stop-cock on it feeds the cold mains to your water tank in the loft, and has a branch going sideways to the right, which maybe goes to your shower

did you formerly have a hot water cylinder in here, and has it been removed? Is there a hot cylinder somewhere else now?

4.

• DamselinDistress
• 10 Sep 2008
• 1

This space is where my old tank used to be. Not sure about these two pipes. The lower one...

if this one goes to your shower, the chrome fitting on the copper pipe, peeping out of the insulation, looks like a service Valve. this should have a screw head on it which is used to cut off the water supply, and, if partly closed, will restrict flow. Have a look at the screw head, and see if the slot is in line with the pipe.

6.

• DamselinDistress
• 10 Sep 2008
• 1

Same one again.

and this looks like an electric shower, which has a heating element inside.

7.

• DamselinDistress
• 10 Sep 2008
• 1

And just for luck...the actual shower!

it does not look like what we call a power shower, which is one that has a pump to squirt out stored hot water at great pressure. An electric shower should have a large electrical switch, probably a ceiling-mounted one with a pull cord. It will be much bigger than a light switch.

There is a faint chance that he has by mistake connected the shower to the cold water storage tank rather than the water main. I can't follow the pipe from your pictures. However the water main pipes, when water is flowing through them, will be noticeably colder to the touch than any other pipes.

If he has made such a mistake, you are entitled to call him an idiot and demand that he fixes it.

If not, he has still left you with an unsatisfactory installation, so you should still call him back and ask him to fix it.

 

[DamselinDistress]

How embarrassing!!! Ok, so its not a power shower, just an electric one. (Can I get away with saying I thought it was a power shower because it uses electrical power to run? )

I used the shower tonight fully expecting it to take hours so was pleasantly surprised to see that the low pressure light wasn't on and the shower was back to normal. Problem solved I thought.

However, when I rinsed the tiles off I turned the shower to cold then when I turned it back to hot, the low pressure light came on again!

I've checked and the slot on the service valve is in line with the copper pipe to the shower. This pipe is also absolutely freezing cold when I've got the shower on and the water is running through it so I guess it must be coming off the mains?

When you say "hot water cylinder" do you mean immersion? If so, that's underneath the area shown in the picture. The space in the picture is where my old cold water tank was, which had a smaller tank inside it for hot water I think.

 

[JohnD]

a hot water cylinder often has an immersion heater inside it

cylinder

immersion heater

Follow the cold water main, and observe all the stop cocks and valves you can find. It might be that the plumber turned down the main stopcock to make the water tank fill more quietly, but there are better ways to do it. you may need a thick leather glove to grip any valves and open them wide (a tip: always turn back valves half a turn from fully open this reduces the risk they will seize).

You are particularly looking for stop cocks, note the unique shape.

 

[seco services]

he wasn't a plumber he's a odd job man with shares in speedfit.