Need advice on pump situation

[Justacat]

I'm not a plumber, so please try and decode what I say...

This property is on 3 floors. Water tank in the loft.

On top floor is old cylinder thing which I think stores hot water..? But we use a boiler in the kitchen so I could be completely wrong.

Next to cylinder is a pump which was only used to power the shower in the bathroom on the floor below it. Just the shower, not the sink.

On the top floor (same as cylinder) there is another bathroom. Previously nothing came from the shower in here, but the sink and bath taps worked fine.

The pump is a salamander rsp 100. As far as I know this would be powerful enough to additionally power the top floor shower if plumbed in.

So a plumber came round.

Rather than just adding the top floor shower to the pump, he has added what seems to be the entire water system to the pump. Even the kitchen now triggers it.

I get the impression he was saying that's the only way to do it and ill need a better house pump (monsoon standard 3 bar) because right now the old pump is MUCH noisier and always firing up. It also stays on for a while after taps are closed.

So what I really want to know...

Does it sound likely that he wouldn't be able to just add the 2nd shower to the pump and not the whole system?

Will a new house pump be quieter? This is more important if all taps fire it obviously...


Hopefully someone can offer a 2nd opinion.

Thanks

 

[Galoka]

I presume his spurs jangled as he rode away?

For starters, the RSP100 is designed just for showers.

http://www.salamanderpumps.co.uk/positive-head-shower-pumps_twin-impeller-centrifugal_rsp100

Salamander do different pump ranges (RHP and some of the ESP ones). AIUI, they have built in bypasses. So that if only the hot or cold water is being demanded, the other side of the pump has somewhere to pump it's water to. I suspect that's why it has become nosier, and will presumably cause early failure of the pump. So he should not have plumbed it in to pump the whole house. (I suppose he is right in that to pump the whole house you need a different pump, but then you didn't want the whole house pumped......)

In principle there is probably no good reason why it couldn't have been plumbed in to run the second shower. There are issues with having enough head to allow enough water to flow when you turn on the shower, to trigger the pump. Salamander specify a minimum flow of 1L/min (so not a lot). They suggest that if you have less than 600mm head from the bottom of the CW tank in the loft then it might be a problem (this is called negative head, and requires a different type of pump) But if the shower works ok now, then it's fine.

Other than that , obviously how easy that is depends on the existing plumbing setup. Most likely it would require running new hot and cold feeds connected to the pumped supply to the existing shower.

Presumably he was either lacking or clue, or just could not bothered to do the job properly and took the easy route of just connecting it into the existing plumbing by the pump?

 

[Justacat]

I think I'll get someone else in to at least clarify everything - thanks

I presume his spurs jangled as he rode away?

For starters, the RSP100 is designed just for showers.

http://www.salamanderpumps.co.uk/positive-head-shower-pumps_twin-impeller-centrifugal_rsp100

Salamander do different pump ranges (RHP and some of the ESP ones). AIUI, they have built in bypasses. So that if only the hot or cold water is being demanded, the other side of the pump has somewhere to pump it's water to. I suspect that's why it has become nosier, and will presumably cause early failure of the pump. So he should not have plumbed it in to pump the whole house. (I suppose he is right in that to pump the whole house you need a different pump, but then you didn't want the whole house pumped......)

In principle there is probably no good reason why it couldn't have been plumbed in to run the second shower. There are issues with having enough head to allow enough water to flow when you turn on the shower, to trigger the pump. Salamander specify a minimum flow of 1L/min (so not a lot). They suggest that if you have less than 600mm head from the bottom of the CW tank in the loft then it might be a problem (this is called negative head, and requires a different type of pump) But if the shower works ok now, then it's fine.

Other than that , obviously how easy that is depends on the existing plumbing setup. Most likely it would require running new hot and cold feeds connected to the pumped supply to the existing shower.

Presumably he was either lacking or clue, or just could not bothered to do the job properly and took the easy route of just connecting it into the existing plumbing by the pump?

 

[Agile]

I suspect he has just does the easiest way possible.

But then it all depends on the discussion you had with him.

Perhaps he did it that way because you did ( or seemed ) not to want to spend too much.

What he should have done is to given you a range of options with their prices.

Unfortunately, there are many would have done just what he did!

Tony