Newbie shower woes...

[garmcqui]

I've just moved into a new house and am having a nightmare with the shower - there's just barely any hot water pressure! Here's a picture of all the hot water which exits the shower hose:

The hot water supply (if you can call it that) is gravity fed but the cold is mains fed, meaning the cold totally overpowers the hot if it's switched on at all. Now this isn't necessarily a problem as there's a thermostat on the hot water tank, so I just set this to ideal shower temperature and shower only in hot water.

But how can I go about raising the hot water pressure? I've checked all the stopcocks etc in the house and they're all open fully - is my only option a shower booster pump on the hot water pipe leaving the tank?

Really need to get this sorted as I'm currently having to shower WITHOUT the shower head on as this is the only way I can get any significant amount of water!


Thanks in advance!

Gareth

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

for one you can't go about altering the cylinder stat willy nilly
it should be at 60c unless you fancy this.

NOTE: Do not reduce the temperature of stored hot water below 60°C to avoid the risk of legionella.

you can't alter the pressure on gravity, unless you install a pump on the hot supply.

showers fed from taps are more show than a shower if you want a descent shower fit thermostatic shower valve on the wall or an electric shower

yur gravity system to the bathroom will only give about 0.2 bar not enough for a shower.

 

[Mark69]

Hi

I had the same problem when we bought our house. With help from people on this forum i managed to get mine working fine though, here's how;

My hot water is fed from hot water cylinder in airing cupboard and cold from a cold water storage tank in the loft. I installed a booster pump to pump both hot and cold water, i installed a thermostatic mixer valve to shower wall (valve recessed into the cavity).

I would imagine in your position (as it is illegal to pump the mains supply) that you install a booster pump to the hot supply and take a feed from the mains for the cold supply straight to the shower valve. Can be done in poly speedfit pipe (white plastic) to the new shower valve. You can get either a recessed or exposed shower valve, i went for the recessed and recessed it into the cavity wall and it works/looks fine. You can get all the parts/pipe/fittings etc that you will need from B&Q although will save a bit of money if you got time to shop around, B&Q is just too convenient for me i guess.

When we first bought the house it was a mixer off the taps just like yours is in the picture, as you have discovered the pressure is cr@p from these!

You can pick up a easiboost 2 bar shower pump from B&Q - think that they're about £100. If you are a competent electrician you will also need to install a fused spur to wire the pump to (for the supply). You may be best siting the pump in the airing cupboard near to the hot water cylinder. If there is a timer or socket etc in the airing cupboard for the hot water cylinder you MAY be able to take an electrical feed from this to the fused spur - you need to check this though.

You will need to tee into the hot water pipe to the pump inlet and then from pump outlet to the shower valve - perhaps up through the loft space (insulated) and down the cavity to the shower valve?

Hope that helps. No doubt people will correct me where i am wrong.

Mark

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

1
you can't you mains cold and pumped hot you won't get even pressure for a thermostatic mixer.

2
if your thinking of taking a spur from the immersion heater socket or timer think again
thats why we ended up with part p no thanks to people doing them tricks.

 

[garmcqui]

Many thanks for the replies guys. I forgot to say that I'm only renting the house, so I can't go making big changes such as installing new showers etc. With a pump will the mixer off the taps be ok, will it handle the pressure?

Would a single impellor pump (most seem to be twin impellor but I don't need the cold boosting) on the hot water pipe as it leaves the cylinder not do the job sufficiently? I was intending on installing it discretely, and just leaving it here when I leave the property

I do understand this would increase hot water pressure to all the taps in the house but would this be a problem?

Thanks, any advice appreciated.

Gareth

 

[garmcqui]

1
you can't you mains cold and pumped hot you won't get even pressure for a thermostatic mixer.

But the pressure on the hot and cold is very very very uneven now (cold = good pressure, hot = almost none).

Wouldn't the pump bring the hot up to close to the cold pressure?

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

your cold pressure can alter between summer & winter, peak & off peak.
don't work and thats not how to do it right.
and if your renting they will be on the phone complaining soon as you get home.
if your renting just fit a basic electric shower.

 

[garmcqui]

I do know what you're saying about it not being strictly the right way to do it, and I'm honestly not trying to be an ungrateful pain in the ***, but can you explain why this will not work?

I was just thinking that a basic electric shower is expensive to run.

The old man also says he's got a single impellor 2 bar shower booster pump he'll let me have for £40.

Thanks again,

Gareth.D

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

the only way you could use the pump on the hot and cold mains is to fit a pressure reducing valve on the hot and cold after the pump

http://www.rwc.co.uk/public/gplumb/pequal.pdf

 

[garmcqui]

Hmmm, thanks for that.

It's got me thinking - say I fitted one of those equalisers to the tap/shower as it is now, would it reduce the mains pressure cold down to the pressure of the gravity fed hot water? Thus meaning I could raise the temperature of the hot water significantly, which would need more cold water to cool it down and thus raise the pressure of the shower as more water is coming through?

At the minute I can't turn the mains cold on at all as it just drowns out the hot supply.

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

At the minute I can't turn the mains cold on at all as it just drowns out the hot supply.

that is because you should have a check valve on the hot side.
because your cold is of greater pressure it is pushing the hot back.
fit a check valve on the hot first


http://www.screwfix.com/search.do;j...YCSTHZOSFEY?_dyncharset=UTF-8&fh_search=11124

 

[garmcqui]

Ok, will do bud

I'm not 100% sure how check valve works, but I'm guessing it's some sort of one way valve. If the cold is of greater pressure, won't it just force the check valve closed, thus stopping the hot water from reaching the shower anyway?

Hate not knowing these things! lol