Plumbing Thermostatic bar shower

[TryingHardDIY]

Hello,

I am currently installing a new bath/shower. There has never been a shower installed so will be chasing copper pipes into the wall from the bath feed (T joint)? The hot and cold are fed from 22mm pipes from HWCST and cold from tank in loft. The pressure to the old bath seemed pretty good.

My question is, do I need a reducer T or can I bury 22mm pipes in wall for thermostatic bar shower?

Also, I don't have soldering equipment, am I OK to use compression fitting elbow from wall into bar valve? And for the connections under bath (feed to bath taps, etc.) can I use plastic push fit?

Thanks in advance for all your help.

 

[oldbuffer]

If your shower is on the first floor with the cold water tank in a loft immediately above it, then the pressure at your shower head is likely to be 0.1 to 0.2 bar. Make sure the shower you buy will work at this sort of pressure, most won't.

Don't confuse flow rate with pressure. You may have a good flow through 22mm pipework, but the pressure (in bar) can't be more than the height of the cold tank above the outlet (in metres) divided by 10. Decent shower makes usually quote flow rate in litres per minute for given pressures.

If you want a good shower, consider installing a pump (Stuart Turner is a good make) in the airing cupboard level with the base of the HWC. However, to do this you will need separate, dedicated, feeds from the cold tank and hot cylinder to the pump input, and to follow the manufacturers instructions with respect to connections and pipe sizes for input and output. I have a Stuart Turner pump with 22mm inlet connections and 15mm output connections, but the output is less than a metre to the shower. Its worked fine for 27 years.

EDIT:

Sorry - I didn't address your questions.

a. You can probably bury 22mm in the wall, but may no need to.
b. I wouldn't have any joint other than a soldered joint which has been subject to a proper pressure test buried in a wall.
c. Again, see above re. dedicated feeds, but there is no reason not to use pushfit joints in accessible places. If using plastic pipe you must use the appropriate inserts at each join.

 

[TryingHardDIY]

If your shower is on the first floor with the cold water tank in a loft immediately above it, then the pressure at your shower head is likely to be 0.1 to 0.2 bar. Make sure the shower you buy will work at this sort of pressure, most won't.

Don't confuse flow rate with pressure. You may have a good flow through 22mm pipework, but the pressure (in bar) can't be more than the height of the cold tank above the outlet (in metres) divided by 10. Decent shower makes usually quote flow rate in litres per minute for given pressures.

If you want a good shower, consider installing a pump (Stuart Turner is a good make) in the airing cupboard level with the base of the HWC. However, to do this you will need separate, dedicated, feeds from the cold tank and hot cylinder to the pump input, and to follow the manufacturers instructions with respect to connections and pipe sizes for input and output. I have a Stuart Turner pump with 22mm inlet connections and 15mm output connections, but the output is less than a metre to the shower. Its worked fine for 27 years.

EDIT:

Sorry - I didn't address your questions.

a. You can probably bury 22mm in the wall, but may no need to.
b. I wouldn't have any joint other than a soldered joint which has been subject to a proper pressure test buried in a wall.
c. Again, see above re. dedicated feeds, but there is no reason not to use pushfit joints in accessible places. If using plastic pipe you must use the appropriate inserts at each join.

Thanks for the reply. What I failed to mention is that in another room we currently have a thermostatic shower which does NOT have a pump and although the its not a power shower we are fairly happy with the pressure.

We have also just had the whole of the upstairs carpeted which is why I don't want to have to run a dedicated feed but simply tap in to the bath feed. I have just read the spec for the bar mixer and it says minimum 1 bar!!! Not sure what to do now really...My only hope is that because we have an existing thermo shower which works perfectly well the new one will work too? The feed to the old thermo shower is 15mm, do you think if I use 22mm feed on the existing 22mm bath feed to the new shower it might be ok?

im I correct to assume that if the current thermo shower works (about 10 yrs old) then the new should work too? or do different mixers require different pressures.

Oh dear, this was meant to be a fairly straight forward job.!

Really appreciate your help.

 

[Thegift]

You only need to run 15mm copper in the walls to feed shower as connections will be 15mm just reduce to 15mm soon as you tee off under bath.

If the shower you've brought for 1 bar + then it's going to dribble out! You'll defo need a pump Stuart turner 1.5bar twin would be fine.

Or take the shower back and buy a Mira coda pro, I fitted a few of theses now and will work on pressure low as 0.1bar (1 meter head) can be had for around £118, a fantastic shower and easy installation.

Compresion fittings in wall is not really ideal would rather have a soldered joint but not to say you can't use them, just make sure the joint is well ptfe'd or pasted up and tested before making good and make sure you protect the copper either by taping it or sleeving it.

 

[TryingHardDIY]

You only need to run 15mm copper in the walls to feed shower as connections will be 15mm just reduce to 15mm soon as you tee off under bath.

If the shower you've brought for 1 bar + then it's going to dribble out! You'll defo need a pump Stuart turner 1.5bar twin would be fine.

Or take the shower back and buy a Mira coda pro, I fitted a few of theses now and will work on pressure low as 0.1bar (1 meter head) can be had for around £118, a fantastic shower and easy installation.

Compresion fittings in wall is not really ideal would rather have a soldered joint but not to say you can't use them, just make sure the joint is well ptfe'd or pasted up and tested before making good and make sure you protect the copper either by taping it or sleeving it.

Great. Thanks for response.