Salamander shower pump not working on cold

[JohnMcClane]

My wife was having a shower, the kids were in the bath and decided to run the tap and I think the washing machine and dishwasher were both on.

The shower pump suddenly stopped working. Now it will only work on hot. If I turn the shower temp to cold, it turns off.

I have switched it off at the mains and turned the shower on to try and remove any air. If it’s set to hot water comes through but hardly any comes out when on cold. Is it likely an air lock or could water starvation kill the cold side?

What can I do next to try and get it working?

 

[kvsalamander]

Good afternoon,

If the pump activates on hot then we know that the flow switch and motor is working as expected, however not activating on the cold side could be either a natural flow issue or a flow switch. Most likely the flow isn't sufficient to lift the float and activate the pump - you need to see at least 1 litre of water flowing through the shower on the cold side (and hot side) to lift this switch - turn the shower all the way to cold and check the flow rate - quite possibly, if the tank has run very low, it may have drawn some debris onto the filter which sits on the inlet to the pump.

If this does not solve, please feel free to give the Tech Team a call - Pumpwise - 01915162oo2

ken

 

[JohnMcClane]

Thanks,

I phoned, and a chap asked me to check the cold water tank in the loft for any blockage. This is where it gets confusing for me.

There are four pipes to the pump. I’m assuming this hot and cold in and hot and cold out. One pipe comes from my hot water cylinder and another leaves on the same side up into the attic, so that sorts that one out I think. Of the remaining two that go up to the attic I thought one would connect to the cold-water tank, however all three pipes go up into the attic and then towards the shower. None seem to connect to the tank. I also notice as I moved them sideways to have a look there a was a slight hissing sound at the 90 deg bend of the left one. Could this be letting air in?

On top of this there are two tanks, a larger and a smaller one. I had a look inside and they don’t seem too clean, the small one is particularly bad. Could they do with flushing and cleaning? What is the smaller one for, I'm assuming CH expansion tank.? It looks quite empty.

I have taken the shower head off. I am tempted to blow down it to try and force any blockage back. Is this a good idea?

Can you or anyone offer any further help?

 

[just pumps]

The horizontal connection are the incoming with the vertical`s being the outlets.
Hissing sound is not good as it sounds like air escaping so tighten that joint.
Filters are on the incoming connections so isolate water, remove pipes from pump, remove and clean filters.

Noticed on another forum somebody told you cold water side impeller could be broken and "To call somebody in" however a simple test with a helper would be turn power off, remove outlet pipe and cover the outlet of the pump firmly with a tea towel. Turn power on and slowly release pressure on the towel to see if water is pumped out. Most will happen is that you will get wet.

 

[terryplumb]

One of the 3 attic pipes is the cold supply to pump, other two hot and cold to shower , double check its not connected to bottom of the big tank .if its not ,it could be mains cold ( which it shouldn't be ). The small tank is the f&e for central heating and its in need of cleaning , the level of water in that tank is normal to be quite low .
With pump electrically off , turn shower on ,cold only ,what flow do you get ? Then do same with hot only ,and what's the result / comparison between them ?

 

[JohnMcClane]

I just took both the hot and cold inlets off. The cold inlet filter was pretty clogged. If I run the shower with the pump off water flows when hot but very little with cold. This is still the case after cleaning the filter. Annoyingly I think i have now airlocked the hot as it worked for a few seconds and then stopped :/

 

[terryplumb]

I assume the filters are the ones in the pump. But most mixer showers have filters on their inlets also ,check them too. Maybe post pics of mixer. You need to establish ,with mixer removed ,if hot and cold are actually getting to the mixer.

 

[JohnMcClane]

Thanks all. Well now the cold is working. I disconnected the inlet and ran it into a bowl. It had air in the inlet pipe. Just need to fix the hot now.

EDIT. Both working now. Thanks again to everyone.