Shower choices

[JimboMahoney]

Hi,

I've done a little research on the different types of shower, but I just want to have a second opinion.

The water in my house is heated by an electric immersion heater in an airing cupboard on the 1st floor. (The central heating appears to be an entirely separate thing and is heated by a gas boiler in the back 'yard').

The bathroom is also on the 1st floor and only has a bath with two separate taps, onto which the current 'shower' (i.e. the cheap rubber hose on the taps) is attached. The water pressure is extremely low and it can barely be called a shower...

Thus, is my best option to get a power shower? My understanding is that this is simply a shower with built-in pump that will take its water from the hot water tank.

What other options are there? I see you can buy separate pumps, and from what I can tell, these would be installed in the airing cupboard or loft. Would you then just use a therostatic mixer shower?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[mikhailfaradayski]

When you say the water pressure is low, do you mean from both the hot and cold?
I suspect the the hot pressure is low, but the cold might be higher.

If this is correct, there would be nothing wrong with an electric shower ( not a power shower pump)

 

[JimboMahoney]

Thanks for the reply.

I'll check the cold, but if it's anything like the cold taps in the rest of the house, it's not exactly blasting out, even when they are fully open, although it is higher than the hot.


Without measuring (shall I bother to do this? i.e. how long to fill a 1L or 5L container?), it seems much lower than any other place I have lived in.

 

[londonboy]

option 1 is buy a pump and stick beside cylinder
option 2 is buy an electric shower
option 3 is buy an electric shower with inbuilt pump

2 and 3 depend on your mains (at the kitchen tap)
bear in mind an electric shower would probably be dearer to fit (requires
electrician to install cabling and cu etc)

 

[seco services]

option 1 is buy a pump and stick beside cylinder
option 2 is buy an electric shower
option 3 is buy an electric shower with inbuilt pump

2 and 3 depend on your mains (at the kitchen tap)
bear in mind an electric shower would probably be dearer to fit (requires
electrician to install cabling and cu etc)

option 3 will be off a tank feed not mains.
what about a power shower fed from the hw/cold supply.

 

[electronicsuk]

This post would be far better off being in the plumbing forum. However, if you have an unvented HW cylinder with header tank, your best bet would be to take a cold feed from the header and a hot feed from the cylinder to a twin impeller negative head booster pump. This should easily outdo any electrically heated shower in terms of flow rate and water temperature.

 

[bernardgreen]

If fitting a pump be careful that the cold water feed pipe into the hot tank can supply water as fast as the pump takes water from the tank.

If it can't then air gets sucked into the system from the hot tank's vent pipe.

 

[seco services]

This post would be far better off being in the plumbing forum.

reading the current posts can't agree more.

if you have an unvented HW cylinder with header tank

unvented cylinder with header tank

your best bet would be to take a cold feed from the header and a hot feed from the cylinder

what on uneven pressures ?
unvented cylinders are mains pressure. don't have a cws.

to a twin impeller negative head booster pump. This should easily outdo any electrically heated shower in terms of flow rate and water temperature.

why a neg head pump ?

 

[seco services]

think we better get this moved as he's being fed a load of old pony

 

[JimboMahoney]

Sorry if this is the wrong forum. I did a search for showers and most relevant tended to end up in here, although I agree that this is now becoming more of a plumbing issue.

I too am thinking the pump idea is easiest and will result in the nicest shower.

I don't like the cost implications of having the wiring installed (running from the front room on the ground floor to the bathroom at the back of the house on the 1st floor) for an electric shower. Plus I prefer the idea of using the immersion heater as my heat source, rather than an electric shower eating more power, since the immersion heater will be on for the general hot water anyway.

I just wanted to check that this was the correct way to go given the plumbing in the house, and to learn a little more about all these things.

electronicsuk - I don't know if this is an "unvented HW cylinder with header tank", although the description fits what I think is in the airing cupboard - namely a single tank fed with cold water from the bottom with the hot water on top.

Re: pumps - ouch, does it need to be twin impeller? They seem pretty hefty (i.e. 3 Bar and £300). I was thinking more along the lines of 1.5 bar centrifugal for £99 I guess it just comes down to how much I like my showers, huh?

 

[seco services]

electronicsuk - I don't know if this is an "unvented HW cylinder with header tank", although the description fits what I think is in the airing cupboard - namely a single tank fed with cold water from the bottom with the hot water on top.

vented cylinder with header tank.

unvented mains pressure hw.

 

[londonboy]

Seco im sure i saw an electric mira shower with inbuilt pump on another post.
Are they not mains fed?

 

[seco services]

Seco im sure i saw an electric mira shower with inbuilt pump on another post.
Are they not mains fed?

they are tank fed where mains pressure is low ie flats etc.
example mira elite st.

 

[electronicsuk]

This post would be far better off being in the plumbing forum.

reading the current posts can't agree more.

if you have an unvented HW cylinder with header tank

unvented cylinder with header tank

your best bet would be to take a cold feed from the header and a hot feed from the cylinder

what on uneven pressures ?
unvented cylinders are mains pressure. don't have a cws.

to a twin impeller negative head booster pump. This should easily outdo any electrically heated shower in terms of flow rate and water temperature.

why a neg head pump ?

My bad, meant to say vented, but there's no point editing my post now, otherwise yours won't make much sense any more.

Suggest negative head pump as I was under the impression from the OP that cylinder and header tank are on the same floor as the shower and bathroom. If the pressure at the taps is already poor then a shower is probably going to be even worse on account of the outlet being higher, so it's a good bet there's not a lot of head on the system. I believe that most manufacturers recommend a negative head pump when head is 0.5m or less.