Shower - Low Pressure!!

[Regent]

Hello.......

Just moved into a new house and the shower is terrible, nice looking and that but the water pressure coming from the shower is a trickle.

Quite happy to get a new shower, whether it be an Electric/Power/Mixer/Pump etc etc......

Was hoping for some opinions on what would be the best option.

Our current shower is supplied by the cold comes from mains, and hot comes from the hot water tank, which is fed by the header tank in the loft.
The shower we have is a Bath/Shower mixer, the strange thing is the pressure from the bathroom sink taps seems better than the bath/shower!?!

Is there anything I can do to increase the pressure without getting a new shower?

I'm assuming the house has always had this type of shower so fitting a new power/electric shower would be a big job... getting behind bathroom wall etc?!?

What about pumps connected to elsewhere ie the tanks in the loft ??!!

 

[Hairymary]

It is unlikely that your hot water is fed from a header tank and your cold is on mains pressure. Normally they are fed from the same source. Different pressures would give you major mixing problems.

The shower pressure will be a function of the difference in pressure head between your shower and your loft header tank and the sum of all the pressure losses in the pipework and fittings.
In other words, before installing a pump check the following:
1) the hot and cold pipes from the header tank are in 22mm not 15mm. this reduces losses.
2) You dont have unnecessary bends in the pipework, partial blockages, or half closed valves.
3) You have a large bore flexible pipe from the mixer to the shower head ( if it is this type)
4) Remove the shower head to check the unimpeded flow and pressure.
5) You could also potentially raise the header tank in the loft to increase pressure.

However all of the above will help but will not totally solve the problem, if you have a header tank that is not much higher that the shower head height (say less than 2m). My inclination in this case would be to remove the tanks in the loft (cold water supply tank and central heating flow/expansion tank) and existing hot water storage tank and fit a pressurised system. This is better in the long run for your central heating and hot/cold water supplies (less contamination, no freezing problems, less pipework and fittings) and you will not need a noisy shower pump.

A bit of hassle but balance that against choosing where to site the pump, power it and maintain it.