Shower problem.

[Eric'n'Ernie]

I put in a new shower. It worked fine, but the flow was a bit low, so I put a pump in. It worked first time. However....

...when I returned to the shower half an hour later it wouldn't work. Not a trickle.

So I loosened off the connections to the shower mixer, and a bit of water spat out. This flow got the pump running again, so turned off the shower, tightened up my connectors and turned on again, it worked. Turned it off, left it 5 minutes and it had packed up again just as before.

I've got narrow bore isolation valves on upstairs in the loft, which I'm going to replace them with full bore - is this constriction stopping the flow being sufficient to kick the pump in? Or do I have some other problem....

I'm not panicking yet, but its on the horizon......

 

[hi-spec plumbing heating]

it's nothing to worry about these problems are always something silly.
fit the full bore valves as you say then give it ago.
let us know.

 

[Breesey]

Have you given the pump dedicated hot and cold supply pipes?

 

[Timmyturtle]

Where in the house is the shower in relation to the loft tanks
ie its not in a loft conversion ?

Could just be an airlock where the water has been disturbed

 

[Breesey]

We're talking about a shower pump here.

As long as the pump is below the cold cistern and has its own hot and cold feeds it doesn't matter where the shower is (within reason).

 

[Timmyturtle]

But if the shower outlet(head) is higher than the water in the tank it will not switch the pump on,hence the need for negative head pumps