Shower Pump Selection

[Eng33]

Looking to purchase and install a 3 bar negative head whole house pump, but I'm undecided about whether to go with a Salamander or Stuart Turner. Obviously a not insignificant purchase so want to get it right. Visually the ST pump looks better quality, but is typically £80 more expensive than the equivalent Salamander. My main consideration however is noise, as both pumps are fairly large. Anyone with experience of both brands comment? The two models I'm considering are the Salamander ESP 100 CVP and the ST Monsoon Universal 3.0 bar Twin.

Many thanks.

 

[Axel]

ST

 

[Richard C]

Agree; ST Monsoon

 

[HERTS P&D]

ST....Monsoon.

 

[f42]

I have a salamander and its very very loud!

 

[Eng33]

Many thanks for the replies everybody!

"f42" - may i ask how / where yours is mounted? I intend to site mine on a tiled on to concrete slab ground floor in the airing cupbaord.

Thanks again.

 

[f42]

Yes mine is sited on the floor next to the cylinder and it is a screeded concrete floor

 

[Richard C]

I have a salamander and its very very loud!

I also have a Salamander pump installed in my own home; don’t ask It’s a whole house pump but also running 2 power showers & is mounted near the bottom of the HWC on a lump of 2” paving slab, suspended but isolated between 2 floor joists & can confirm it’s very noisy but it's not resonance, just the motor. It makes so much bloody row that we now only turn it on when showering; so the whole house bit was pointless. Ive installed the ST Monsoon on other installations, more expensive but smaller, much quieter & with the brass impeller housing, a much better pump all round really which is why I recommended it.

 

[pmx_super]

I just had a salamander 1.5Bar installed. Sited on a concrete slab with carpet either side for damping. It's housed in the airing cupboard in the bathroom and I'm very happy with the noise levels - you can barely hear it ouside of the bathroom. That said, the plumber who installed it usually installs ST and told me that they are no louder than my Salamander.

 

[Richard C]

I just had a salamander 1.5Bar installed. Sited on a concrete slab with carpet either side for damping. It's housed in the airing cupboard in the bathroom and I'm very happy with the noise levels - you can barely hear it ouside of the bathroom. That said, the plumber who installed it usually installs ST and told me that they are no louder than my Salamander.

The amount of noise they make is proportional to the pump output; a 1.5 Bar of any make with 15mm unions will not generate anywhere near the racket of a 3 or even 2.5 Bar with 22mm unions!

 

[mehran]

I have installed a 3.6bar single impeller negative salamander pump. tested it outside with a CW tank to see how loud it was...very quiet. then install it in the house and found it was louder. i guess the more it needs to push the louder it gets.

to give my theory a bit more weight seen a poor install of a salamander were it was not pipe correctly and it made a racket.

anyway the salamander did its job well and i got a massive boost to the water flow on the job so i was well happy with it.[code:1][/code:1]

 

[Eng33]

Thanks for all the advice guys, it's really appreciated!

At the start of this thread I was planning to install a whole house pump to serve all the requirements of both bathrooms, one of which requires the pump to be a negative head type (shower height in loft bedroom). I figured I may as well use it for all the bathroom water requirements rather than just the showers and cure the imbalance between the high pressure mains cold water and low pressure gravity fed hot. However, I am now really concerned about the noise issue, mainly when people just want to use the toilet and basin during the night.

So, I'm now thinking of just going for a ST 2.0bar pump (still has to be neg head) and plump it to the showers only.

 

[Richard C]

So, I'm now thinking of just going for a ST 2.0bar pump (still has to be neg head) and plump it to the showers only.

With my experience of whole house pumps, unless you really need one don't bother if you can put the thing in a basement or turn it off at night & still get gravity water.