shower pump woes (with pic)

[woowoospanner]

Hi ,

With some help i've installed a salamander RSP50 , its run fine for a week but this morning its stopped working . it runs for about 30 secs then stops . i took the bleed valve off the top of the cold pipe and nothing came out . after faffing around a bit this seems to have sorted itself and now cold does flow however the pump still cuts out after 30 secs . everytime the pump stops i turn the bleed valve and air escapes then i can run the pump for a further 30 secs . I repeat this over and over i can't understand where its pulling the air in from , any ideas ?

Thanks in advance

Derek[/img]

 

[Nige F]

Is that from an Anne Summers catalogue I`ll have to get my glasses.......can`t make out the pipework at all Have you fitted a Surrey flange, or do you live there..I`ll get me spex.

 

[woowoospanner]

sorry about the quality of the pic , my normal digi is out of action currently

 

[duggie121]

Derek,
not sure what type of valve youve fitted to the top of the cylinder? if its a surrey flange lm sure the shower should be fed from the lower outlet? its possible for air to be drawn down the vent pipe, the shower for safety reasons (scalding) will cut out if there is insufficient cold water, the way to test if air is being drawn down the vent pipe is to get someone to hold a container of water over the open end of the vent pipe in the loft(submerge the open end of the pipe into the water) then turn the shower on if air is being drawn down the vent pipe the water in the container will dissappear, also check your compression joints.
Duggie

 

[chrishutt]

what type of valve youve fitted to the top of the cylinder? if its a surrey flange lm sure the shower should be fed from the lower outlet?

It's a Warix and the connections are right.

Is that from an Anne Summers catalogue

Very good.

 

[woowoospanner]

yes its a warix

things have moved on slightly , last night i took off the cold inlet and the filter was blocked with limescale , i cleaned it out then it ran fine for 20-30 mins

this morning it ran for 5 mins then gave up , this time the hot side needs constant bleeding . i looked at the inlet filter and it was clear .

most perplexing , i keep thinking i've done something fundementally wrong and i'm missing it .

 

[chrishutt]

this time the hot side needs constant bleeding

You need to make sure that the cold supply to the cylinder is flowing freely and is unobstructed. If there were a restriction (gate valve not fully open?) or lack of water in the supply tank it is possible that the water level in the cylinder vent pipe would drop and eventually air might get to the top of the cylinder where it could be drawn into the Warix dip tube.

You could see what happens at other hot outlets on the same level when the shower pump runs. If the hot flow is diminished or ceases, you have the problem described. Ideally the cold feed to the cylinder would be 28mm to cope with full flow demand. Also check that the gate valve on the hot feed to the pump is not letting in air. This might happen if the gland nut (on the spindle) was not tightened properly.