Triton 9.5KW Aspirante Brushed Steel Shower - Loss of Heat

[Wills82]

Hi All,

Bought the above shower beginning of last year and installed it in our new bathroom around June last year. Everything was lovely, nice flow and good temp.

We plumbed it into the cold tank in the loft, but we did play around with the shower head. Rather than having the normal hose coming from the bottom of the unit, we've re-routed the hose inside the cavity wall and have a nicer wall mounted, rear fed shower head.

Since Sept the temp of the water has slowly been getting colder and colder. We assumed that this was just because of the outside temperature. We were just going to lump it. But i've decided this is not acceptable. Why should we just lump it. The cold tank that this feeds from isn't insulated. Its just plastic.

I've emailed Triton to see what they said and they've said they're amazed this shower even worked if it wasn't a mains fed supply. I tried arguing with the lady on the phone but she said if the pressure wasn't enough, the heating element wouldn't kick in. I kept saying it's worked since the summer but she wasn't having any of it. If I wanted an engineer it'd be £68.

Anyone got any ideas, is this common over the winter with elec showers? Anything i can do to make the water hot again through the winter months? Will insulating the cold tank in the loft make that much of a difference? Should I try and change this to a mains feed? This would be hard as the wall is now tiled so would avoid this if possible, although could probably get a feed up to my piping already in the loft so could i still be looking at the same cold issue from the loft?

Pee'd off at the moment so any help / assistance would be great.

Thanks in advance

Ross

 

[seco services]

Triton are perfectly right in what they are saying. So this has invalidated your warranty.
Why was it not fitted as per mi's ?

I can't see an issue in connecting to the mains just take it off the tank feed and connect to the pipe that supplies the ball valve.

What Triton Aspirante model is it their are a few ?
Take it it's the one with the temp dial with the 4 buttons surrounding the temp dial in the middle 2011 model ?

 

[Wills82]

Hi,

What do you mean fitted as per MI's?

Understand it would have invalidated our warranty, but it looks so so much better with the way we've fitted this head. Really does look good!

Will it make that much of a difference if i feed it from the mains now? I spose the water won't be coming from a tank that's been sitting in the loft getting colder. I have no issue taking it off of the tank feed, will this mean the water will be warmer if it comes off the tank feed rather than out of the tank? At the minute its hardly warm at all. A little above cold.

It's the model shown on this link: http://www.tritonshowers.co.uk/electric-showers/aspirante-brushed-steel.aspx

You're right with the button description though. I think we're talking about the same shower!

Thanks

 

[seco services]

What do you mean fitted as per MI's?

manufacturer's instructions

Will it make that much of a difference if i feed it from the mains now?

Make fault finding easier if it's fitted correct in the first place.

I have no issue taking it off of the tank feed, will this mean the water will be warmer if it comes off the tank feed rather than out of the tank? At the minute its hardly warm at all. A little above cold.

As said can't diagnose a proper fault till it's fitted as it should be.


When you say it's getting colder & colder
Do you mean you turn the dial further to the hotter setting now than you did in the summer ?

Are you still able to turn the shower up to a setting thats hot to shower in ?

You must remember the temp of the cold water supply will affect the temp of the shower so ie in winter the temp dial needs to be further round so the flow will also be slightly lower.

I would fit the supply back to the mains and see what happens.
least you have more chance of triton looking for free as this has a 2 yr warranty.

 

[Wills82]

When we start the shower up it puts out nice hot water. Then after 10-15 secs it goes from hot to just over warm. The temp dial is on max!

I guess it uses the water in the pipe (probably about 10 meters worth) which contains warmer water, when its used that up its drawing the cold water tank water and so can't heat it quick enough?

Does that sound about right? The water coming through the mains will also be pretty cold though i guess? Will it be warmer that the water sat in the cold tank, uninsulated in the cold loft? Thats the question I guess

Thanks for your help and advice so far.

 

[seco services]

When we start the shower up it puts out nice hot water. Then after 10-15 secs it goes from hot to just over warm. The temp dial is on max!

It's not right.
But then again you shouldn't be getting any heat at all fed from a tank.

Whats the vertical distance from shower to the tank ?
Does the power neon stay on constant or flash ?
Does the shower get hot again if you let it run after it has gone from hot to warm ?

 

[Triton1]

Hi

The information given by our Service Dept and also Seco Services is correct. On the basis that you have one of our Triton Aspirante Electric Showers then in order to allow full and correct operation a minimum running pressure would be required. In order to achieve this a cold mains feed would be required unless there is a seperate pump or possibly the unit concerned is not the Aspirante Electric.

In theory with a tank fed supply in a typical domestic situation this would not create the correct operating conditions and so although you have advised that the unit had originally worked OK this tends to go against the physics of operation of the unit.

We would recommend that the unit is re installed correctly in full accordance with the Installation Instructions that were supplied with the unit and should there then be a further problem our Service Dept should be able to assist.

One additional point to add - the supplied shower kit ONLY should be used any deviation from this can also affect and void warranty. The type as supplied is approved for use with the product and designed to give the correct flow rate (which in turn can affect the temperature of water). In order to arrange a service visit if this was required then this area of installation would also need to be changed to that of the original fittings.

Regards,
Karl Stein
TRITON TECHNICAL TEAM