Triton Aspirante Topaz 10.5Kw not heating above 40°C

[Jimbob64]

Hi.
As title says, the shower, having previously worked at up to 45°C, will not go above 40°C.
I have checked the water pressure and cleaned the filter and scale trap. This made no difference.
I then checked for continuity on the heater elements which were both OK.
Any further ideas?
Thanks,
Jimbob.

 

[stem]

That's normal for an instantaneous electric shower.

The shower will put a maximum of 10.5 kW into heating the cold water entering it. So during long periods of cold weather (like now) when the incoming mains cold water supply temperature has dropped, it requires more heat to get it to reach 45°C than it did before. But, there isn't any more heat available 10.5kW is the maximum it can give. So, because the water coming in is colder, the temperature of the water at the outlet falls accordingly.

Once the weather starts to warm up, and the water arriving at your home warms up too, it will go back to 45°C

 

[mwatsonxx]

I agree, you could improve the temp if you reduce the flow by not fully opening the valve.

 

[Jimbob64]

Hi and thanks for the replies.
We've had the shower for six years and it has never behaved this way before. It would drop a degree or two on really cold days (with the control knob in the same place) but we were always able to achieve higher than 40° (normally 43°-44°).

 

[Seb101]

It's probably a combination of factors related to the cold weather and age of the shower due to scale build up (which occurs in areas other than the trap). It's extremely unlikely to be anything electrical, as Stem notes, they are very simple from this perspective. If you are using on the max power setting then there is very little to go wrong, it basically just connects the supply directly to the heater element.

 

[mwatsonxx]

Can you run the on max without heating the water? If you can, time how long to fill saucepan with and without heat. If the time is similar then that shows the problem is external, have the water company raised the mains pressure? Minimum pressure at ground floor level should be 1 bar, thats enough to fill a one gallon bucket in 30 seconds

edit - lowered changed to raised

 

[JohnW2]

Can you run the on max without heating the water? If you can, time how long to fill saucepan with and without heat. If the time is similar then that shows the problem is external, have the water company lowered the mains pressure? Minimum pressure at ground floor level should be 1 bar ...

If the supply pressure had fallen, and/or pipework to teh shower had got 'furred up', that would surely result in lower maximum possible flow and hence a rise in the shower-heated water temp (i.e. the opposite of what the OP is experiencing), wouldn't it?

Kind Regards, John

 

[Jimbob64]

OK, solved I think... I spoke to my local water authority who told me that recently completed works near to my house have resulted in a better flow and pressure to my supply. This plus the cold weather has resulted in the lower temps achievable.
I can live with it as I shower at 38-39° anyway. My wife likes 42° and teenage daughter 40 mins @ gas mk7 ...
Thanks for your help, I'll update in the spring when it's warmer.

 

[mwatsonxx]

If the supply pressure had fallen, and/or pipework to teh shower had got 'furred up', that would surely result in lower maximum possible flow and hence a rise in the shower-heated water temp (i.e. the opposite of what the OP is experiencing), wouldn't it?

Kind Regards, John

Yes

 

[JohnW2]

OK, solved I think... I spoke to my local water authority who told me that recently completed works near to my house have resulted in a better flow and pressure to my supply. This plus the cold weather has resulted in the lower temps achievable. I can live with it as I shower at 38-39° anyway. My wife likes 42° and teenage daughter 40 mins @ gas mk7 ...

If that's the case, then if you turn the flow down to what it was before those recent works, then the temp of the shower-heated water should return to what it was (for the same water supply temp) as it used to be.

Basically 'you pays your money and makes your choice'. You even 'enjoy' the increased flow rate, at lower temperature, or you return to the original (lower) flow rate, at the original temp.

Kind Regards, John

 

[ban-all-sheds]

...teenage daughter 40 mins @ gas mk7 ...

Tell her too long in a hot shower causes natural oils to be lost from the skin, making it go wrinkly and dry and saggy, and cosmetics cannot replace it as skin is "one-way". The proof of the latter is that it lets sweat out, but you don't balloon up and drown in a bath or when swimming.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Basically 'you pays your money and makes your choice'.

Another "pays your money" is to get a 12kW instant water heater and a mixer valve.

 

[securespark]

If my kids showered that long, I would tell them to use the boiler-fed shower, not the electric one...

 

[ban-all-sheds]

A way to stop the heating but keep the water flowing would be ideal, on a timer.

"Of course you can have a shower as long as you like. But only the first 10 minutes will be hot."

 

[JohnW2]

If my kids showered that long, I would tell them to use the boiler-fed shower, not the electric one...

Indeed!

What BAS is considering for himself (having a 9kW electrical instant water heater as a back-up for the boiler-supplied hot water) is fair enough, but his suggestion that changing to an electrical instant water heater would be an option for the OP doesn't seem to make much sense, since it would be better to change to a 10/11.5kW electrical shower if the OP really wanted to change to electrically-heated showers.

I have similar 'redundancy' to what BAS is considering, by having a (very rarely used) electric shower in one of my bathrooms, just in case the usual source of (relatively cheaply-heated) water is not available.

Kind Regards, john