Triton electric shower very hot when central heating is on

[isley76]

Hi,

I've just moved house and the bathroom has a Triton Opal electric shower which was working fine for the last 2 weeks but yesterday I turned on the central heating for the first time and now the shower runs really hot even on the lowest setting.

Is it possible that the previous owner connected the hot water feed to the shower instead of the cold?

I'm going to drain all of the hot water out of the system and see if the shower temp returns to normal. If it doesn't then can someone suggest which part of the shower is broken?

There are 3 shower modes:

Double red squiggle - too hot to use on any temperature setting from 1 to 10.

Double blue squiggle - cold on any temperature setting.

Single red squiggle - lukewarm on any temperature setting.

I used to run it on double red squiggle on setting 3-4 which was comfortably warm.

It runs quite cold on double blue squiggle which kind of suggests that it is not fed from the hot water tank but the problem has only started since I turned on the central heating.

Possible it's just a coincidence that the shower has malfunctioned?

Thanks,

Isley

 

[seco services]

Is it possible that the previous owner connected the hot water feed to the shower instead of the cold?

wouldn't of said so
feel the inlet pipe is it hot or cold ?

 

[isley76]

Thanks for the tip, the feed pipe is cold and when I drained all of the hot water from the system the shower is still far too hot.

The pressure seems lower but the low pressure light on the shower is not coming on.

Since I can pick up a similar electric shower in Argos for around £150 do you think that would be a cheaper option than the cost of a plumber + spare parts?

Thanks,

Isley

 

[seco services]

not worth buying a new shower till you've checked this one out
you may end up with the same problem.

check tthe mains stopcock is fully open.
try running without the shower head on.
check the hose is ok and not collapsing inside.
check the internal filter is clean.

 

[isley76]

Thanks,

I'll check those points and see if I can find the problem.

 

[isley76]

Ok, when I took off the shower hose the water coming directly out of the shower was the correct temperature and changed according to the temperature dial.

I cleaned out the shower head as best I could and the hose looks ok. When I put it all back together the temperature was right at first but got hotter and hotter after about 5 mins.

I'm going to replace the shower head and hose (plastic) with metal ones and get a shower head with those rubber bits on for easier cleaning and hopefully that will sort it.

Thanks very much Seco for your help

 

[kevplumb]

I cleaned out the shower head as best I could and the hose looks ok. When I put it all back together the temperature was right at first but got hotter and hotter after about 5 mins.

soak it in kettle descaler for an hour that will sort it

 

[isley76]

Thanks kevplumb.

Soaked the head overnight in a bowl of vinegar and had a nice warm shower this morning. Only trouble was, when I hit the stop button, the element cut out but the cold water kept coming at full pressure

Turned off mains water and elec and tried to get the front panel off but prev owner had sealed it up tight.

Googled a bit and found a description for clearing a stuck valve:

Disconnect hose from shower unit and cycle temperature repeatedly from max hot to max cold and keep hitting stop until the clinker is dislodged from the valve.

That sorted it out for now.