Water Pressure Issue to Electric Shower

L

latz

Hi Everyone!

Newby here looking forward to becoming a full fledged member :D

Ok so here is my problem... Have bought a Triton Topaz T100Si (the chrome one) which is 9.5kw requiring a min of 1bar inlet pressure to operate. Have fitted it and have connected the inlet to a compression fit which then connects to plastic speed fit pipe to the mains.

The problem is that when i switch it on, it switches back off in 2 seconds saying LP for low water pressure. Water will come out of the shower head but very slowly and only for a couple of secs before it shuts off automatically. It will do this as many times as i try to switch it on.

I have checked the inlet filter to the shower to make sure no debris is trapped and i checked the water flow visually only i.e. to make sure water would flow through the pipe leading up to the shower. I must admit it didn't seem to be under any great pressure like the rest of the house but i thought that was because it was going through 15mm pipe and not being squeezed through a fawcet of any kind.

I wonder if i have done something to this plastic speedfit pipe that is reducing the water pressure to the shower? or have i fited it in the worng place? The mains water comes through in the basement on 15mm pipe. I tee'd into this (before any taps etc) and ran plastic speedfit under the living room floor, up through the wall where the downstairs chimney was under the bedroom floor and up in to the shower with a tap style isolator at the base of the shower.

Here are some things you should know:
The plastic speed fit pipe runs through where the downstairs chimney was.
The height from the basement to the shower is 5 meters.
The pipe run is about 10 meters.
the pipe diameter is 15mm from the mains to the shower.
No other part of the house suffers with water pressure problems.

Does anyone have any ideas why this could be?! I am more than happy to answer any questions if there is anything else you guys need to know.
 
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As you are aware this shower has a 'Low Pressure' indicator which operates when the water pressure is insufficient. You have almost a 15 metre run which shouldn't be too much of a problem on mains pressure as long as the rest of the property has a very good mains water flow too.

If you operate this unit sloely (without any other cold mains water running) does it still cut out?

Also check that the plastic pipe has no uneccasary bends, also what size electric cable have you fitted?
 
Hi Expertboy

Thanks for your help so far.

I am runnning a 10mm cable from a 45amp MCB to the consumer unit isolated close to the shower.

I ensured that nothing else in the house was using water (we have a combi boiler so i switched it off) before i tested it.

I made sure that the pipe where possible ran as one piece i.e. no joins. The only places it has joins are where it connects to the mains pipe and where it connects to the shower. Oother than that i ensured that the rest of the pipe had no bends or kinks up to the shower. All isolation valves are open as far as they can go and water pressure to the rest of the house is fine.

The only one thing i did do that might affect it (i don't know to be honest :LOL: ) is that where i tee'd in to the mains, i had to make the plastic pipe go in the opposite direction to the direction of flow of the water in to the property.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------
MAINS WATER FLOW ------> -------> ------>
----------------------------------------¦ ¦-----------------------------
_________________________¦ ¦
<----- <----- <--- <-- TO SHOWER ¦
__________________________¦


Please excuse the crude diagram! If you don't understand it let me know! All pipe sizes are 15mm despite my drawing efforts! :D
 
If you've really teed off the mains, either you have very poor mains pressure or a blockage in the pipe that you've installed. When you were threading the pipe through did you leave the end open?
 
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no it was taped closed and i ran it for a while before installing the shower as i heard of people having blocked pipes through debris.

I won't rule it out though? could well be that. Silly question but is there a simple way to check?
 
Makes no difference that you have teed off the main, it should still work.

If you have fitted an isolation valve to the shower turn it to the off position, if you have not, turn off the mains water and take the pipe out of the shower connection and isolate the power (a must)

Get someone else to turn the water on slowly and check you have a good flow (direct it into a bucket if neccessary).

If all is ok you may have had debris in the pipe, unfortunately this will now be inside the shower itself.
 
Thanks for that Expertboy i'll give that a go tonight and see if that is the case.
 
Hi Guys

Ok so here is what i have done tonight, i checked the piping torouhy where i could, all seems fine. stopcock/isolator is in the right direction of flow.

I said earlier that i thought the water flow/pressure from the pipe i fitted off the mains wasn't as good as the rest of the house but checking again today it was really good! not sure where i got that impression from!

The amount of water coming out of the union just before the shower is enough to fill an 8 litre bucket in about 30 seconds.

But as soon as it is connected to the shower it seems to slow down to the rate of about 1 litre every 10 secs at most!

the shower is brand new - really starting to think its not my pipework but a faulty shower.

Any ideas anyone?
 
1 litre every 10 secs at most!
But that's about 6 litres a minute, which is a good flow rate for an electric shower! If the low pressure light is coming on it's probably a fault with the shower.
 
Thanks Chris, thats just what i wanted to hear :D

i honestly think the force at which it was leaving the union was sufficient. i am going to buy a pressure tester tomorrow and check for sure.
 
If you're getting 16 litres/minute out of the open end of a long run of 15mm pipe the pressure should be OK. As a rough test, put your thumb over the end of the pipe and turn the water on. If you have to press your thumb down very hard to stop water seeping out the pressure is OK.
 
Take your shower back, it's faulty.

Just bare in mind if there was debris in the pipe when you first turned the shower on when you installed, it could be in the shower now, so once exchanged ..........LEG IT ;)
 
DIYnot -1, Screwfix - 0. Latz put exactly the same post on Screwfix and fed it with mostly exact copies of his posts here (or vice versa). Not something I take kindly to. :evil:
 

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