Weird shower issue - no water!

[SimplyWendyful]

Hi everyone,

Something of a weird shower issue. May need a plumber for this one but I’ll ask in here anyway just to see what you all think!

Wife and I have an electric shower in our bedroom. Across the landing is our main bathroom, which has a bath in it, with an old “telephone” style handheld shower.

Since 2023 when we moved in both showers have worked fine.

Recently (started just before we went on holiday mid July) we’ve started having an issue where the shower in our bedroom has no water. We press the button to turn it on, and nothing happens. But if we then go across the landing to our main bathroom and turn on the cold tap on the bath, the shower in our bedroom starts working. If we leave the bath tap on, the water supply to the shower is intermittent but if we turn it off again it runs fine.

Any thoughts?

 

[dilalio]

Is the electric shower tank fed?

 

[SimplyWendyful]

Is the electric shower tank fed?

Fed? I’m not sure I understand what you mean.

Does that mean it has a pressurised water supply?

 

[dilalio]

Right, OK.
So what boiler do you have?
A combi?
How is your hot and cold water supplied?

 

[SimplyWendyful]

I don’t think it’s a combi. It’s an oil boiler in the garage and there’s a couple of water tanks in the attic and a cylinder in the airing cupboard so I’m guessing that means it’s gravity fed?

There are pipes running vertically in the airing cupboard and there’s a T piece coming off the cold pipe which runs into another copper pipe which connects to a flexible hose going into the wall behind the shower in the bedroom.

 

[terryplumb]

What model of electric shower is it ??
Does it only have one water pipe going into it ?

 

[dilalio]

So the electric shower is teed off the rising main to the cold water storage cistern in the loft?

This should be fine as electric showers should be mains fed... Some are not... Hence my question about tank fed.

The flexible hose sounds a bit suspect!
Does it have any kinks in it?

Also, try operating the electric shower with the hose disconnected from its base.

 

[SimplyWendyful]

What model of electric shower is it ??
Does it only have one water pipe going into it ?

It says Redring Expressions Revive on it and there seems to just be a cold water pipe going in.

 

[dilalio]

How old is it?

 

[SimplyWendyful]

So the electric shower is teed off the rising main to the cold water storage cistern in the loft?

This should be fine as electric showers should be mains fed... Some are not... Hence my question about tank fed.

The flexible hose sounds a bit suspect!
Does it have any kinks in it?

Also, try operating the electric shower with the hose disconnected from its base.

It looks that way.

No kinks in the hose. I think it came with the shower.

When the issue occurs, disconnecting the shower head from the base makes no difference.

 

[SimplyWendyful]

How old is it?

No idea. At least 3 years old as it was in the house when we moved in in 2023 and probably wasn’t new then.

 

[dilalio]

Sounds like flow switch is not activating.
So, could be checked for blockages but usually these just get replaced as simpler to get a quick fix that way.

 

[SimplyWendyful]

Sounds like flow switch is not activating.
So, could be checked for blockages but usually these just get replaced as simpler to get a quick fix that way.

Is that inside the shower unit?

Why should turning on the bath tap activate it?

And is it likely to be an expensive fix?

 

[denso13]

Part isn't too cheap, if that is what it needs of course, https://www.showerdoc.com/redring-pressure-switch-assembly-93672124

 

[Johntheo5]

Sounds like it could be a weak/failing solenoid coil or a faulty pull cord isolationn switch.