On Sat, 10 Dec 2005 12:44:21 +0000, Hugo Nebula wrote:
I've just moved into a new house, and I have a problem with the
shower. It's a mixer shower in a cubicle gravity fed from the hot
water cylinder on the same floor, and the cold tank in the loft just
above. It produces not so much a shower as a dribble.
My options as I see it a
1. Replace the mixer valve with a pumped shower. This would appear to
be the easiest option, as I would have thought it just requires an
electrical supply, the water inlets being already in place.
2. Install a pump. This appears as though it will have to go in the
airing cupboard, and I'm assuming will therefore need a new hot and
cold feed to the shower valve, as well as the wiring.
-Two questions he
a) can a pump be fitted in the loft above the height of the shower
head and the hot water tank? Most typical installations show them
being fitted on a level with the hot water cylinder, but if it were
fitted in the loft, I could presumably place it in the line of the hot
& cold feeds, thereby reducing the amount of plumbing needed; and
b) could I take a spur or loop from the immersion heater?
3. Replace the existing vented cylinder with a Megaflo. A bit of a
nuclear option, I would have thought, but there was one in the rented
flat I've just moved from, and the shower there was almost too
powerful. There appears to be good mains pressure here. Is it
feasible to simply swap one cylinder for another and bypass the cold
water tank, or is there more to it than that?
Any thoughts on the pros and cons of these options are welcome.
Firstly there may simply be something wrong with the existing arrangements
which may well work well enough for you when corrected.
With a thermostatic mixer a failure of either supply will result in next
to nothing. The head may be totally clogged with lime or other crap.
Sometimes people put on a fancy head which requires a better supply,
simply going back to a more modest shower head can make things much
better.
1 & 2 are essentially the same option although neither will work (and
may not be needed) if there is an underlying problem with the supplies.
Most pumps need to be installed low to keep the running inlet pressure up
when in operation. A low inlet pressure encourages cavitation which can
damage a pump.
3 Is the best practice and will work well for a shower even if the main is
only a 20mm MDPE, 15mm or "7 pound" supply if the pressure is good. It
won't come cheap and may not give a much better bath fill rate unless the
main is upped to 25mm MDPE.
PS
Do you get free building notices as part of the job ?!?
Apparently holding a G3 ticket is not enough to be able to self-certify
the notification for an unvented through CORGI you also need IoP
membership.
--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at
http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ
http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ
http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html