Following on from the problem of my power shower suddenly not
working......four days ago, I decided to switch it on in the airing
cupboard just to see if it now worked, and it did. Great, I thought,
whatever it was has fixed itself. Two hours later, my daughter went to
use it and it wouldn't work again.

Two days passed and I decided to try again yesterday. It worked, then
an hour later it wouldn't.

Has anyone any new ideas as to what it could be that's making it work
intermittently like this? It still makes a little noise when I put the
switch on in the airing cupboard, I don't know if this is a clue but it
has done this for a long time.

Surely it now can't be the pump?

Any help would be gratefully received as I'm still loathe to call
anyone out until I have more of an idea as to what could be wrong.

Many thanks,

Carrie

littlewren wrote:
Following on from the problem of my power shower suddenly not
working......four days ago, I decided to switch it on in the airing
cupboard just to see if it now worked, and it did. Great, I thought,
whatever it was has fixed itself. Two hours later, my daughter went to
use it and it wouldn't work again.

snip
Surely it now can't be the pump?

Some designs of pump can suffer from metastability, when instead of it
properly starting, it sits there and hums.

This can especially happen when it wears.

On Thu, 23 Mar 2006 04:16:56 -0800, littlewren wrote:

Following on from the problem of my power shower suddenly not
working......four days ago, I decided to switch it on in the airing
cupboard just to see if it now worked, and it did. Great, I thought,
whatever it was has fixed itself. Two hours later, my daughter went to
use it and it wouldn't work again.

Two days passed and I decided to try again yesterday. It worked, then
an hour later it wouldn't.

Has anyone any new ideas as to what it could be that's making it work
intermittently like this? It still makes a little noise when I put the
switch on in the airing cupboard, I don't know if this is a clue but it
has done this for a long time.

Surely it now can't be the pump?

Any help would be gratefully received as I'm still loathe to call
anyone out until I have more of an idea as to what could be wrong.

Many thanks,

One of the failure modes of booster pumps is that the magnetic float which
activates the pump corrodes (despite being encased in plastic) and swells
up. The float has a way of half jamming in the pipe and so failing to
start the pump.

This may or may not be the case hear it might also be compounded by the
action of a themrostatic mixer (which when it cools shift to 100% hot say
but not when it's still warm). This may or may not be the case here.



--
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
Choosing a Boiler FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/BoilerChoice.html

Thanks for your messages Ian and Ed.

So Ed, it could just be that it needs one of these new floats? Would
an electrician be able to have a look at the problem, only I know a
reliable one and I don't know any plumbers and am scared of being
ripped off.

Thanks very much,

Carrie