I'm planning to refurbish my en-suite bathroom (actually shower room
plus toilet and basin) and would like a shower with a bit of urge -
meaning with a reasonably powerful dual pump to produce a good supply of
(vented) hot and cold stored water. I also want a very low "walk-in"
tray for ease of access as I age. However, I'm wondering whether these
two requirements may be incompatible. Even with a full enclosure, there
needs to be a door - which wouldn't seal well enough to hold water above
tray level.

Are there any rules of thumb for how much flow a shower drain can handle
without flooding the tray? It may be that the only options are either to
go fully "wet-room" with no tray or enclosure, or to settle for a lower
flow rate.

I would like to hear from anyone who has faced similar issues, and to
know what solution they ended up with.
--
Cheers,
Roger

On Tue, 27 Apr 2021 21:01:42 +0100, Roger Mills
wrote:

I'm planning to refurbish my en-suite bathroom (actually shower room
plus toilet and basin) and would like a shower with a bit of urge -
meaning with a reasonably powerful dual pump to produce a good supply of
(vented) hot and cold stored water. I also want a very low "walk-in"
tray for ease of access as I age. However, I'm wondering whether these
two requirements may be incompatible. Even with a full enclosure, there
needs to be a door - which wouldn't seal well enough to hold water above
tray level.

Are there any rules of thumb for how much flow a shower drain can handle
without flooding the tray? It may be that the only options are either to
go fully "wet-room" with no tray or enclosure, or to settle for a lower
flow rate.

I would like to hear from anyone who has faced similar issues, and to
know what solution they ended up with.

Having just been to B&Q this morning and failed to find the right sort
of replacement waste system for my own shower, it looks as if there
are shower trays and waste systems specifically designed for power
shower applications. The magic figure seemed to be 30-something
litres/min. Any idea what you expect the output to be from your pumped
system?

Nick

On 27/04/2021 21:01, Roger Mills wrote:
I'm planning to refurbish my en-suite bathroom (actually shower room
plus toilet and basin) and would like a shower with a bit of urge -
meaning with a reasonably powerful dual pump to produce a good supply of
(vented) hot and cold stored water. I also want a very low "walk-in"
tray for ease of access as I age. However, I'm wondering whether these
two requirements may be incompatible. Even with a full enclosure, there
needs to be a door - which wouldn't seal well enough to hold water above
tray level.

Are there any rules of thumb for how much flow a shower drain can handle
without flooding the tray? It may be that the only options are either to
go fully "wet-room" with no tray or enclosure, or to settle for a lower
flow rate.

I would like to hear from anyone who has faced similar issues, and to
know what solution they ended up with.

We fitted a shower (with switchable, large, rainfall head and normal,
flexible hose head) into a cubicle with a low tray (about 15mm deep),
although the bottom rail of the door opening does add a further 10mm),
as my wife is disabled and so low is good. The shower is supplied by a
Grundfos pump with a capacity of 50-odd litres per minute at low
pressure, but more like 20 lpm with the back-pressure of the shower.

I fitted a hi-flow waste, rated at 31 lpm. As long as the trap is
cleared of hair every couple of weeks (there are 5 of us), it works
fine. Even if it does start to clog, the water level rises a little, but
that increases the outflow, so it doesn't get too high - and you get a
few days' warning to clean it out.

On 27/04/2021 23:24, Steve Walker wrote:


We fitted a shower (with switchable, large, rainfall head and normal,
flexible hose head) into a cubicle with a low tray (about 15mm deep),
although the bottom rail of the door opening does add a further 10mm),
as my wife is disabled and so low is good. The shower is supplied by a
Grundfos pump with a capacity of 50-odd litres per minute at low
pressure, but more like 20 lpm with the back-pressure of the shower.

I fitted a hi-flow waste, rated at 31 lpm. As long as the trap is
cleared of hair every couple of weeks (there are 5 of us), it works
fine. Even if it does start to clog, the water level rises a little, but
that increases the outflow, so it doesn't get too high - and you get a
few days' warning to clean it out.

Same sort of experience here, though not with a hi-flow waste and a
Stuart Turner, I think it's a 2 bar one. That gives a very adequate flow
through a standard (not rainflow) head, if you have to throttle back
slightly against rising water level that's the sign that the pipes need
clearing. I don't have an accessible trap, but one of the low profile
"smooth bend" types. I use a hand-pumped "blaster" to clear it
periodically, sometimes adding some bleach or sodium carbonate overnight.