In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Red wrote:

I have a mixer shower that I installed about a year ago. Worked
great until about 2 weeks ago, when all of a sudden i could get no
hot water from it. cold yes, hot no. The weird thing is that every
now and again it seems to work. It never works in the mornings (the
time thatyou want a shower!). But the later you try in the day, the
better your chance of a hot shower. (when it doesnt work, there *is*
hot water in the system.)

The fact that it worked for a year, and now works sometimes indicates
to me that the is no problem with the hot feed, or a blockage.

As a side note, another strange thing that i've noticed is that
turned off the central heating on the timing unit. But every now and
again some of the radiators where red hot. I'd guess that either my
house is haunted, or the timers knackered.

Any ideas on either of these, or could they be related?

Many thanks in advance.


Red.

Nor sure how you managed to post your message at 10:43am - when it's only
10:15 at the moment! Please check your computer time clock (not that that
has any bearing on your shower/heating problems!)

With regard to these, you will need to tell us a bit more about your setup
before we can sensibly comment.

Where does the mixer shower get its hot and cold supplies from? Is there a
boost pump? Assuming the hot supply comes from the hot cylinder, is this a
dedicated supply for the shower, or shared with all the hot taps?

What type of heating/hot water system do you have? I assume that a single
boiler (gas or oil-fired etc.) heats both the water (via an indirect coil in
the hot water cylinder) and the radiators? Is it fully pumped or is the hot
water circuit gravity (convection) fed? What zone valves (e.g. single 3-port
mid-position diverter valve or 2-off 2-port zone valves etc.) do you have?

[Have a look at the various "plans" in
http://content.honeywell.com/uk/homes/systems.htm and try to identify your
setup]

--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

I have a mixer shower that I installed about a year ago. Worked great until
about 2 weeks ago, when all of a sudden i could get no hot water from it.
cold yes, hot no. The weird thing is that every now and again it seems to
work. It never works in the mornings (the time thatyou want a shower!).
But the later you try in the day, the better your chance of a hot shower.
(when it doesnt work, there *is* hot water in the system.)

The fact that it worked for a year, and now works sometimes indicates to me
that the is no problem with the hot feed, or a blockage.

As a side note, another strange thing that i've noticed is that turned off
the central heating on the timing unit. But every now and again some of the
radiators where red hot. I'd guess that either my house is haunted, or the
timers knackered.

Any ideas on either of these, or could they be related?

Many thanks in advance.


Red.

"Red" wrote in message
...
I have a mixer shower that I installed about a year ago. Worked great
until
about 2 weeks ago, when all of a sudden i could get no hot water from it.
cold yes, hot no. The weird thing is that every now and again it seems to
work. It never works in the mornings (the time thatyou want a shower!).
But the later you try in the day, the better your chance of a hot shower.
(when it doesnt work, there *is* hot water in the system.)

The fact that it worked for a year, and now works sometimes indicates to
me
that the is no problem with the hot feed, or a blockage.

As a side note, another strange thing that i've noticed is that turned off
the central heating on the timing unit. But every now and again some of
the
radiators where red hot. I'd guess that either my house is haunted, or
the
timers knackered.

Any ideas on either of these, or could they be related?

Many thanks in advance.

More details.

make, type, on mains pressure, on power shower pump, etc.

On Sun, 4 Jul 2004 10:22:21 +0100, "Set Square"
strung together this:

Please check your computer time clock (not that that
has any bearing on your shower/heating problems!)

Could be, could have a complete PC based home automation system!
--

SJW
A.C.S. Ltd

Set Square wrote:

Nor sure how you managed to post your message at 10:43am - when it's only
10:15 at the moment! Please check your computer time clock (not that that
has any bearing on your shower/heating problems!)

Just curious, but why does this seem to cause a problem for people?
Mozilla completely ignores the date stamp and sorts by order actually
received, so I never notice unless someone points it out...

Lee
--
Email address is valid, but is unlikely to be read.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Lee wrote:

Set Square wrote:

Nor sure how you managed to post your message at 10:43am - when it's
only 10:15 at the moment! Please check your computer time clock (not
that that has any bearing on your shower/heating problems!)

Just curious, but why does this seem to cause a problem for people?
Mozilla completely ignores the date stamp and sorts by order actually
received, so I never notice unless someone points it out...

Lee

It's no big deal, but I sometimes look at the date/time stamp of a question
before responding, to make sure it wasn't asked so long ago as to be no
longer relevant.

In the case of the post referenced, I happened to notice that the question
had apparently been asked in the *future*! I pointed it out mainly for the
OP's benefit in case he needed his clock to be correct for other purposes.

[If you have more than one version of Windows on the same computer, the
summertime correction will, by default, be carried out more than once - i.e.
the first time each Op Sys is started after the clocks are put on. This
could result in the whole thing being one or two hours fast without you
noticing it]
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

Ok, fair enough

Lee

On Sun, 04 Jul 2004 18:51:47 +0100, Lee wrote:

Ok, fair enough

Lee

Actually Lee, the answer you got was very civilised. You should try asking
that question on some of the comp ng and see how quickly a flame war
starts .

Dave

--

Some people use windows, others have a life.

"Set Square" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,


Nor sure how you managed to post your message at 10:43am - when it's only
10:15 at the moment! Please check your computer time clock (not that that
has any bearing on your shower/heating problems!)

Sorry my post was so controversial. My clock is indeed correct. Im writing
this reply at 18:52 If it shows as earlier, i don't know why.

With regard to these, you will need to tell us a bit more about your setup
before we can sensibly comment.

I'll do my best, but im afraid dont know much about this sort of stuff.

Where does the mixer shower get its hot and cold supplies from? Is there a
boost pump? Assuming the hot supply comes from the hot cylinder, is this a
dedicated supply for the shower, or shared with all the hot taps?

Cold water from main tank in loft. Hot from tank in airing cupboard.
Dedicated supply for shower.

What type of heating/hot water system do you have? I assume that a single
boiler (gas or oil-fired etc.) heats both the water (via an indirect coil
in
the hot is water cylinder) and the radiators? Is it fully pumped or is the
hot
water circuit gravity (convection) fed?

Single boiler for water and heating. Heating is pump fed. Water gravity (i
think)??

What zone valves (e.g. single 3-port
mid-position diverter valve or 2-off 2-port zone valves etc.) do you have?

Sorry, havent a clue. Any other questions, let me know.

Hope this helps, and I appreciate your time.


Red.

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Red wrote:

"Set Square" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,


Nor sure how you managed to post your message at 10:43am - when it's
only 10:15 at the moment! Please check your computer time clock (not
that that has any bearing on your shower/heating problems!)

Sorry my post was so controversial. My clock is indeed correct. Im
writing this reply at 18:52 If it shows as earlier, i don't know why.

This message is timestamped at 19:58! Have a look at the International
settings on your PC (Start/Settings/Control Panel/Regional and Language
Options) and check that it knows that you are in the UK rather than in
France or somewhere).

With regard to these, you will need to tell us a bit more about your
setup before we can sensibly comment.

I'll do my best, but im afraid dont know much about this sort of
stuff.

Where does the mixer shower get its hot and cold supplies from? Is
there a boost pump? Assuming the hot supply comes from the hot
cylinder, is this a dedicated supply for the shower, or shared with
all the hot taps?

Cold water from main tank in loft. Hot from tank in airing cupboard.
Dedicated supply for shower.

What type of heating/hot water system do you have? I assume that a
single boiler (gas or oil-fired etc.) heats both the water (via an
indirect coil in the hot is water cylinder) and the radiators? Is it
fully pumped or is the hot water circuit gravity (convection) fed?

Single boiler for water and heating. Heating is pump fed. Water
gravity (i think)??

What zone valves (e.g. single 3-port
mid-position diverter valve or 2-off 2-port zone valves etc.) do you
have?

Sorry, havent a clue. Any other questions, let me know.

Hope this helps, and I appreciate your time.


Red.

OK, we'll work with what we've got. If it's a gravity hot water and pumped
heating system, it works like this: For hot water only, the programmer turns
just the boiler on, and the water circulates through the large diameter
pipes by convection. For heating, it turns the boiler *and* the pump on -
with the hot water continuing to get hot by convection, and with the pump
circulating water through the smaller pipes to the radiators. In theory,
water will only circulate through the radiators when the pump is running. In
practice, some systems continue to circulate by convection (particularly the
upstairs radiators) even when the pump isn't running. The cure for this is
to insert a "null-flow" valve in the CH circuit - which requires a slight
pressure to open it. It will open when the pump is running, but but will
stop convection from occurring.

Better still, convert it to a C-Plan (see
http://content.honeywell.com/uk/homes/systems.htm ) by putting a motorised
valve and cylinder stat in the hot water circuit. This provides a boiler
interlock - so that the boiler only comes on when required - saving energy.

Now to the shower. You say this has a dedicated hot feed. It presumably uses
a Surrey Flange or somesuch, which takes water out of the cylinder lower
down than the main feed to the hot taps? If for some reason, only the top
part of the tank is hot - maybe the boiler timer isn't on as long in the
summer? - this will draw cooler water from lower down, even though the
ordinary taps are receiving hot water. If this is the problem, you need to
make sure that the whole tank is hot - not just the top bit - probably by
running the boiler for longer.

When this problem occurs, what happens if you turn the mixer to full hot? Do
you get coolish water coming out, or nothing?

--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

Red wrote:

"Set Square" wrote in message
...
In an earlier contribution to this discussion,


Nor sure how you managed to post your message at 10:43am - when it's only
10:15 at the moment! Please check your computer time clock (not that that
has any bearing on your shower/heating problems!)

Sorry my post was so controversial. My clock is indeed correct. Im writing
this reply at 18:52 If it shows as earlier, i don't know why.

You've got the timezone set incorrectly.
It's currently set on GMT, when it should be on BST.
So, it's an hour fast (newsreaders typically adjust the raw "date" they
display, to reflect different timezones).

"Red" wrote in message ...
I have a mixer shower that I installed about a year ago. Worked great until
about 2 weeks ago, when all of a sudden i could get no hot water from it.
cold yes, hot no. The weird thing is that every now and again it seems to
work. It never works in the mornings (the time thatyou want a shower!).
But the later you try in the day, the better your chance of a hot shower.
(when it doesnt work, there *is* hot water in the system.)

When I moved into my present house, some twit had plumbed the thermostatic
shower with mains cold but tank hot. Different water pressures from early
in the morning to evening caused the shower to either run cold or run
adequately.
Perhaps (as others have requested) you post all the relevant details about
your installation for better feedback to be given.


The fact that it worked for a year, and now works sometimes indicates to me
that the is no problem with the hot feed, or a blockage.

My thermostatic shower has filters on both cold and hot inlets. You have to
take five minutes to dismantle the shower block (at the mixer) to retrieve
the cartridge (I think that's the term) from the body in order to remove and
clean the filters.
I need to do this about once every year or so.



As a side note, another strange thing that i've noticed is that turned off
the central heating on the timing unit. But every now and again some of the
radiators where red hot. I'd guess that either my house is haunted, or the
timers knackered.

If your heating is off but the boiler supplies water heating then perhaps
some radiators have been connected to that circuit?
I connected one radiator in my property to the flow/return from the boiler.
This meant that the radiator was active any time the boiler was on.
I'll state here and now that the connection was deliberate, when in reality
it was an oversight (now rectified :-).

Any ideas on either of these, or could they be related?


Give more details of the setup - what kind of boiler, what kind of controls,
pumped/gravity feed, how many separate tanks in your loft etc etc.

HTH

Mungo

On Sun, 04 Jul 2004 20:28:42 GMT, Ian Stirling
strung together this:

You've got the timezone set incorrectly.
It's currently set on GMT, when it should be on BST.
So, it's an hour fast (newsreaders typically adjust the raw "date" they
display, to reflect different timezones).

My computers set to GMT and my times are displayed on the group
correctly, as I'm sure the majority of others are too.
--

SJW
A.C.S. Ltd

On Mon, 05 Jul 2004 13:25:33 GMT, "Red" strung together
this:

Any more ideas?

Sounds like a blocked pipe somewhere between the tank take-off and the
shower outlet. It could be worth dismantling the shower unit and
fllushing out the pipes. Also check that the washer on the hot side
hasn't lodged itself in the seat of the valve.
Could be an air lock, but this will show uup when you try to flush the
pipes.

(PS Im posting this from a different PC, so maybe the time will be correct.)

Nope, are you actually in the UK?
--

SJW
A.C.S. Ltd

"Set Square" wrote in message
...

When this problem occurs, what happens if you turn the mixer to full hot?
Do
you get coolish water coming out, or nothing?


Turn the mixer to cold and you get cold water. Turn to hot and you get a
little dribble at first, but then nothing. I think i may have been wrong
about the seperate feed for the shower. If you put the shower onto hot, and
turn the hot bath tap on and off, it forces a dribble out out the shower. I
can't see where the showers hot pipe comes from. It dissapears under some
boarding halfway accross the loft.

The shower worked last night. But this morning back to nothing.

Appreciate your time with this. Any more ideas?

Thanks,

Red.

(PS Im posting this from a different PC, so maybe the time will be correct.)

In an earlier contribution to this discussion,
Red wrote:

"Set Square" wrote in message
...

When this problem occurs, what happens if you turn the mixer to full
hot? Do you get coolish water coming out, or nothing?


Turn the mixer to cold and you get cold water. Turn to hot and you
get a little dribble at first, but then nothing. I think i may have
been wrong about the seperate feed for the shower. If you put the
shower onto hot, and turn the hot bath tap on and off, it forces a
dribble out out the shower. I can't see where the showers hot pipe
comes from. It dissapears under some boarding halfway accross the
loft.

The shower worked last night. But this morning back to nothing.

Appreciate your time with this. Any more ideas?

Thanks,

Red.

(PS Im posting this from a different PC, so maybe the time will be
correct.)

If you have a tankful of hot water but it doesn't get to the shower, this
indicates a blockage or air lock in the pipe between the tank and the
shower - or something wrong with the mixer valve itself.

Presumably the flow at the other hot taps is ok?

Can you turn off your hot water by means of a gatevalve in the cold feed to
the hot tank? If so, turn this off and disconnect the hot feed at the
shower. Get someone to turn it on again and see whether you get a good flow
out of the open pipe.

If you do, it's the mixer valve that's at fault. If you don't, it's the
pipework.

If it's the pipework, do you have a means of temporarily connecting a cold
mains feed to the open end of the shower's hot supply pipe? If so, do this
and force some water back through the pipework and hot cylinder into the
header tank (but not enough to make the latter overflow!). This should clear
any crud or airlocks.
--
Cheers,
Set Square
______
Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

My computers set to GMT and my times are displayed on the group
correctly, as I'm sure the majority of others are too.

You probably have the "adjust for daylight savings" button pressed, so your
computer isn't set for GMT, but for BST. If it was really set for GMT, it
would be wrong.

Christian.

On Mon, 5 Jul 2004 18:05:24 +0100, "Christian McArdle"
strung together this:

You probably have the "adjust for daylight savings" button pressed, so your
computer isn't set for GMT, but for BST. If it was really set for GMT, it
would be wrong.

Ah yes, I appear to have read Ians post as EST, as opposed to BST, for
some reason. Makes more sense now!
--

SJW
A.C.S. Ltd