Water pressure and power showers

Hia all, I am wondering if I could get some advice?

The issue I am having is that I am getting less than the minimum 1 bar of pressure to My shower (according to Triton). This is leading to pressure fluctuations, which is causing one of the PCB's to burn out prematurely. The cost of replacing the PCB is

Yes, but you need a tank too! You can't just increase mains pressure. Do you have a combi boiler?

I do have a combi boiler Apache.

AndyGuinness

Yes, there is an inline pump you can get - I`ve seen one; but don`t know where you`d get it from......bet they`re not cheap though!

If you have a combi, I`d have been more tempted to fit a mixer shower (with pump if necessary).

Here`s what confuses me here though.

A "power shower", in my vocabulary, is a mixer shower with integral pump - taking hot & cold supplies, blending to required temp, then pumping them out of the head. The don`t tend to LIKE higher pressures, and shouldn`t generally be on a mains-fed supply.

An "electric shower" would be, (in my terms again) cold-fed mains pressure with internal element.

Which one is this mate? I`m really struggling to understand how 1 bar of pressure is causatious to premature PCB failure, TBH

(sorry, I`m not trying to teach you to suck eggs bud, I`m just a bit confused as to what shower you`ve got)

KME

Sorry KME, its an electric shower, according to the Triton engineer that we had out to fix the issue (PCB) I think it was either a resistor or capacitor that had gone on the PCB (I wasn't in when the engineer visited, My mum was)

My apologies for the confusion.

AndyGuinness

If you have a combi, I`d have been more tempted to fit a mixer shower (with pump if necessary).

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My understanding was you couldn't have a power shower without stored hot water? I thought they were not possible with a combi boiler

See Zees post mate.

It can be done, but it involves limiting the pressure available with PRDs.

I think I previously posted r.e my mother`s flat; which has communal hot water.

She`s on the 15th floor - the cold is mains (sub 1 bar at her height) ; but the hot is on a booster pump, giving 4.5 bar, iirc.

We fitted a pair of PRDs to limit the pressure, and the shower has been fine for years.

Zee - I`d be tempted to use the combi to provide the water for the shower - they`re good at that. It`d be more efficient than leccy shower; and no pressure concerns, either.

I`m not happy with this idea of low pressure causing PCB failure - sounds like an excuse to me.

So would the best idea be to call a decent plumber out for advice at all? I would have got JL in but He is no longer with us as we all know now.

AndyGuinness

My understanding was you couldn't have a power shower without stored hot water? I thought they were not possible with a combi boiler

Click to expand...

certinley is possible. i have one in my house, and a bathroom fitter i work for installs them all the time

if your confident with a bit of pipework, they are easy to install

You can get a pump on the feed to the shower but the link has to fed from a tank not the mains, as I understand.if confident with plumbing its fairly easy mate

Zee,

If this is a mains fed instantaneous shower then I think that the "engineer" is throwing you a line that it's less than 1 bar, I mean how can you reduce the pressure without using pressure reducing valves??

by opening a tap/flushing the loo, elsewhere in the property.

hey zee you sure you havent tapped into the neighbours water supply on a 10mm micro por pipe :^O

Micro bore ain't it badge lol ?

ok micro BORE then :^O

Hi all, just to let you all know, the problem has been sorted. Ended up getting a purpose made shower attachment that runs off of the hot and cold feed to the bath taps. In comparison to the electric shower, this is actually warmer and it has a much better pressure to it. Its like comparing an English shower to a Bangladeshi monsoon.

AndyGuinness

I also forgot to mention that the plumber took 20 minutes to sort this and performed open wallet surgery to the tune of

id have charged you that.....................

for 10 minutes :slap :^O :^O

Glad its sorted quite often the simple way is the best.