Shower solution (currently electric but broke)

DJMK4 · 27 Sep 2018 at 22:19

Hi all

I live in a 2 bed mid terrace house.

The electric shower that was installed is faulty . Its a old Mira zest unit. As I am refreshing the place I want to try and see if I can go with a mixer rather than electric. Only issue is i don't know if the pressure would be ok. The boiler tank is in the airing cupboard which is in the bathroom . I am not a plumbing expert but it maybe too low pressure to have an a mixer tap and over head shower . I did read that there are mixer taps specially designed for low pressure, are they any good?

Would this work or would I need to get pump to increase pressure or do something else?

Dave M · 27 Sep 2018 at 22:35

Where is the cold tank? If in the loft it will work, if it's sat on top of the hot tank the water head (top of water level) might not actually be higher than your showerhead.

It'll be pants anyway, if you want a good shower (i.e. anywhere near the flow you're used to) your options are mains hot (e.g megaflo), a pump (consider flow and capacity of hot and cold tanks - it's not cool to run out!) or just switch to a combi boiler.

Participant · 28 Sep 2018 at 02:42

Take a picture of your 'boiler tank'.

Chances are you have an indirect vented system and will need to fit a twin impeller shower pump in the airing cupboard to pump the hot and the cold. This will give a better shower than a combi shower and be way cheaper than buying a new boiler.

If you have a mavity fed system then you can't just fit a mixer, low pressure or not as it will be ****.

DJMK4 · 29 Sep 2018 at 00:35

I will take a picture of the airing cupboard and tank tomorrow to see what you think.

I had a local plumber guy on the phone today it sounded like it would cost £700+ to have a pump solution?

Participant · 29 Sep 2018 at 06:14

DJMK4 said:
I will take a picture of the airing cupboard and tank tomorrow to see what you think.

I had a local plumber guy on the phone today it sounded like it would cost £700+ to have a pump solution?

Depends what pump he's quoted within that. You can get a budget Salamander for £150 or a brass Stuart Turner 3 bar for £350.

Assuming cheap pump, then again it depends on difficulty of installation but it sounds expensive. You could get a new combi for not far off that.