Replacement Shower?

[Manbatius]

Hi all,

Moved in two years ago and the shower was going hot and cold, spoke to the guy servicing the boiler and he suggested the water flow rate is fluctuating due to pipe length to the shower, this would be very costly to replace.

Current shower is ran directly from the boiler, My question is would a electric shower be better?

It seems odd that a shower has been fitted and I can only assume has never worked correctly. The boiler is in the room directly below the shower so I can only think the pipe takes an odd route, or he is talking rubbish.

Been using one of those on tap attachments for people with no shower for a while, which is much better than the actual shower which would often freeze me!

Thanks all.

 

[topgun23]

Did he mention a thermostatic shower which correctly mixes the temps or a pump? The electric one in mine is so underpowered compared to standard as its fed just off the cold main.

 

[Manbatius]

Hi topgun23, I did not speak to him about showers, he just mentioned the pipes.

I did not speak to him at all as I was at work, just putting a bit of research in now as want it sorted.

I had seen some showers with the features you mention though.

 

[Participant]

Firstly: no, an electric shower would almost certainly be much much worse than any combi-fed shower. It heats the cold water on the fly, whereas the combi is normally three times as powerful in terms of work done to heat the water per second.

Secondly: as I was reading this I was going to ask how the hot water to your other outlets was behaving. You've answered that and said it's fine, so since the pipe route to your bath (?) is probably very similar to that of your shower, this makes me think that your shower valve is the culprit.

Maybe there's a blockage, or the thermostatic wax disc is worn. How old is the valve? What brand of valve, or if you can't tell can you take a pic? What happens when you take the shower valve off and run the water directly from the pipes (using the isolating valves which you hopefully have)?

There could also be a balancing problem here, maybe a flow restrictor is required on the cold side if you have high cold water pressure.

 

[Manbatius]

Hi Participant,

Will take a pic tomorrow, the shower does seem to be older.

One thing I should have mentioned is the temporary solution is better but not perfect. The colder water to any of the taps in the house has a fluctuating flow rate, the hot water is not as bad. Using the bath taps with a plastic mixer I bought is much better than the actual shower but not 100%.

I suspect theres more than one issue here! Just re read your post and a flow restrictor sounds interesting.