Shower Options?

DRZ

DRZ

DRZ

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We are looking to renovate one of our bathrooms and I'm not quite sure what shower options are available to us given the current setup...

We have a gas system boiler in the loft with what is (I think) called a Priority Domestic Hot Water system. The boiler heats a vented tank which is mavity fed from a cold water tank in the loft. The main bathroom has a shower fed from a hefty pump in the loft (that makes a right racket and I need to find ways of quietening it down, but that's another issue entirely)

The bathroom we are looking to replace has an awful 1980s-style beige plastic electric shower. Presumably this is fed only from the cold water feed and was done this way so that if someone used all the hot water it was still possible to get a hot shower. It sucks as a shower though, there's flow but we both really love a powerful shower and this isn't it.

So, all-knowing denizens, what are my options? We definitely do not want another ugly electric shower box on the wall in the new bathroom, so that's out. I've looked at the Triton ENVi system but I am slightly unsure if it'll flow enough. I could take another feed from the cylinder and install another pump and make the new shower a power shower as well but gut feel says this is a bad idea and we'll frequently be out of hot water when we need it.
 
What size is the tank? If you want to kill two birds with one stone then something like the Mira Platinum would work, they do pumped options so could replace the noisy pump, and do away with anything bar the wireless controller on the shower wall. Unless the water tank is tiny then a normal 3 - 4 minute shower uses about 35 - 40 litres in total, depending on the hot water input temperature only half of that would be from the tank.

 
Orifice said:
What size is the tank? If you want to kill two birds with one stone then something like the Mira Platinum would work, they do pumped options so could replace the noisy pump, and do away with anything bar the wireless controller on the shower wall. Unless the water tank is tiny then a normal 3 - 4 minute shower uses about 35 - 40 litres in total, depending on the hot water input temperature only half of that would be from the tank.

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Is a normal shower classed as 3-4 minutes?
Honestly, never thought about it - but didn't realise that a shower uses 10L/mins judging off the numbers you have quoted.
 
Haze said:
Combi boiler ftw
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Wrong
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Orifice said:
What size is the tank? If you want to kill two birds with one stone then something like the Mira Platinum would work, they do pumped options so could replace the noisy pump, and do away with anything bar the wireless controller on the shower wall. Unless the water tank is tiny then a normal 3 - 4 minute shower uses about 35 - 40 litres in total, depending on the hot water input temperature only half of that would be from the tank.

Click to expand...
I was looking at these but there were horror stories of them failing due to the conditions in the attic (frost etc).

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What age is your heating system? Is it due? An unvented tank is how we get mains pressure hot water; the shower is amazing. I just went for a basic Aqualisa unit.
 
dlockers said:
Wrong
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I was looking at these but there were horror stories of them failing due to the conditions in the attic (frost etc).

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What age is your heating system? Is it due? An unvented tank is how we get mains pressure hot water; the shower is amazing. I just went for a basic Aqualisa unit.
Click to expand...

Yeah, agreed, combi boilers absolutely suck and I wouldn't ever want to go back to one.


Age of the system... We're not entirely sure. We think it is approx 15 years old. We have a family friend who was very senior on the engineering side of our boiler manufacturer and he came and had a look at it and said it was in tip top shape and has many years of life left in it.

I'm not really sure I want to go down the route of replacing the boiler, tanks etc etc on top of doing the bathroom. Our plan is to wait for 3-5 years (or the end of the service life of the boiler) and move to an air source heat pump or similar, assuming the technology has advanced somewhat vs the systems of today. It seems stupid to put a gas system in now and also I think the move to ASHP etc would be premature for us today. Looking at the tank we have I would guess it is somewhere around 100L based on the dimensions. Fine for a couple of quick showers but we have had it where we've run out of hot water (especially when we have guests) so that's why we're considering the full range of options.
 
Never really had any issue with them, I'm on my 4th now (because of moving house, not because they've died, had one in previous house for 7 years). Admittedly never had one in the loft but they are so small they can be concealed in other places with relative ease. The instructions for loft mounting are very explicit, I do wonder how many people actually bother to insulate around them and then moan when it goes wrong.

Normal shower to me is 3 minutes, missus more like 10. The flow can be adjusted from 4 - 16 litres per minute.
 
DRZ said:
Yeah, agreed, combi boilers absolutely suck and I wouldn't ever want to go back to one.


Age of the system... We're not entirely sure. We think it is approx 15 years old. We have a family friend who was very senior on the engineering side of our boiler manufacturer and he came and had a look at it and said it was in tip top shape and has many years of life left in it.

I'm not really sure I want to go down the route of replacing the boiler, tanks etc etc on top of doing the bathroom. Our plan is to wait for 3-5 years (or the end of the service life of the boiler) and move to an air source heat pump or similar, assuming the technology has advanced somewhat vs the systems of today. It seems stupid to put a gas system in now and also I think the move to ASHP etc would be premature for us today. Looking at the tank we have I would guess it is somewhere around 100L based on the dimensions. Fine for a couple of quick showers but we have had it where we've run out of hot water (especially when we have guests) so that's why we're considering the full range of options.
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Respect what you're saying - but maybe do a quick look at current offers if ASHP is on the cards. There are big subsidies.
 
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Orifice said:
What size is the tank? If you want to kill two birds with one stone then something like the Mira Platinum would work, they do pumped options so could replace the noisy pump, and do away with anything bar the wireless controller on the shower wall. Unless the water tank is tiny then a normal 3 - 4 minute shower uses about 35 - 40 litres in total, depending on the hot water input temperature only half of that would be from the tank.

Click to expand...
We recently did our bathroom and got a Mira Mode ceiling fed digital shower. I was slightly worried that it would be an expensive way to get a mediocre shower but it's actually brilliant. The pressure is great, it's very quiet and showers are now bliss! Well worth the money over replacing heating systems or noisy pumps.
 
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We have a large rain shower, with a hand shower. The shower unit is thermally controlled and the two shower heads can be independently controlled (none of this switching between them - both can be on at the same time).
The unit is fed by a 22mm hot and 22mm cold pipe with each shower head being fed by a 12mm (if I have that right - the normal size you get for taps etc).
The boiler is a combo 32cdi which was deliberately over spec’s for this precise shower.

I got the shower hardware from Victoria plum iirc.
 
The latest electric showers are quite good, and also look perfectly ok. Another electric shower is something that would be a low cost and easy install, and you don't need to worry about having enough hot water. I wouldn't write this option off.
 
radderfire said:
The latest electric showers are quite good, and also look perfectly ok. Another electric shower is something that would be a low cost and easy install, and you don't need to worry about having enough hot water. I wouldn't write this option off.
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The more we've looked at it, the better this option feels. Mira do some less horrendous looking ones so that's an avenue that isn't totally closed. They just don't really look as good as an in-wall thermostatic option which is looking less and less feasible. Running another pump in the loft and getting the pipework for that down to this bathroom would cause carnage elsewhere and neither of us are up for that.
 
The last electric shower I had was a Mira, not very expensive, but pretty good. It gave you a decent enough shower, and you could easily get the temperature right with the dial. The nice thing is not having to switch the hot water on in advance. I would definitely have another. Other brands are Aqualisa and Triton.
 
At our place we've got 1 shower that's fed off the hot water tank using one of these (wow, they've gone up in price!) and the other is an electric shower, a Mira something-or-other. It's a deliberate choice so that we can still have a hot shower when the boiler or a motorised valve has a brain fart and leaves us with no hot water as happened on Christmas eve 2023.

The pump is sitting on an ani vibration mat which made a huge difference to the sound the thing makes. It's still not exactly quiet, but if one of us is getting up early the shower pump doesn't wake the other one up.
 
If you are replacing the whole bathroom I would 100% be looking to fit a conventional bar shower mixer and then fit a shower pump to your current open vented hot water system. It might seem like more work now but then you know your shower (and tiles) is effectively future proofed for upgrades you may make in the future.

If you do decide to upgrade to ASHP in the future then you will also be having unvented hot water installed which means you can loose the shower pump and keep your existing bar mixer with no decrease in pressure.

Also in response to the link above, if you can fit the pump in the airing cupboard with the cylinder then theres no need for an expensive universal pump like that. Stuart Turner make a 1.5bar twin for around £150

EDIT: Thermostatic concealed is also an option in this scenario, I just said bar mixer initially as they are cheaper and easier to install
 
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NvidiaDan said:
If you are replacing the whole bathroom I would 100% be looking to fit a conventional bar shower mixer and then fit a shower pump to your current open vented hot water system. It might seem like more work now but then you know your shower (and tiles) is effectively future proofed for upgrades you may make in the future.

If you do decide to upgrade to ASHP in the future then you will also be having unvented hot water installed which means you can loose the shower pump and keep your existing bar mixer with no decrease in pressure.

Also in response to the link above, if you can fit the pump in the airing cupboard with the cylinder then theres no need for an expensive universal pump like that. Stuart Turner make a 1.5bar twin for around £150

EDIT: Thermostatic concealed is also an option in this scenario, I just said bar mixer initially as they are cheaper and easier to install
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I think the biggest barrier to doing this is the bathroom above already has UFH etc (as does the kitchen which is adjacent) so getting the plumbing down there is going to be at least very difficult if not impossible. I really cannot go destroying walls in the hallway to get pipes down - it has already been (expensively) redecorated and I don't want to have to match the paint etc etc. At least the cold water feed to an electric shower is already there and needs 0 external damage to move it around.
 
dlockers said:
Wrong
-

I was looking at these but there were horror stories of them failing due to the conditions in the attic (frost etc).

---

What age is your heating system? Is it due? An unvented tank is how we get mains pressure hot water; the shower is amazing. I just went for a basic Aqualisa unit.
Click to expand...
Must admit I'd find it hard to go back to combi's etc after having my Megaflo for years now.

For the OP I'd definitely be looking at some pump system, life is too short for **** showers!
 
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