Shower Options?

[DRZ]

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.

 

[DRZ]

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.

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.

 

[DRZ]

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.

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.

 

[DRZ]

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

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.