Shower with No Power!

B

breener

Guest
Heya All,

Moved into a house last week and Discovered that the Ensuite Shower (the best useable Shower in the House) is nothing more than a Water Dripper! There is no power in it at all ....
SO.. Am looking at getting a Power Shower (+Pump I guess) but was wondering How much it costs or If there are any good Companys that Do it (Around D15 area, Clonsilla etc..). Any help appreciated as I dont know much about these things.
G
 
Its probably a manual shower so all you need is a pump
which costs about 250 euro for a 1.5 bar.Most recently
built houses have a chrome manual shower and are handy
enough to connect a pump too.
 
Or maybe the house needs a water tank to build more water pressure? Check if neighbouring houses have low water pressure problems and what they did to solve the problem.
 
The problem with most houses these days is the tank in the attic is approx 1 meter above the shower upstairs so won't generate much power. If it could be raised it would increase the pressure but that is an awkward job...
Only problem with pumps is that they are noisy.
 
heinbloed said:
Connect the mains water pipe to the shower if possible .
Click to expand...
You mean bypass the tank altogether for the shower? Is that allowed? Just thought that there might be restrictions on what can be directly connected to the water mains.
 
Yes. It is allowed as much as the kitchen water tap (and other taps as well ) and the tank in the attic is connected straight to the mains . Ireland has no regulation in place -as far as I know - similar to the British regulations where a non-return valve should be installed . These non return valves are usually placed with the water meter. One of the reasons is hygene. Water passing back into the mains ( if there is a leak/pressure loss ) could be contaminated with germs. This is nonsense due to chlorination . After every interruption the mains should be flushed any how to get out sediments and matall/plastic debris from the reparing works and all consumers be made aware that there was a (propably) contamination. We see these anouncements nearly every day in the papers .
But it would be interesting what our plumbers say about the issue . The mains are the only water supply on the continent , tanks are banned in most places .Here in Ireland we have multi storey appartment houses as well as some skyscrapers and hotels and shopping centers , they would need entire storeys on top of them reserved for water tanks . But they don't .They are simply connected to the mains. And it would be very difficult to sell the most expensive appartments which are on the top floor to the waterworks (smiley).
 
Heinbloed has a big issue with the typical gravity feed plumbing systems employed here and in the UK, which I don't want to debate again but you should not connect the mains supply directly to the shower, for a number of reasons.

1. The mains supply would boost the cold feed to the shower but will obviously not impact on the hot feed pressure. The hot feed pressure will be dictated by the "head" available i.e. the difference in height between the top of the shower head and the bottom of the cold water storage tank in the attic.

2. Connecting the mains feed to the shower would probably lead to a noticeable drop in the shower temperature or increased hot water consumption as the mains water will be very cold (having risen from a pipe buried in the ground). Whereas the cold water storage tank will generally always be a few degress warmer (even in a well insulated roof space).

3. Regarding contamination of a water supply by back siphonage etc. Most manufacturers of showers will advise that the shower head, hose and rail be fitted so that the shower head will not reach below 50mm or so above the rim of the shower tray. In this way the head cannot be immersed in dirty water and contamination will not occur. In relation to contamination of the rising mains by connection to a (cold water) storage tank - this cannot happen in a properly designed installation. The overflow pipe for such a tank sshould be located 50mm or so below the entry point for the rising mains feed (ballcock location)- thus water will overflow safely before the water level can rise within the tank and possibly contaminate the incoming mains.

4. Most significantly- if the mains were connected to the shower there could be a risk of sudden pressure/ flow rate fluctuations if the kitchen tap etc were turned on below (remembering that washing machines and dishwashers are also connected to the mains).
 
Just to not sound obvious here, are you sure the water pressure is the problem and not a dirty/blocked shower head ? Have you lowered the shower head to as low as it can go in the shower thus you should see better water pressure, hence clearing up the situation that it couldn't be the shower head been blocked.
 
Yep Shower Head Has been checked. Cheers for All the Replys and will start my investigations about which route to go.
Much appreciation to All for the Suggestions.

G
 
Another issue for you to check is if the size of your hot water tank is big enough to
fit a pump to. A 1.5 bar pump will empty a small water tank very fast.

Mind you, we got a 1.5 bar pump and an big tank put in, and the result is brilliant,
and well worth the money.
 
The shower in my house is connected directly to the mains, and Carpenter certainly has a point in relation to the pressure fluctuations! I once had the misfortune of being in the middle of a shower when someone decided to turn on the washing machine - OUCH!!!

I have found the pressure isn't great though. It's a manual showe, so would a pump help?
 
If it's an electric shower, such as a Triton, you could check that it's the correct one, not sure of the exact details but I think there's ones for mains (or if your tank is around 10M above the shower) and a second bigger type with a built in pump used for water from a tank less than 10M above the shower.
 
Our 5 year old when being washed loves to plunge our Mira Elite 2 shower head under the water in the bath when she is getting her hair washed as of course it makes a fountain in the bath....
I tried stopping her...but should I assume that her doing this...(and hence the shower motor has to work harder to pump the water out) is going to cause the shower to burn out???
 
Hi Legegend99
The scenario you describe is not unusual but not ideal! If you check the shower rail (for holding the head) you might see a hole on the bracket that holds the soap tray. If you disassemble the shower hose and feed it throught this hole you should find that this will limit the travel of the hose and shower head. If in any doubt consult the instructions or the manufacturers website, which should give further advice on locating the shower rail and critical distances that should be observed.
 
yea, see i put up the rail myself...took off the fittings for proper tiling...on purpose skipped that to allow us the length so we could bring the shower down to the five year olds head while she sitting down...i'll have ot look close tonight!
 
You only need a couple of inches clearance above the potential water level in the bath/ shower tray.
 
My house already has pipe work in place. Bought toilets, sinks, baths and taps etc. was to be pressurised but plumber changed to gravity fed. Anyway he now says that because of the toilets(dual flush) and taps chosen that the pressure may be low.Shop has said that taps/toilets suitable for both high and low pressure but I'm now worried.

Is it possible to install a pump now (floors are poured)? I'm told that the power shower won't work on a pressurised system so I could change this to an electric
shower and just close off the hot water feed and change the cold feed to a mains feed in the attic.

Any comments appreciated
 
beldin said:
The problem with most houses these days is the tank in the attic is approx 1 meter above the shower upstairs so won't generate much power. If it could be raised it would increase the pressure but that is an awkward job...
Only problem with pumps is that they are noisy.
Click to expand...

Our tank is just about one meter over the shower head. I am looking at reorganising the attic space to make it more usable/accessible and it occurred to me that I could raise the tank
at the same time. Should I go for as much height as possible?
Any think else I should consider?
 
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