Mixer Shower Not Eough Pressure

[cazdee]

Have just had a mixer shower fitted, the pressure is almost non existant.
Not a combi boiler, has anyone any ideas what I need to do to get the pressure up.
Thanks for any answers.
Cazdee

[KJN]

If it is a gravity fed shower then a pump will do the job.

[The Builder]

Caz, perhaps you can give us the make and model number? Really just to rule out the possibility that a combi shower has been fitted by mistake.

Gravity-fed showers can work with as low as 75mm head ( that is, the height of the water level in the rooftank needs only be 75mm above the shower.)

What will affect it greatly, is how the pipework is routed. Has the pipework been altered?

I guess it's a thermostatic mixer?

[cazdee]

Thanks for responses. It is an Aqualisa midas plus.

[The Builder]

Caz....... whoever fitted it should have known that the Midas is suitable for Combi boilers (mains pressure) and gravity systems (which yours is) BUT, it must be a boosted system (pumped).

It needs around 1 bar of water pressure, (approx 10 metres of "head") which, unless you have a five storey building........... is not likely :o(

Was this not mentioned?

[cazdee]

Oh dear, no this was not mentioned, do I need a new shower or will a pump surfice? Unfortunately I live in a bungalow not a five storey house!

[craft1948]

I had to have a pump fitted (I'm in a bungalow)

[tonyav]

Yes but crafty, the water has further to fall in your case !.

[The Builder]

lol Tony........... I'm trying to get over the thought of Craft having a pump fitted ...............

Caz, this is already quite an expensive shower, and it's now going to cost more. The upside is that'll it will be good!

One of these will do it.....
The cheapest look a bit too cheap here. Go for somewhere in the middle.

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/shower-pumps-by-brand-3218-0000

Go for a twin impeller (one for hot; one for cold)
Fit it either in the airing cupboard, or, in the roofspace if the supplies come down from above.
Under the bath if that's where the H&C are connected. It'll need an electrical supply of course.

[cazdee]

Thanks for your help.

[chakka35]

Best long-term solution is to do away with the loft water-tank which serves no purpose anyway. No need to remove the tank (which is often impossible anyway); a simple plumbing bypass then supplies all cold water in the house at mains pressure.

[The Builder]

I have to correct Chakka there... unless I've got his post wrong.
Caz doesn't have a Combi (mains pressure) boiler. Without the roof-tank, there would be no hot water at all.
Further to that, if the hot water remains at low pressure (gravity tank-fed), and the cold is converted to direct mains, then no shower mixer bar will ever work. They need equal pressures.

[chakka35]

I bow to your greater knowledge, The Builder. My last two houses (which I've occupied from 1969-1988 and 1988 to present day) both had loft rooms already built and therefore no loft tank. They both had fairly primitive hotwater systems when I first moved in, all of which worked off the rising main.
It seems odd that anyone should manufacture a system that relies on such an out-of-date, redundant idea as a static water tank. But there we are. Thanks for your correction.

[cazdee]

Would this be solved by getting a combi boiler. It seems the way the pipework is installed is making problems. The plumber now wants to break into shower through living room wall, as bathroom is now tiled.

[cazdee]

As my boiler is at least 17 years old, wondering if it would be more cost effective to replace this. Feel I may go to all the trouble and expense of new pipework through living room wall, just to have boiler breakdown in few months time.
Thanks for any thoughts.