Shower pump

Andyleung

I'm in the middle of choosing all the bits and peices i need for refurbishing my bathroom. once of which is a curved bath and shower.
One of the thing i have got stuck on is the shower pump.
I think a 2 bar will suffice but not sure if the screwfix or a Salamander CT75 2.0 Bar shower pump one on ebay are more or less the same.
Can someone give me tips on which is better?
Also are they noisey?

Thanks
Andy

Alan_M_2

Salamander are ok, they are a mid range product and pretty good value for money. If you want a decent pump that will last for years then Stuart Turner is the name to go for.

2 BAR will give a good flow and will be fine for anything up to a 9" drencher shower head, for a regular shower head you'll probably find something like a Stuart Turner 1.4 Bar Showermate would be fine.

None of these are particularly quiet though.

If you haven't bought your shower yet I'd strongly recommend the Aqualisa Quartz pumped unit, you get the whole lot in one and it's the esiest installation you can get. These shower units were an absolute revolution.

plumb1_2

Yea i agree Stuart Turner best on the market, worth paying the extra.
Plus you will always be able to get spares, and a good company to deal with.

I was once working in Penrith(the lake district)and they sent me 2 pumps by courier nextday

Andyleung

Thanks luckily i have not bought the shower pump yet, and will go for the Stuart Turner Monsoon 2.0 bar Positive Twin Pump, as that sounds like the best around for price.

moonrakerz

I have been considering a pump for the shower in a house I am refurbishing. My plumber said that it is surprising how quickly you can empty your hot water tank with a pump. Make sure you have a big tank or take short showers !

Alan_M_2

He's right, you need a minimum 50 gallon water tank and ideally a quick recovery cylinder, that should cope with a single bathroom/shower with a 2 BAR pump.

If you have 2 Bathrooms or a running a 3 Bar pump you'll need to double these capacities.

George_Bray

plumb1 wrote:

Yea i agree Stuart Turner best on the market, worth paying the extra...I was once working in Penrith(the lake district)and they sent me 2 pumps by courier nextday

They should be able to afford favours like that, with the prices they charge for their shower pumps in the UK. Speaking as a keen money saver, I suggest their prices are daylight robbery.

I worked in Africa for a while and came across virtually the same pumps by Stuart Turner there, aimed at pumping well water or suchlike but essentially the same pumps. They were sold for less than 10% of the UK price, from which I assumed they are just charging the maximum possible price to gullible UK consumers. There was no evidence of currency differences or subsidies accounting for the huge price difference.

Regards
George

Alan_M_2

If they were produced in Africa they can probably afford to sell them at 10% of what they charge here.

I can buy and ship stone and marble from all over Europe to sell in this country for less than a UK quarry can produce it for in this country, no ones being ripped off, the problem is there is no working class anymore in this country, everyone expects too much, as a result we have to pay for it.

gromituk

It doesn't help when UK quarries (Kirkstone in my case) refuse to supply at trade price to the consumer, requiring me to get a letter from a builder for an instant 25% (IIRC) discount.

Back vaguely on topic: as has been hinted at already, putting in a power shower can really waste huge amounts of water - more than a bath - and the energy needed to heat it. But I know that the average shower with a 3' head from the cold water cistern is pathetic.

George_Bray

Alan_M wrote:

If they were produced in Africa they can probably afford to sell them at 10% of what they charge here.

But they weren't produced in Africa (of course). They were made in the UK, then shipped at some significant cost to Africa, and still costed 10% of the rip-off UK price.

Alan_M_2

gromituk wrote:

It doesn't help when UK quarries (Kirkstone in my case) refuse to supply at trade price to the consumer, requiring me to get a letter from a builder for an instant 25% (IIRC) discount.

Interesting, do you consider you are automatically entitled to trade discount? And if so why?

Do you feel you should be able to buy at the same price as someone who would make 12 purchases a year from the same quarry?

Not criticism, just curious how people think and why people generally consider they are entitled to some form of discount.

I upset a lot of builders and people who consider themselves in the trade, I don't differentiate between trade and retail, my prices are solely based on volume. The bigger your order the cheaper it becomes per unit, my only exception being genuine trade purchases, that's basically retailers that I supply who order a lot of product every month, month in month out.

My personal favourites are the amateur property developers that phone up with "Large" orders looking for a deal, Large isn't 50 sq/m, we deal in container quantites (400 - 800 sq/m per container), buying a container is a large order, relatively of course.