Needing a Shower for my Bathroom

leeegglestone

Just moved into Property and my bathroom doesnt have a Shower but I want one.

In the local paper a company, will provide a Shower and price includes installation.

ranging from £185-£220 depending on Shower selected.

Redring super 7x - £185
Redring super 7s - £195
Redring plus 8 - £205
Aquatron Sigma - £205
Triton T80 - £205
Miralex Supreme - £220

Now I am not sure if this is just for installing one where a Shower has been in the past.
Advert was under Electricians, a parent told me about it and no wonder I couldnt find the advert, I checked Plumbing. could this mean that the company simply replace where a Shower previously was as all the plumbing would be already done


Do you think that is probably the case based on the Price. As new Pipes would need to be fed down from the Tank into the Bathroom,directy above.

If that is the case, am i better off buying my Own Shower and then getting Quotes for it to be installed?

One point I forgot. The shower would be going to be for inside the Bath & not a separate cubicle.

Lee

Alan_M_2

These are straight replacement prices, any extra plumbing would be additional to these prices.

leeegglestone

hmm so considering they were under the Electricians section. Is it likely that these people wouldnt do the Plumbing. Suppose I could ring and see if they would give me a Free Quote for supplying and doing the work.

Im just not sure if this is the case, if I should buy the Shower myself & then get someone to Install it etc.

Alan_M_2

Personally I wouldn't go for any of the units mentioned above over the year I've found Mira to be the most reliable electric shower available.

http://www.mirashowers.com/sportflash/newmirasport.html

These retail around the £180 mark, for a 9.8kw unit which gives a good performance, hunt around at the local plumbers merchant and you may well do better than that, some on Ebay at £140.

The get a price for someone to come and fit it, plumber or electrician really depends on the size and condition of the existing electrical supply and if it complies with current electrical regualtions.

leeegglestone

So for the actual shower I should be looking at above £150 for a decent one. I really have no idea what kind to ge or the differences and so will go off peoples recommendations. Dont wanna spend more money on something else which would be equally as good cheaper.

I have no idea how much installing its gonna cost.

leeegglestone

Am on the Case for my Shower again, sick & tired of having to put the Gas on in advance to heat some water.

The bathroom has no existing Shower. Are the Showers named above ones I should avoid & therefore just buy my own & then get people round for Quotes to fit it.
Can anyone advise me on types & where best to buy from. it will be going over the Bath

ka7e

We have recently replaced our 10 yr-old Gainsborough Princess shower with a new Gainsborough 9.5 SDL shower from Argos (£69.99). It's an electric shower that heats water directly from the mains. As it was the cheapest one around, we have been pleasantly surprised with the great improvement in the pressure of the water getting through.
A mixer shower is the cheapest way to go - but you still need to have hot water available through your central heating boiler, and the supply can be limited especially if you have a condensing boiler.
An electric shower is usually the next cheapest option, but you need a cold water feed (presumably from your normal bathroom supply if the pressure is good enough) and we have a specific electrical cable directly connected to the junction box ie. isolated from the main electric supply. That is what pushes the price up if you have no existing shower!

leeegglestone

I would prefer Electric as its Instant, as & when you need it. plus electric is cheaper than gas aint it.
My Dads friend t
ook a look a while ago and i think he said I would need a Direct cold water Feed, which would have to come down from the Tank in the Attic and couldnt just be tapped into from the Bath or Sink. The tank is almost directly above the bathroom.

I doubt I have this Electric Cable thats required. Does have an estimate of how much it would cost, for this cable, plus the installation of the actual Shower where it needs its own Feed.

I dont wanna g o and buy one and then find that its gonna be expensive for it to be Done.

BobProperty

I know this thread has been going a while, but I thought I'd add a few things. The original list looked suspiciously like "showers that could be fitted with 6mm cable". These days with the requirements of Part P especially, it is often the electrical work that causes the difficulty and the plumbing work is reasonably straight forward (that doesn't stop sparks making a bad job of it though )

If you are installing an electric shower, then it needs a mains water feed. When your Dad's friend said it should be taken from the tank in the roof he meant (I hope) taken from the feed to the tank in the roof.

If you are having an electric shower fitted and you need the wiring doing, it is likely to be done in 10mm these days. You will possibly need a new fuse/MCB. You will also need either Building Regs or a Part P approved electrician to install it. Depending on what shower you choose, I think you are looking at a few hundred to get this done.

leeegglestone

Would this mean the whole Electric Box would need to be re-done?

So Few hundred for installation?

moneysavingplumber

There are a whole load of considerations to take into account before committing to installing a mains fed electric shower. If your consumer unit (fuse board) is an old Wylex type with push-in wired or cartridge fuses and it is a totally new installation then if you don't want to replace it you will usually need to have a separate single point RCD fitted just for the shower. Just replacing the old fuses with MCBs on the same board isn't acceptable as far as I am aware, although I have seen it done and is better than having it running off rewireables or cartridges, but a responsible electrician will need to assess the entire installation complies with part P as previously stated, which as far as I know includes the earth leakage device for heater showers as mandatory, although until recently this was a recommendation only, but I personally wouldn't shower in there if there wasn't one. Anyone that fully understands Part L and Part P should immediately apply for a job as a building inspector and be the first building inspector that does .

Internal cable sizing is one issue, but the size of your main and other appliances is another. If you have an old 60 Amp main and intend installing a 45 Amp shower and you also have electric heating, cooker and immersion heater (even as only a back-up it still needs 15 Amps free) then you may come up against a problem, although most should be 100 Amp at least, but it's worth checking before you buy the shower. Unfortunately I have had dozens of customers over the years that buy a cheap electric shower for £60 from B & Q without realising the possible problems and cost of installation, and some even buy them thinking that they can replace integral power showers that run from tank-fed hot and colds like for like!

Most electric heater showers are a compromise at best, although I agree with Alan M in that if you are going to have one then Mira are the most reliable. Taking into account the above cost of adding the RCD and new cabling, the electrical side is unlikely to cost under £250, although this is variable to proximity to the board and cable route etc. Plumbing is the easy part.