Suggestions to improve my shower

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Dear Moneysavers, I would be much obliged if someone could suggest ways to improve my shower.

The current shower is a mixer tap over the bath.
The cold water pressure is good.
The hot water comes from a gravity fed system which is heated by a Potterton Flamingo 40.
The hot water tank is in the same bathroom as the shower and the cold water tank is in the loft approx 1.5m above the shower head.

Getting the hot and cold to mix properly is a real problem. It's either red hot or ice cold.

I generally set the hot tap to full open and adjust the cold to suit but the sweet spot is a fraction of a turn on the cold tap. A turn of about 5 degrees is all it takes to go from ice to fire.

So, can anyone suggest ways to get a consistent temperature? Any increase in overall 'power' of the shower would be welcomed too.

Some thoughts I had...

- Get a better mixer tap.
- Raise the cold water tank in the loft to increase pressure in the hot water system.
- Insert a pump in between the bath hot tap and the hot water tank.

Regards, Keith

WestonDave

Not really a lot you can do - the pressure from your cold tap is such that its going to very quickly overwhelm the hot where there is virtually no hot water head (i.e. the tank needs to be higher than the shower head)

You could go for something like an Aqualisa Quartz shower which involves fitting a thermostatic pump in the loft which will draw water from the hot tank plus either the cold mains or the cold tank (can't remember how ours was set up in the old house), mix it and then feed it down a tube through the bathroom ceiling to feed the shower (looks like the tube you normally mount the shower head on). Also within that tube are the control wires from the electronic control. That is (was - its probably 8 years since we had ours fitted and we then moved out) a seriously nice shower (I still miss it 4 years after we moved) but the downside is it doesn't half shift a tank of hot water - and that's without the boost being on! I'm sure there are plenty of other solutions but that was what we had with effectively the same hot water set up as you. (They do a mains fed version with no pump so be careful if you are ordering it yourself!)

keystone

If the cold is at mains pressure (teed off the riser going up to the roof) the cold will always overwhelm the hot.

If the cold is tank fed from the roof and the hot from the cylinder the head will be the same (sorry to disagree Dave) because the hot gets its head from the height of the CSWT above the shower head in exactly the same way as the cold.

The problem is 1.5m is really rather low.

You could fit a thermostatic BSM such as the Mira Excel but you need quite a bit of cash for it although it is truly excellent CLICKY. Take no notice of the RRP on the site you can get them for a lot less than that. That will not increase the flow rate though. Using a thermostatic BSM avoids repiping and fitting a dedicated shower thermo valve on the wall although this is also a possibility.

Pump the supplies to your new thermo mixer (whether BSM or dedicated) to increase flow rate. As long as you have separate drawoffs for both hot and cold at the HWC and CSWT you can pump it. The CSWT MUST be a minimum 50 gal capacity though. The pump can be in the roofspace, in the airing cupboard next to the HWC or even under the bath if that makes sense- all depends on the piping arrangements.

Cheers

keystone

WestonDave wrote: »

water from the hot tank plus either the cold mains or the cold tank

No sorry but you can't mix mains cold with tank hot as the supplies will be totally unbalanced. Equally you may NOT pump mains pressure water (Water Regs). Both H & C must be at the same pressure which means hot from HWC and cold from CWST.

Cheers

XBell

keystone wrote: »

Pump the supplies to your new thermo mixer (whether BSM or dedicated) to increase flow rate. As long as you have separate drawoffs for both hot and cold at the HWC and CSWT you can pump it. The CSWT MUST be a minimum 50 gal capacity though. The pump can be in the roofspace, in the airing cupboard next to the HWC or even under the bath if that makes sense- all depends on the piping arrangements.

Cheers

Thanks keystone, I'm having exactly the same problem. Quick question - what is BSM? I am not sure about our cold water tank, but my husband claims its MASSIVE. How much is 50 gallons?

If I may take advantage of your good nature.... Do you have any recommendations for a pump duty and make? Will you recommend a plumber fitting it etc or will my grumpy old mate do?

Thanks for your advice in advance

ormus

bath shower mixer.

imagine:
50 gallons is like 10 x 5 gall cans of oil.

gavinp

We have a similar setup - cold water tank in loft, hot water fed from a big copper cylinder and use a booster pump to get a decent shower.

We have had a Techflow QT80 for the last 3 years which are available from a lot of different sources - this is just one shop selling them - worth shopping around:

http://www.bathroomexpress.co.uk/acatalog/160202.html

One of the key advantages of this pump is that it is comparatively quiet - some can be VERY noisy. No problems with it so far (touch wood!). Both the hot and cold are boosted by the pump so this evens up the pressure to some extent.

We have ours fed directly to the shower valve but I understand you can feed them to the taps if required (some people use them to fill their baths quicker apparently).

Thanks

Gavin

keystone

ormus wrote: »

bath shower mixer.

Ta

50 gallons is like 10 x 5 gall cans of oil.

227 litres or approx 4½ tanks worth on your average family car.

Cheers

keystone

XBell wrote: »

Thanks keystone, I'm having exactly the same problem. Quick question - what is BSM? I am not sure about our cold water tank, but my husband claims its MASSIVE. How much is 50 gallons?

as answered by Ormus and amplified by me above.

If I may take advantage of your good nature.... Do you have any recommendations for a pump duty and make? Will you recommend a plumber fitting it etc or will my grumpy old mate do?

I agree totally with prevous poster. Techflow are an extremely good pump manufacturer - not the cheapest by far but first class quality

If your grumpy old mate can cope with:

1. Providing a dedicated (separate from all other drawoffs) cold draw off direct from the Cold Water Storage tank = drain tank, drill hole in tank, fit approriate flange, valve and pipework.

2. Providing a dedicated and separate hot water draw off from the cylinder = fit techflange or essex flange to body of cylinder or adjust vent pipe to provide 45 degree angled pipe from which you tee off the pump supply (must include antigravity loop with this alternative)

3. Providing the necessary volts for said pump.

Then he'll be good to go.

Cheers

XBell

Sounds like a job for the plumber then.. Just looked at some pumps at they're easily in region of £200+. With fitting, could it come up to £300-£400?

Another alternative, which husband is keen on, is just to change the boiler to a combi boiler. Will that solve the shower problem? Combi boiler + fitting etc will be about £2000 so new pump still cheaper but we could do with a general update.....Think I'll start playing the lottery!