Low hot water pressure

keystone

all too often unfortunately.

Cheers

happybiker

WGG1848 wrote: »

Seems that advice was lacking at point of sale.
We have the hot water cylinder system and it has been suggested that a solution could come from fitting a pump to the hot feed for this particlulasr tap, this would recognise that the hot water tap had been opened and the pump would come on.
Would this work?

Not only was point of sale advice incorrect but the 'professional' who fitted the tap should have noticed it was an incorrect type and informed you before installation.

Yes , the suggestion would PROBABLY work. It would be an initially very expensive way of solving the problem and you would incur running costs for the electricity used as the pump ran. There would also be a possible noise and vibration problem from the pump which could cause other future problems. The pump itself could also be liable to expensive failure, It's just another moving part to go wrong. Someone evidently wants to make a lot of profit at your expense.

The Correct advice given by several obviously competent people on here is to CHANGE THE ( expletive deleted) TAP if you don't want to cause yourself further trouble.

keystone

happybiker wrote: »

Not only was point of sale advice incorrect but the 'professional' who fitted the tap should have noticed it was an incorrect type and informed you before installation.

In fairness its quite possible that the POS muppet doesn't understand the problem and we don't know that the professional didn't.

OP has already said that they don't accept the installers explanation because the cold works fine (which says to me that installer hasn't explained properly either).

OP the difficulty here is that you will have water at two different pressures at your kitchen sink. The cold which wil be from mains and the hot from your tank. The cold will be at iro 3 bar and the hot at approx 0.5 bar.

Now I know that the specification for the tap will probably say "works down to 0.5 bar" but the manufacturers specs never tell you what flow rate you will get at that pressure. Its a bit like a spec for a car saying "runs on three cylinders" which it will but you ain't going to be no Michael Schumacher behind the wheel as you chug down the road.

Modern European style (where eveything has been at mains pressure for some years) taps are highly restrictive to flow and by the time the installer has put in the obligatory isolating valve (also restrictive to flow unless he used a full bore one) and probably flexi tails (also restrictive to flow) it adds up to very poor flow rate performance such as you have experienced.

I hope that goes some way to explaining it a bit better.

Cheers

ListysDad

happybiker wrote: »

Not only was point of sale advice incorrect but the 'professional' who fitted the tap should have noticed it was an incorrect type and informed you before installation.

The problem here HB is that 99.9% of home owners do not want to hear what a professional tells them! Most of the time they toddle off to a shed, buy a crap tap for nowt and then ask someone to fit it. When it's pointed out to them that it is indeed rubbish, and they'll be able to pee quicker than the tap will deliver, YOU then become the bad guy. I've now learned to walk away from those because, as you are the last one to touch it, it's patently YOUR fault it's not working!!!

No one speaks if no one is prepared to listen!

WGG1848

Hi and thanks for the interest.
The new tap is a Itho 3 in 1 which has a Itho H2OTAP for boiling hot water. Cold and boiling is excellent, 3 bar setting into the heater.
The previous tap was a Frankie 3 in 1, hot, cold and filtered.
The feed pipe on the old tap from the 15m feed appears to be the same diameter as the new one, and the hot water flow whilst not brilliant was far better than the Itho tap.
It was because we had the Frankie tap previously, the new tap, prior to fitting, did not ring any alarm bells with us.
No mention of any possible problems were given from the kitchen supplier or the plumber during the planning or fitting of the unit.
Buying a new kitchen is mind blowing, whilst exciting during the planning, there are so many decisions to make, these can only be made if discussed fully beforehand.
It was a different plumber who suggested the shower pump solution, which would only be fitted to the one hot water tap feed., changing the tap is not an option due to the boiler.

Canucklehead

HI.

Could you not use the combi kit? Steps 9 & 10

You will have a large dead leg of hot pipe if you disconnect the domestic hot supply. You should cut and cap from the last tee in the system to avoid this if possible.

Fitting a pump will create a lot of noise and will give a massive flow of hot.
I wouldn't recommend this method.

Not sure I would want one of these things lurking under my kitchen unit!

GSR

WGG1848

Thanks for the suggestion, Itho rep is getting in touch, so will discuss your suggestion with him.