Hot water too hot, cold low(ish) pressure

alexalexalex

Hi All,

I know this will need someone to actually come out and look at the problem but I'm having an absolute nightmare trying to get plumbers to even come to the house and view/quote let alone actually get some work done! :mad:

We've just bought a house, all seemed fine with the boiler - heating comes on fine and gets nice and warm nice and quickly, hot water runs and gets hot so no problems there we thought... It was only when we tried to take a shower that we noticed a problem - the shower would cycle from comfortably hot to absolutely scalding hot and back again then the next day it would cycle from scalding hot to freezing cold every 30 seconds or so
I checked the manual (its a Triton T80si if it makes a difference) for the shower which suggested either low pressure or a blockage somewhere in the pipes (i tried taking off the shower head and hose, but no difference)
We thought it was just the shower originally but since those problems we've noticed that the hot taps which were getting lovely and hot are actually getting excessively hot too and the cold taps don't seem to have much pressure behind them. I've tried changing the temperature on the water tank to its lowest setting - no effect

The house was standing empty for quite a while before we moved in so i don't know if that would have any effect on this? I was going to get a boiler service anyway, could that potentially help as well? It's and Ideal Icos HE18 Boiler

Anybody had problems like these before? what was the solution (and cost!) in your case?

thanks

macman

A Triton T80si is an electric shower, so it's nothing to do with your hot water system or boiler!
It takes it's water supply off the rising main and heats it in the shower unit. Sounds like a thermostat fault or flow issue.

WestonDave

Descale the shower head - that cycling can be a indicator that the head is scaled up - that blocks the flow which on an instant heat shower will cause overheating.

The other one to check is that the water at the main stop valve is on full - if its been turned down low or was off before you moved in, make sure its been turned back on properly - might be worth turning it off and then reopening it as sometimes this shifts it past a sticky bit on the thread.

alexalexalex

I tried taking off the shower head and hose completely and the water running straight from the wall unit was still cycling in temperature so if it is a block then it must be somewhere further inside.

I'll try turning the stop valve off and on again when I get home, hopefully it will be as simple as that

tigeress289

As already posted, you have to check the mains pressure coming in as the cold taps should have a constant flow rate.
Once you have sorted that the water from the boiler should be fine. If the triton still comes out to hot, I would replace it.

keystone

Your next step after the shower head is to descale the heater can.

Cheers

gas4you

I would agree.

Sounds like heater element scaled up and going to overheat every 30 seconds.