Shower cold when heating on.

poet123

Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be?

We have a pump power shower in our shower room, the water to the taps is very hot regardless of whether the heating is on or off, but the water in shower is lukewarm unless the heating is off. The tank is in the loft.

keystone

A power shower draws it supplies from the cold tank and hot cylinder. If its plumbed properly then if the tap water is hot (ie the cylinder is hot) then the shower should also be hot. There is (or should be) no connection to the operation of the central heating.

An electric shower draws its supply only from mains cold which it then heats. This is even further removed from the central heating.

Something does not compute.

Have you defo got a power shower or is it an electric showe? Have you defo got an open vented system with cold storage in the roof (as you say) and hot storage elsewhere with a heat only boiler? or have you got a combi boiler supplying your DHW and heating requirements and an electric shower quite separate?

Cheers

Edit: Missed out the heat bank and unvented options which could go on all night so what I'm really saying is please describe your system rather better than you have already. Ta

poet123

Thanks for answering.

It is a power shower with a pump not an electric one, the tank is in the loft and we have a Baxi back boiler downstairs.

keystone

So you have a hot water cylinder somewhere as well? Its the cold tank thats in the loft - yes? What is the make/model of the power shower?

As you have an old back boiler I'm guesing you either have a gravity HW system or a fully pumped system. Does your system configuration look like this:



or like this:



Cheers

poet123

It is a gravity fed system, there is a hot water tank in the loft as well. I can't remember the make and model of the shower I am afraid but it is approx 5 years old and it has had a new pump in the last 2 years. The boiler is approx 8 years old and sits behind a flame effect electronically controlled fire.

keystone

So gravity HW and pumped CH?

Cheers

poet123

Yes, we have a pump for the CH downstairs next to the back boiler, and the HW is gravity fed.

Can you suggest what the problem may be?

keystone

Now we've established how it looks the thought processes become a bit easier (bear of exceeding small brain see). Power showers can be exceedingly sensitive to flow changes and unbalanced supplies. How is the shower actually piped? Gravity systems can be tempremental too. I wonder if your cylinder has enough water in it? This needs hands on so I think you need to get someone in. I mean a proper heating engineer who understands these things too not a BG laddie straight out of the egg who can only just about manage to take the cover off a combi without the aid of his tuffbook. That was harsh and unfair probably but you get my drift.

Cheers

poet123

Thanks, we have been trying, but everyone seems to be very busy..... You think it is a heating issue though rather than a shower issue?

southcoastrgi

just to throw a spanner in the works, are you sure it's gravity ? if the boiler is only 8 yrs old it really should have been upgraded to fully pumped when the boiler was replaced

poet123

southcoastrgi wrote: »

just to throw a spanner in the works, are you sure it's gravity ? if the boiler is only 8 yrs old it really should have been upgraded to fully pumped when the boiler was replaced

I think it is still gravity fed, we had an issue with the installer (long story, ended up in court, we won) and the problems had to be sorted by another plumber who had the job of trying to sort out the most urgent issues so probably didn't want to completely re jig the whole system just get us heating and hot water. It has been fine up until 2 weeks ago.