Electric shower, not hot enough even on max?

lil_old_me

We moved into our house last year. We have a Aqualisa Quartz shower in the bathroom. The previous owner installed this in Jan 2012. We have this on the maximum setting and it is just about hot enough. It is not right. Any idea what this could be or how to rectify?

It is a mains fed shower

thefishdude

electric showers are pretty basic things water goes in goes over a heating element the speeed of the water flowing over the element determines how hot it is. and some showeres have 2 heat settings for like winter and summer but looks like you dont have to do that on that shower range.

generally speaking electric shoers get colder in winter so you have to turn them up. does it work ok in summer ??? if its fine in summer but not in winter then it may just be that its a bit low powered for the water pressure at your house. faster water comes out the higher the kw needed to heat it wich is not as much of an issue in summer bt you do notice it a lot in winter.

either that or its now broken.

lil_old_me

Thank you. It was marginally better in summer, but even then it was nearly on maximum and now it is on maximum. It only has one dial, heat.

nickcc

If it only has one dial then this just reduces the flow of water, as previous post, the slower the flow the hotter the water. Looks like you need a higher KW shower, mines 9 KW and supplies sufficient hot water when the flow is reduced.

lil_old_me

It is a 9.5kw shower

jayyar66

As previously posted, in the winter electric showers can be pretty dismal things, especially the lower power ones. . . . However, if it WAS working ok then there's a fair chance that one of the heater elements has packed up. This should be fairly easy to confirm. Spares are readily available, googling 'showerdoc' will see you right.

jayyar66

Damn . . . . there's been more posts whilst I was typing!!
Ok, if it's just got the one control on the front, temperature, then its only going to have the one heater element, again, as previously said, without going to the expense of fitting a completely different type of shower, your only option is to fit a higher power shower. A 10.8kW item. Do make sure your existing electric cable is up to the load though first. 10mm cable at least.

keystone

Right. This shower is fitted with Over Temperature Protection. This overrides the user setting so that irespective of how far you crank the heat control over the water temperature will never exceed 45 degrees C. Now if you are used to a shower producing 60 degs C then yes it will not feel hot enough.

Ring Aqualisa Tech support 01959560010 in the morning and discuss it with them. They are quite helpful people.

Cheers