Plumber's advice needed - shower query

Beenie

We live in a bungalow. The water pressure is from a tank in the loft and is .3 bar.

We do not have boiler-fed water central heating. Instead, we have a hot air system that comes up via 'registers' in the floor.

Our shower needs replacing. It is a Trevi system that was installed in 1997 (so 17 years ago). The bathroom is in dire need of re-tiling etc. so we have bitten the bullet and are having new tiles etc. done in mid Dec. The question is should we have the shower replaced?

Bearing in mind we have very hard water, live in a bungalow, do not have a boiler either conventional or combi, what possibilities are out there for people like us?

Crinkmeister

What is is that you want? You can have a new low pressure shower, an electric shower (mains pressure), a pumped shower (using existing low pressure hot and cold water feed) or no shower at all! I assume your water is heated by immersion heater? Is the hot water cylinder in good condition?

Beenie

Yes, immersion heater. Cylinder is in v. good condition.

We've been using other showers recently (relatives, hotels etc) and love the abundance of water and ease of switching on. With our current one, you have to turn on the shower and wait for the hot water to come through, and then the shower is only just adequate.

I'ne never heard about a low pressure shower. That sounds like something we could fit in our bathroom. I'm not keen on fancy electric things that can go wrong such as digital or pumped showers. Gravity works all the time!

Crinkmeister

What you have now is a low pressure system. You're never going to get the sort of shower that I think you want without some increase in pressure which will translate into more litres per minute. To get what you want simply, I'd be thinking of an electric shower. They heat water instantaneously, so no waste hot water and it comes at nearly full mains pressure, provided you have a high enough powered unit. You need an electrician to run the cabling as an electric shower installation is notifiable.