Shower problem

NukaV

Here's a fun little one.

A few months ago we got our main and en suite bathroms redone. As part of it, both bathrooms got the exact same shower type installed: the en suite one has worked since day one.

Our issue is that the main bathroom one doesn't work properly. It did at first, but now two replaced parts later (the same valve each time) and we're back to square one. Essentially it's a bar mixer from Better Bathrooms and I'm fairly sure it's the ecobar one, or at least identical design but instead of feeding out of the bottom it goes out of the top with the temp control on the right-hand side. The water isn't making it through the mixer properly, being either lukewarm or cold despite the setting being on maximum heat. It worked for a while properly after the valve had been replaced each time, before returning to lukewarm/cold. To the touch, the left-hand side of the bar is warm/hot as it should be, and the right cold, but the stem feeding the heads is cold (i.e. no hot water is making it past the valve). All taps including the bath, and the other shower all run hot water just fine.

Unsure if related, but since we had the work done we've also had whining pipes when water is in use (toilet, shower, taps, but not heating), and now recently with the heating being on as well the boiler locks out more often when you try to use hot water via the shower and heating together, which it didn't do before.

The stopcock hasn't been touched, though I do know it's not "on" very far, only a turn at most. So could it be an issue of the boiler not being fed enough water to then go on and equalise pressure, as well as feed other systems? And yet the other shower of the exact same model has no issue. If it's an airlock how do I fix? If anything the pipes noise issue made me think of the stopcock.

We're entirely mains fed and don't have a cold tank in the loft, we're running a Potterton Powermax HE boiler in the second bedroom in an airing cupboard that's been recently serviced.

As an additional note: I did manage to get the shower running hot the other day with the cold tap from the sink in the bathroom running, and it seems to work best when the heating isn't on.

The house was newly built in 2003, and I don't know if it helps but this is Anglian's report on our area:

The water in your area is hard.

To help set your domestic appliances, the water hardness in different units is:
251 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium Carbonate
100.4 mg/l (or parts per million) :Calcium
17.47 °C :Degrees Clark
25.1 °F :Degrees French
14.257 °dH :Degrees German
2.51 mmol/l :Millimoles

NukaV

Oh, just because I've remembered this bit:

The whine is the loudest in the main bathroom (where said broken shower is) and can be interrupted/stopped by running most/any tap anywhere in the house.

Any source of water can cause it though.

andyhop

The problem is the source of the items

You don't get quality durable items especially brassware from this company

bluesnake

here is my guess.

The hot water does not have enough working pressure, and the new Eco shower bar you have fitted needs 1 bar pressure for the taps/regulator to work, so now you have less flow? Think 1 bar is water pressure from about 10m height. 0.1 bar means it only needs he pressure from 1m for it to sort of flow, but at 1, do not expect it to gush.

The old shower bar needed a 0.1 bar working pressure which gives more at the head?


The bath tape are both lower, and i would guess also have a minimum working pressure of 0.1 bar. This working pressure only seem to have come in with ceramic cartidges. The old black washer taps had about a 0 bar working pressure as they just opened a hole, rather than ceramic pressing together.
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On mine both hot and cold water have filters on the incoming eater to the bar, is the hot one blocked?

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When fitting your new one??? you mis-aligned the (already misaligned) the hot water stop/positioning settings?

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Normally you can get out the air by getting only the hot water run at full blast. Air normally will be absorbed by water over a length of time.

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my guess is that if the flow is not there, you have got a 1, rather than 0.1 bar min working pressure part.

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Bad pump

******

Individually take both the bars off and time how long it takes to fill a bucket so you will know if the pipe is blocked or not and you can get rid of excess air. You did fit isolating valves on all shower inputs to the mixer

andyhop

BTW if the mixer valve outlet is just a single outlet and it's on the top it's been incorrectly piped and fitted