Shower - gravity fed hot and mains fed cold

Thurso_man

Hi

Needing to replace my shower. It’s never been great since I bought my house and now the temperature won’t change. I think the cartridge is knackered and I’ve tried to take it out to try and find a replacement and I can’t get it out. Also when I type the make of the shower (bossini) into google the cartridges are like £90. So a good way towards a new shower.

I was looking at showers online but I have a gravity fed hot and a mains fed cold (might be why the shower hasn’t been working great all along.

I have read online that the water has to be delivered at equal pressure, is there any mixer shower available that can sort out this prpblem? It’s surely a common plumbing set up and not everyone will have electric showers with just cold feeds?

I was looking on the screwfix is website and some of their showers say they fit all plumbing set ups but then when you look at the manufacture notes they say the pressure must be equal.

Cheer for you help.

Tom99

you need a shower pump if you want to increase the flow or mount the cold water tank in the loft higher up.

andyhop

You will need to pipe to suit . You used to be able to buy Venturi valves that worked with unbalanced suppliers though it’s not something I’ve fitted before

If you have a low pressure hot water state your better just adding a new connection to the cold water storage tank . Some of the Mira showers will give reasonable results even with very little head

That or add a twin headed pump

Please don’t just add a single headed pump as per other reply . You will still end up with unbalanced suppliers

billn

If you are considering using the header tank to feed both hot and cold make sure it is big enough and the hot feed needs to be higher up the tank than the cold so if it does run out the hot will go first and you won't be scolded.

Thurso_man

The trouble I am having is that I a man only getting hot water through, the only way I can regulate the temperature is my changing the temp on the tank.

I am not 100% my shower is mains fed, all the other taps in the house are but it's not as easy to test my shower. is there anyway I can find out, bearing in mind the shower cold doesn't seem to Ben working so isolating the hot water and the cold water mains probably won't help.

WhoIsThat

Thurso_man wrote: »

Hi

Needing to replace my shower. It!!!8217;s never been great since I bought my house and now the temperature won!!!8217;t change. I think the cartridge is knackered and I!!!8217;ve tried to take it out to try and find a replacement and I can!!!8217;t get it out. Also when I type the make of the shower (bossini) into google the cartridges are like £90. So a good way towards a new shower.

I was looking at showers online but I have a gravity fed hot and a mains fed cold (might be why the shower hasn!!!8217;t been working great all along.

I have read online that the water has to be delivered at equal pressure, is there any mixer shower available that can sort out this prpblem? It!!!8217;s surely a common plumbing set up and not everyone will have electric showers with just cold feeds?

I was looking on the screwfix is website and some of their showers say they fit all plumbing set ups but then when you look at the manufacture notes they say the pressure must be equal.

Cheer for you help.

Thurso_man wrote: »

The trouble I am having is that I a man only getting hot water through, the only way I can regulate the temperature is my changing the temp on the tank.

I am not 100% my shower is mains fed, all the other taps in the house are but it's not as easy to test my shower. is there anyway I can find out, bearing in mind the shower cold doesn't seem to Ben working so isolating the hot water and the cold water mains probably won't help.

Sounds like the reason you are unable to change the temperature of the shower is because it is not being fed with any cold water at all. :cool:

Could you think of anything you could do to rectify that?

Thurso_man

It's a possibility there is a problem with the thermostat mixing valve.

I'm trying to get it out.

I've started stripping the shower back but can't get it any further. I was expecting there to be a grub screw behind the turn on handle but there isn't.

I've attached a picture. Any ideas?

Thurso_man

https://www.flickr.com/photos/132183047@N02/39738494975/

andyhop

billn wrote: »

If you are considering using the header tank to feed both hot and cold make sure it is big enough and the hot feed needs to be higher up the tank than the cold so if it does run out the hot will go first and you won't be scolded.

What the heck are you on about ? That statement is a load of rubbish

Yes you need a 50 gallon tank minimum if pumped but not if you don’t have a pumped take off

You also need direct supplies from cylinder and tank,

You don’t take off connections at different levels of the tank , all about 50mm from tank base , inlet at the opposite end to prevent air bubbles in the tank being sucked into the pump if fitted

Pdbaggett

Sounds like you are not getting any cold through at all if you can't change the temp.

To check if your shower is mains fed just turn the stop !!!! off to the house and run a tap dry then try the shower if water still comes out its getting few from the cold water storage tank that also feeds the gravity fed water cylinder.

Mine is the same setup or it was when I bought the house, shower was very poor.

Easiest thing to do is get a negative head shower pump and put it after the outlet of the hot water cylinder that way it feeds the entire houses hot water, taps, shower and anything else. I think mine was the salamander ct force 20 which is designed to be used to feed the whole house and works with gravity hot and cold mains.

Then just pick any shower you want to replace it with, easiest solution I could find.

Pdbaggett

Ps: if its not mains fed just t off from the cold inlet into the water tank to make the shower mains fed for cold. As long as the bar pressure of your cold mains and pump are round about the same it works fine.