Problems with hot water pressure in the new fitted bathroom suite

Gazella77

Hi,

I would appreciate your help and advice on this problem:

We have had pretty normal water pressure before, both hot and cold water which run both in the kitchen and in the bath tub. But we have fitted bath enclosure with bath+steam+jacuzzi and it's got also hand and top shower separately. The cold water's pressure is absolutely fine but the hot one is almost none! Before it would take 5-10 min to fill in the bigger bath tub, now it took me 40mins in the morning today. And the hot water wouldn't get to the top shower at all and was just dripping from the hand shower.
I called the previous owner and she says that is why she had an electric shower fitted as the pressure is low.
I just don't understand why it was fine before in the bath and now is so low everywhere, including the kitchen.
My workers say all the pipes are fitted correctyl.
I have a boiler in the kitchen (just 1 year old I think) and the tank with water in the storage in the hall.

Thanks a lot.

Canucklehead

Hi

If you could explain what you have in the way of water supply it would help.
So.. you have a hot water cylinder in the hall, this is fed from a cold tank in the loft? The main question is where does the cold come from.Is it mains?
If you run cold water from a basin tap and hold your finger or hand over the spout can you stop the flow of water without spraying it all over the room.?
If you repeat this with the hot is it the same? (it doesn't have to run hot, if you know what I mean)

Corgi Guy.

Gazella77

Thanks,

I'm not sure about your first question.

Yes, I have a water cylinder in the hall. We assume that cold water comes from mains but I have no idea.

I've done the 'pressure test' before and I wouldn't be able to stop the flow of cold water but could easily do with the hot one. So the hot water pressure is really weak.

Also the boiler started playing up, it keeps switching off and my brother needs to re-start it every time (which involves pulling out the cooker as the boiler is in the cupboard behind it) so lots of effort and time wasted.

Is it possible that the air got into the pipes and affected the water flow and/or the boiler??

It seems like a never ending story for me:mad:

Thanks a lot.

BobProperty

Gazella77 wrote: »

....I just don't understand why it was fine before in the bath and now is so low everywhere, including the kitchen.....

That's the bit that worries me. It was all OK until the new bath enclosure was fitted?
That looks like either someone has messed up the hot pipework or there's an airlock somewhere in the hot pipework.

Canucklehead

Hi

It seems to me that you have exactly what you describe, low pressure hot and mains cold (high pressure). It will never work .If you have a mixer tap
the high pressure cold will always push the low pressure hot back up the pipe, the new taps you have will almost certainly be designed to work on mains/high pressure therefore hot alone will dribble out.
This might make it clearer. http://www.bathroom-academy.co.uk/pdf/domesticwater.pdf

The answer is to fit a minimum 50 gallon cold water tank (if you don't already have one) run cold water from this tank to all the fittings that need balanced pressure Run both hot and cold via a pump.eg Stuart Turner.
Or swop your cylinder for an unvented one, and do away with the stored water in the roof, this will give you a high pressure balanced water supply.(as long as you have a good incoming main supply.)

If this is the scenario you have then you have been badly advised by all the trades that have come through your door.All this should have been explained to you BEFORE any work was done.

Your boiler problem is a separate problem, the constant need to reset would suggest it's overheating . Have you noticed the heating is slow to warm the house? any other noises or difference in behaviour in the heating system?

Corgi Guy.

Gazella77

My Goodness,

What you wrote Canucklehead makes sense to me.

I have a mixer tap now (before I had two separate ones on the bath tub) so maybe that's why the pressure was all right before?

I have a huge tank of water in my storage in the hall and that's also where I have the switch for hot water/nothing/heating (3 positions) so I assume that the cold water gets heated there and only when I switch it on (takes about 15 mins to heat up) and is enough for a bath, washing up etc.

So where do I install this pump and would it definitely work and how much approx does it cost? I've already spent a lot of money on this bathroom and am really worried now:mad:

I don't think I could store any water on the roof as I live in a flat (maisonette like) so I have one neighbour above me. Unless there is any other option.

Yesterday when my brother tried to switch on and off hot water there was a strange sound in the pipes, we don't know but it sounded as if there was some air so maybe we have also an airlock on top of that.

Me being a woman and a foreigner who has never deal with such systems before I could have been easily misled by the workers:mad:

Thank you for all your help.

Gazella

ozskin

also it sounds like you had conventional screw down taps before are your taps now 1/4 turn ceramic discs? ie they only need a small turn to open fully if this is the case then these would do exactly as you describe, changing back may be the simplest and cheapest solution. i expect no one had a pressure flow rate conversation with you and even looked at the tech specs of the taps

Gazella77

Hi,

Thanks but changing the taps is not possible as I bought a complete bath enclosure. Here is the link:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=130145280797

No, nobody told me anything about the pressure and as it was all right before I assumed it still would be.

ozskin

these are all chinese products from the look of them.

sorry to say this but plumbing is a relatively complex business with a fair proportion of 'proper' plumbers out there who do not know their onoins, with the obvious exceptions of the canuckleheads and bobproperties on this site who really do..

we see many cheap bargains on the net that end up being not. the best eg recently was a bargain bath, with an obscure waste hole and they were charged £165 for a pop up waste when they could not get it anywhere else.

as an independent retailer can i declare a vested interest but i will suggest go and get good advice from an expert and in the long run it will be much better value for money. while this does not help you the previous suggestions are spot on but will cost a fair bit.

Canucklehead

Hi Gazella77.

Do you still need advice?

Corgi Guy.

Gazella77

Hi,

Thank you for your advice, I called a few plumbers and 1 of them said a pump would do the work, while the other two said I need to change the whole tank as currently I have only a small hot water tank (10 gallons, I think) and they said a pump would quickly use the water and run 'dry' with a risk of burning every couple of weeks.

One of the plumber estimated a cost at around £1000 -1500, while the other at up to £2500. Both of them haven't got time to do it and would be free no earlier than December.

I've been trying to find a decent plumber in the area and as for now I've failed and the result is I live without hot water in my bathroom:-(