Is a 10.5w shower worth the upgrade?

obc18

We have just moved into a new build and the en-suite shower is 9.5w and pretty rubbish compared to the mains shower in the family bathroom. 

The cable is 10mm so can sustain a 10.5w shower but would it be much more powerful or would we hardly notice?

We have a combi boiler so a power shower is unachievable so I am told. 

Carrot007

Running off the combi would be much better and 3 times cheaper. Which idiot told you it was not an option? (if you do have very low water pressure it would suck, but it would still work, I have never seen anywhere whrer a electric shower was worse than a boiler powered one thoug, as bad as amaybe, worse , no).

Just admit it you had an elctrician tell you this that wanted work right!

grumbler

kW

Difference between 9.5kW and 10.5kW will be hardly noticeable

Jeepers_Creepers

It's 10% better, so not to be sneezed at. Tho' sneezing is what you'll be doing a lot of in such a pitiful shower.

Obc, you have a 'mains' shower in the bathroom - this is from the combi, yes? In which case the en-suite shower should be just as good, and you already have H and C supplies there for the taps. That's by FAR the better option.

Bear in mind, tho', that you won't be able to have both showers running from a combi at the same time.

If you must stick with the leccy shower, then everything you can add will help, so a 10% improvement might mean a lot.

coffeehound

Bear in mind that you are in the dead of winter so mains water is at its coldest.  Come warmer weather, the useable flow rate will increase a lot, to the point where you'll probably run it on half-power setting in the summer.

But easy enough to replace if you get the same model with the higher power rating.

Grenage

Our last place had a 10.5kw electric shower and a 24kw combi.  I eventually changed the bath taps to a thermostatic mixer with a shower attachment.

Best thing I ever did. Far cheaper, much better flow.  I think the replacement taps cost about £60.

obc18

It was actually a post on here where I was informed I couldn’t have a power shower on a combi lol. 

Is it a headache to take the elec shower out and fit a thermostatic shower off the mains? Eg. Is the H/C mains there behind the elec shower? Appreciate we can’t run both showers at the same time but we can live with that. 

grumbler

obc18 said:

Is it a headache to take the elec shower out and fit a thermostatic shower off the mains? Eg. Is the H/C mains there behind the elec shower?

An electric shower uses only cold water mains.

Jeepers_Creepers

What is the definition of a 'power shower'? I'm guessing it means one that uses hot and cold supplies and mixes them, but also has a pump attached to give it ooomph?

That's a loose definition, tho'. If you have an unvented hot cylinder and a decent mains water flow and pressure, then the resulting shower from this will also be oomph. Sis in law has this, and the shower hose is a writhing snake; you just wouldn't want it any more powerful than that. So, that's not a 'power shower', but it's bludy well as powerful as one.

Then there's a decently-sized combi (30+kW) coming off a decent mains flow and pressure. What's the shower from that like? Well, you should know, as you have one in your mains bathroom :-)

Is that a 'power shower'? Not technically, but it's still pretty powerful. And if you had a 35kW or 38kW combi served by a good mains supply, it would knock your socks off. So, that's not a 'power shower' either, but it's just as bludy powerful as one.

So the term 'power shower' needs to be treated with caution. The only time adding pumps to turn it in to a 'power' shower would make a difference, is if your hot storage is of the 'vented' type, fed from a large CWS in the loft. If your system ain't like this, then forget 'power showers' and pumps - you simply don't need them (and couldn't even fit one if you wanted to...).

I would have 'combi' or 'unvented' over a pump any day. And they are just as powerful (unless you want stupid stuff like 'all-over' needle/massage showers....)

So, the questions you need to ask yourself are...

1) How MUCH better is your main bathroom shower over the electric shower? If the answer is "A LOT - it's well greeeaat - I want that, pleeeez", then the answer is simple - you remove your leccy shower and fit a thermostatic shower mixer instead - and run it off your combi like the main bathroom one.

Or,

2) How 'acceptable' is your current electric shower? I mean, is it worth the ~£300 cost of replacing it with a 10.8kW jobbie for 10% extra flow? (£200 for the shower and £100 for labour - very roughly). Only you can answer that.

And,

3) How much will it cost/ how much disruption will there be to fit a shower mixer off your combi instead? The answer is - I dunno; you'll need to get a couple of plumbers in to quote. I presume it's a shower cubicle in the en-suite, and not a bath? If so, it'll come down to how easy it is to access the shower wall where the shower will be fitted. If you can get behind this wall - eg through a cupboard or even a hallway/other room wall - then running a hot to match the existing cold should be easy (it's not hard to patch up a plain wall - it's a lot harder to patch up removed shower tiles). The actual shower mixer itself will likely be cheaper to buy than a 10.8kW leccy job - you can get a Mira Apt thermostatic mixer for less than £100, and one with an additional 'rain' head for around £160. Labour will be more, of course.

Jeepers_Creepers

What size combi do you have?

troffasky

obc18 said:

Is the H/C mains there behind the elec shower?

You tell us? As grumbler said, an electric shower only needs a cold feed, so if there's nothing nearby that consumes hot water, you'll be lucky for a hot water pipe to be right where you need it. Having to re-tile the bathroom just to run a pipe to shower might make you re-think whether you really need a better shower!