Can I have an electric shower fitted if I only have an Immersion Heater?

housecat_3

Hello All,

I desperately want to have an electric shower fitted but the house I've moved into has no form of heating other than coal fires. As far as I know we only have an immersion heater, so my question is would this be compatible enough to have an electric shower installed? The model I've been looking at is a Mira Sport Max 10.8kw,which is supposedly the most powerful electric shower on the market, but I'd appreciate any feedback anyone can give me about it.

The bathroom to be honest is in a bit of a state; the walls are wallpapered and the only tiling is a tiny bit around the bath, so there is a lot of unsightly mould. Ideally, what I want to do is eventually get a professional in to tile the bathroom, my other question being should I have the bathroom tiled before I have the shower fitted or should I wait until after? Please forgive the long post but I'm a complete novice in terms of DIY.

Thanks.

Sola

As far as I know, our electric shower is completely independent of any heating system; it heats the water as it runs through (so hot water is unlimited). Admittedly it's not a power shower. We had ours fitted after the new tiles were put up.

Canucklehead

Hi

Go to the web site and download the PDF under ' Technical information'.Work to those recommendations.http://mirashowers.com/onlinecatalog/shower_features.jsp?item=367316&prod_num=Sport+Max&cat=Electric+Showers

You can tile and run services on surface or run services in wall and tile over. Either way the shower itself should be fitted on tile.
HTH.
Corgi Guy.

malamute

My experience with electric showers are that i would recommend a Power Shower this utilises the hot water from your hot water tank and the cold water from your cold water header tank.
When i have used the electric heating type i have found them to be not very warm and poor pressure wise (this may be now better or if someone recommends a particular type / maker).

As for tiling fit what ever type of shower you decide on leave some slack on the pipework and electrics then when the time comes for tiling remove tile and then refit.

housecat_3

Thank you all. I'd love a power shower but I don't think we have the right equipment boilers and such like to get one, which is one of the reasons I was looking into an electric shower. I think the cost of getting a boiler fitted and running one would be too much. If anyone could give me any thoughts on the Mira brand shower I'd be grateful. The general consensus so far seems to be to get the tiling done first, so if I could pester with a few more questions I'd be grateful.

As I said the bathroom is in a real state; the wallpaper and walls have damp and black spots, from what I've heard I'd need to do some prep work before it could be tiled, can anyone tell me if this is something a tiler would consider doing for extra cost? Unfortunately, I'm useless with DIY and trying to find the time would be a bit of a nightmare.

Thanks so much to all for the responses so far; they are much appreciated. :T

wishiwasarichgirl

I really wanted a power shower but they were a bit expensive. I got the Triton Ivory III 10.5 kw from homebase for about £100. (went for the 10.5kw as mum has either 7.5 or 8.5kw and it really is a trickle - it's rubbish - I didn't want to chance that) Mine is excellent though, very powerful and hot at only setting number 5 (of 10) I think it can depend on the water pressure where you live and where your water tank is. I am in a typical 2up2down terrace.

electric showers heat cold water as it passes through them (effectivly acting as a mini immersion heater) so it doesn't matter if there is no hot water supply anyway.

Be aware though, that a high wattage electric shower may cost extra to install as they need a bigger/thicker electric cable (ie more expensive) and I needed a higher amp fuse fitted to my fuse box (maybe just cos it's old as the hills though, the plumber/electrician did say he had never seen one like it!)

jennifernil

You should have the water pipe and the wiring put in first, they are better hidden in my opinion. Then the tiling. Then fit the actual shower unit.

If you have a cold water tank, and a hot water tank with an immersion heater you could run a power shower from that. You do not need to fit a central heating boiler to have a power shower.

Sue-UU

Hi housecat and a very warm welcome to the Forum.

There's absolutely no reason you can't have a shower as (someone has said) all showers are independent from fires, immersions etc; though I don't know about power showers so take the advice of those (above) who are aware of them. To get full advice of what's best to do first, go into a local builders merchant, Bradfords perhaps and ask them all the relevant questions as though you're going to buy the unit from them and they'll give you all the answers you need.

Re the bathroom decorating: Before you put any sort of covering on you really want it looked at to be sure you're doing the right thing. We have some sort of mould near our window and whenever we decorate my OH always puts some sort of mould 'keeper at bay' stuff (best way I can describe it) all over the mouldy but cleaned and dry surface. That helps it not to come back so soon. He then decorates on top. You say the bathroom's a bit of a mess, well, clean it up all over as best you possibly can then let if dry thoroughly before you do anything else.

If you can't have a power shower then Myra's are wonderful ones, I wouldn't have anything else after having 2 of them!

Sue.

HugoSP

Just to summarise:

Electric showers, as someone has said, heat the water as it goes through the shower.
A power shower is basically a mixer valve with a pump behind it. Some have separate pumps and some have integral pumps.

With an electric shower it doesn't matter if the house has no heating or hot water at all, but you need to run the shower direct from the rising main, not the cold water tank in the loft if there is one.

With a power shower you need a source of hot water, and a source of old water both drawn from respective tanks and not from the rising main. Your immersion heater in you hot water tank would meet the demands of a power shower, but if you go down this route I would contact your electricity supplier and enquire about going onto an economy 7 tarrif, giving you night time electricity at about 1/3 of your daytime electricity, then heat the water up overnight.

Also a power shower will require a cold water tank in the loft. If you don't have one then one would need to be fitted, adding to the cost.

When we moved into our present house we inherited a tempremental heating system. Shortly afterwards we lost all heating and hot water. Knowing this may be an issue I bought and fitted an electric shower as a first job. This meant we could at least wash. For several months this was our only source of hot water.

housecat_3

Many thanks again to all who have replied to this. I think all things considered it might be less fuss for us to get an electric shower, my only worry about an electric shower has been that it might not perform as well. Sorry to be such a dunce about the DIY,in relation to the cold mains well our water pressure from the cold taps seems very good it comes out the tap quite powerfully, the hot water tap is less powerful but not too bad when you initially turn the tap on.

The main sticking point is that I'm living with my fiance and his elderly father and neither of them are very DIY inclined so don't know too much about what we actually have in the house re tanks and boilers. This may be a stupid question but if we were to check out the loft and any tanks up there would these be clearly marked as what they are?

Thanks so much for all the help. Thank you for the info on the Triton wishiwasarichgirl - it sounds like it might be a viable alternative to the Mira - I haven't been able to price one of those lower than £180 and I am desperate to be able to have a shower in the mornings instead of faffing about with a bath!

Sola

Our electric shower is adequate; I wouldn't say it's particularly strong but it does the job, and it's vital whenever our combi boiler packs up because at least then we can still wash to warm up when the heating's gone (we don't have a bath).