Advice/recommendations for shower pump please.

[Nicholas]

SWMBO is dragging me into the 21st C and having our bathroom rebuilt. I can't blame her as it was last done 26 years ago and never finished. That's by the by. Most choices are made but we're struggling with what to choose for a shower pump. Suppliers are recommending a Salamander RHP75. The use of the pump will be shower only, but we would like a quiet and reliable unit. The shower mixer and other hardware is Hansgrohe. I have read a bit about shower pumps and do not understand the references to negative and positive. Some help here would be appreciated. Our heating system is conventional gas boiler with storage and expansion tanks in loft. There is about 5m head to the shower. 42" cylinder with immersion heater. Bathroom is on ground floor.

Can anyone tell me please what positive/negative means in relation to a shower pump? Is the Salamander RHP75 good and reliable, and should we be looking at other pumps? Stuart Turner have been recommended by a friend.

Many thanks, N

[YAPH]

Salamanders are good and reasonably priced (about £120 for a 1.5 bar unit suitable for a normal single shower from Screwfix). If you get water out of the shower without a pump you only need a regular pump: if the shower head's above the level of water in the storage tank then you need positive head or a switch to start the pump (some models come with an air-operated push button).

The diy faq wiki has an article on showers.

[BigGirlsBlouse]

I have a superb aquilisa shower... but it came with a pump which was shxte and lasted only a couple of years, with the impeller disintegrating into a thousand pieces!... if memory serves me right it was of french manufacture and everything was made of plastics! The new pump they provide is a Stuart Turner...a completely different beast... very well made with no plastics and all brass construction. It has a built in flow switch, which unlike the previous model which needed an occasional tap to get it to operate, the stuart turner model has never failed. Had the whole pump now about 4 years and no signs of any problems.

[John Rumm]

They are OK IIUC. Stuart Turner are usually thought of as being one of the best.

Your basic shower pump is activated by a flow switch. When you turn the tap on, water flows, and that switches the pump. This means the pump will only work where there is at least some positive pressure from gravity feed alone to start things going.

If you need to feed a shower that is above the header tank level, you need an alternative way to get the pump running - since opening the tap alone would simply allow water to run away from the shower and air to flow in via the shower head. These slightly more complicated setups are negative head pumps.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

If you've got a 5m head, you don't need a pump. Get a 22mm fed thermostatic shower - I have an Aqualisa one. Quite superb.

[Man at B&Q]

She's given you enough head, and you don't need a pump to get it up any further.

MBQ

[Ian_m]

After having been through many pumps over the years, B&Q (yuk), watermill, Salamander, TechFlow all lasting far too short for their cost, now got a

3.5bar "skin ripper" from Stuart Turner, which is what I should have purchased in the first place as everyone kept advising but was put off by the premium price. My Dad's Stuart Turner pump is over 15years old and is still fine.

Worst was TechFlow QT80 leaked after 6 years (tripping RCD) then wanted £60 for new seals....

B&Q one had only 15mm pipes (was in house I bought) and continually cavitated as it could get enough water in and out and was extremely noisy.

I got a 3.5bar Stuart Turner pump from

for £300, arrived next day, which was £317 cheaper than my local plumber merchant.....

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[NT]

quite. A pipe is much quieter, much longer lasting and doesnt add energy waste. And probably no more cost.

NT

[dennis]

One of my showers works OK and it only has 1.5m of head.