Boosting hot water pressure

[Vortex]

Hi,

I want to boost the HW pressure in my kitchen (about 2.5m static head at the tap but a very long 15mm pipe run)

In the long term I intend installing a heatbank (giving mains pressure HW) which will solve everything, in the mean time I'm looking for a supplier of a simple, cheap, "single channel" shower pump type device.

I only need about 0.5 bar pressure increase but in reality I guess a very cheap shower pump will have to suffice for the job.....unless someone has a better suggestion.

Remember this is temporary and I'm reluctant to spend > £100. Any ideas?

David

[Ed Sirett]

There are shower boost pumps which are single impellor, flow operated and not expensive. They are intended to boost the mixed water from a shower mixer to the shower head. They are about £100. They are intended to fit above the mixer tap on the bath/shower. I think you should be able to use one on the HW pipe work using

1/2" to 15mm fittings. The static pressure might be more than the pump shaft seals can handle?

HTH

[Andy Hall]

Buy a cheap shower pump and plumb both sides to hot? i.e. a tee on the input side and a tee on the output side?

Stuart Turner make single sided pumps but they aren't < £100..... .andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Vortex]

The key benefot of a cheap dual pump is taht I can get one today,,,,and I have some time. Likely off to Wickes/B&Q this am!

Is there a special reason to plumb both sides? Surely just the side with the flow switch is enough.

David

[Andy Hall]

My thinking was that the pump is designed to run wet and that may provide some cooling, lubrication etc.. If you only connect one side, then the other is running dry. I don't know for sure that this would be a problem, but for the sake of a couple of tees it made sense to me.

Also, I suspect that by connecting both sides you'll get some more pressure. .andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[Vortex]

For the record I purchased a 99 quidder from Argos and it works fine.

I've just plumbed up one end. The instructions do explicitly state that it should not be run dry...so I'll plumb up "dual channel" mode next weekend.

It's a bit noisy...but frankly I don't care about that.

david

[Christian McArdle]

I bought a single impellor NewTeam Showermate for 99 quid from B&Q a few years ago. Screwfix only seem to do twin impellor pumps.

Christian.

[andy.pevy]

Have a look at the Grundfoss UPA 15-90 it is supposed to add approx 0.5 bar the the water pressure.

AndyP

[Ed Sirett]

It would be a good idea to do this asap. As the dry impellor might actually weld itself to the casing and cause the pump to seize up.

[Dave Plowman]

Yes. I'm wondering if they're a similar design to the high pressure pumps used on car fuel injection systems - if so, running them dry will cause seizure in a *very* short time.