Hi, Just looking for some advice. I've recently installed a Victorian style mixer shower onto my bath. I'm not keen to change it to a Power/Electric shower as I find the Mixer Shower more aesthetically pleasing. Problem is that the hot water pressure is poor. The Hot water tank is on the same floor as the bathroom, with the cold water tank being in the loft. Obviously the cold water pressure is fine. What options are available to me (in the UK) to increase the pressure? Do I raise the hot water tank into the loft, buy some type of pump, increase pipe size..........Basically I would want the most reliable and efficient way of increasing the water pressure. Advice would be vastly appreciated
Firstly, the hot water tank will be fed from the tank in the loft and the hot water will be at the presssure corresponding to the hight of the loft tank (when there's no flow). If there is a marked difference between the hot and the cold pressure when running, either:
You are wrong about the cold water coming from the tank and it comes from the mains.
There is something sertiously wrong with the hot water pipework that is restricting the flow.
Had the pressures been equal (both fed from the header tank with no restrictions, the best way would have been to fit a twin-impeller pump to the bath feeds (noisy but effective). As they do not appear to be, you will have to recheck the arrangements to determine what they really are and what state they are in. In any case, if you wish to keep your new shower on your bath and want the pressure, you will have to go to a pumped system. While this might work OK with mains cold water, I suspect mains pressure would be too high for it and, for safety reasons, pumped showers should take their cold separately of the loft tank, at a lower point than the outlet which feeds the hot water system. This last is so that, if the header tank empties, the hot runs out first and you get frozen, not scalded, and it's a reasonably failsafe system.
It wont be simple to change over to a pumped system but you asked for "reliable and efficient" which they are (well my first pump lasted about 10 years).
If you are prepared to dump the new shower which runs off the bath mixer, the options open up a bit more - everything from venturi showers (no experience) to refitting the entire hot water system and putting in a combi (I will let others argue that one!).
Only your kitchen tap and garden hose will be off the fresh water mains, check this. In your situation, without spending a fortune on replacing most of the system, you are better off buying a good quality power shower pump which is installed usually at the cylinder or in the loft.
If the mains pressure is good enough, you could replace the cylinder with a mains pressure heat bank and remove the tank in the loft.
Fill a bucket and time it and work out the flow in litres per minute. If you are set on a mains pressure system then you have to replace the mains pipe from the stop c*ck to the main stop c*ck in the street. Some water companies do this for free, if you dig the trench and lay the pipe in the trench they will renew the street c*ck and connect. Give them a ring.
It is not clear whether your cold water supply at the bath is from the loft or from the mains. If it is from the mains (we have this in our last two houses) then the chances of the mixer working properly is poor - whenever there is any cold water the higher pressure will prevent the hot water coming through so very fine adjustements will be needed and it may be difficult to get high flows. The first step in the solution would be to change the source of water from mains to the tank in the loft with an appropriate bore of pipe. If, when the cold tap is off, there is a decent flow of hot water then this will probably cure the problem.
If shower/tap is fed from the cold tank in the loft then there is a restriction in the flow somewhere, and you will be already finding that the flow through the taps (not just shower) is low.
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