Low Cold Pressure: Shower options

[Matt]

Hi, I wondered if anyone had a suggestion to help solve my shower problem...

My flat is on the top (2nd) floor, with the cold water in the bathroom fed from a communal tank in the roof. I have a combi boiler that provides the hot water at a decent pressure.

The problem is that the cold water in the bathroom is at a much lower pressure than the hot; and because of this, they do not mix when I'm taking a shower. As soon as I turn on the hot water, I get a boiling hot shower - even if the cold tap is fully open. Even with the hot water temperature on the boiler at it's lowest setting, the shower is far too hot to bear.

It has been suggested that I replace my shower with a mixer tap (rather than being fed from the bath taps). Does anyone know if this will solve the problem? I've been told I can't put a pump in because it will interfere with the other people's tank-fed cold water supply. Whilst I could change the supply to the bathroom so that it's mains fed, I've been told by a plumber that doing this may drop the mains pressure into my flat, so won't necessarily solve the problem.

Any suggestions gratefully received! getting up in the morning would be so much easier with a decent shower!!

[David W.E. Roberts]

Actually, it will solve the initial problem. Your problem is that you are trying to mix mains pressure and tank pressure. This is usually not a good idea. If you have mains pressure cold to your shower, then the mixer will work fine, because the Combi is also at mains pressure. You should still get a reasonable flow, because you will be drawing less hot water once you mix in the cold. Only problem is if the mains pressure is so low that it is below spec. for the combi when a mains cold tap anywhere in the flat is turned on. You do have mains cold in at least the kitchen, don't you, for drinking water? Not a good idea to drink water from a storage tank! Think dead mouse.

Only other thing I can think of at the moment is to install your own cold water storage tank, plus a booster pump, to give your own dedicated tank fed (boosted) cold supply to the shower. However this seems like overkill.

HTH Dave R

[IMM]

Not good advice. He has a combi which proves the maisn cold water pressure is adequate. The shower mixer should be fed from the hot pipe from the combi and the cold water mains, then both are at equal pressure.

[John Rumm]

Erm - I think you will find he said that - try to keep up there's a good man.

[IMM]

He said a lot of other crap. Take note laddie.

[Lurch]

On Sat, 3 Apr 2004 14:47:58 +0100, in uk.d-i-y "IMM" strung together this:

Have you been at the sherry?

[IMM]

You have been at the local ale house all day. That is clear.

[Andy Hall]

Really? How do you jump to that conclusion?

.andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

[IMM]

It works.

[Lurch]

On Sat, 3 Apr 2004 23:55:52 +0100, in uk.d-i-y "IMM" strung together this:

If it works why is he asking how to fix it?

[Lurch]

On Sat, 3 Apr 2004 23:30:14 +0100, in uk.d-i-y "IMM" strung together this:

ROFLMFAOTIH

[IMM]

You are obviously not that bright. He has the cold water off a tank.

[Lurch]

On Sun, 4 Apr 2004 00:34:48 +0100, in uk.d-i-y "IMM" strung together this:

I can't see which part of Davids reply you're disagreeing with. Why won't it work?

[IMM]

Hot is high pressure and cold is low pressure.

[John Rumm]

Well you would be the expert on that....

[John Rumm]

Pay attention at the back....

David said, either user a cold mains feed - so hot and cold are both at high pressure,

OR,

Install an extra dedicated cold tank (so as not to interfear with the other flats cold feed), and use a PUMP on that feed, so hot and cold are both at high pressure.

So where in those two suggestions did you manage to read advice that the high pressure hot should be combined with low pressure cold?

(I feel rule of thumb #4 coming on)

[Matt]

Thanks Dave, I'll go with that and get the guy back to plumb the cold mains into the bathroom. The cold mains pressure seems quite reasonable; and the combi works fine when the cold mains-fed kitchen tap is wide open.

Matt

[David W.E. Roberts]

Makes me wonder why the plumber didn't want to do it in the first place - too much like hard work?

Was (s)he the one who suggested a mixer tap? This would be an easy job and not solve the problem :-) [i.e. feeding a shower mixer (or any other mixer) with high pressure hot and low pressure cold.]

Could just be a major exercise in butt covering in case the end result was not what you expected.

Probably worth double checking why the plumber didn't want to connect cold mains to the shower - like perhaps there isn't a mains feed anywhere near it and it would involve a lot of hackery to get mains cold to the shower.

If in doubt, it may be safer to get a second opinion (assuming you have reasonable access to another plumber).

Definite "Hmmmm......." moment - if the solution seems obvious to most on this NG from the information posted, and yet the suggestion has been at least partially rejected by the plumber, is there something we have missed?

However, don't get too paranoid (just paranoid enought) :-)

Cheers Dave R

[David W.E. Roberts]

Go team! Beat that ugly Troll!!

Damn, I think he is enjoying it :-(

Hell with it. Go team!

[IMM]

I never. Recommending a pump when one is clearly not required is well...