Rubbish Shower

[Martin]

Hi All,

I've been "persuaded" that the bathroom needs doing this year. One thing I'd like to improve upon is the shower.

Currently it is a cold mains fed electric shower (Kw unknown) and it's not good.

How can I improve it? I have no water tanks in the property at all and I think it would be difficult to add one due to size and weight considerations. Certainly a 50 gallon one as recommended for a power shower would be very difficult.

Are there any alternatives? Would it be worth running the new shower straight from my new-ish Biasi combi?

Is it likely the old electric shower's flow is being restricted by limescale as we're in a hard water area?

All opinions welcome!!

Cheers.

[garryb59]

Providing there is not a stream of family members looking to use hot water elsewhere in the property, showers from combi, are, by and large, superb. Combined with a thermostatic bar mixer like so,

run one off my Britony IIT gas water heater [which is basically a combi without the central heating :-] and it's excellent.

Possibly. Is it possible you could upgrade your electric shower to one of a greater kw? You might have to run a new cable [maybe 10mm], but it's an option. I have heard [and only heard because I don't have one] that some of the newer electric showers are very acceptable in terms of performance.

cheers Garry

[Ian Stirling]

Usually, yes. Another alternative may be to add a heat recovery device in the drain, which warms the incoming cold water. This will dramatically lower the amount of water needed to be heated.

You need to say how big the output of your combi is (in KW), and the size of the shower. Turning the shower on hot, and observing the electricity meter should tell you the size of the shower.

Possible, but unlikely. Most electric showers in this country are significantly limited by the electrical power input. It takes 4100J/l to heat 1l of water by 1C.

Or at .2l/s, and 40C temperature raise, about 24KW, or 100A at 240V.

Most showers are nowhere near this powerfull.

[Brian Reay]

Get a good electric shower is the obvious answer- certainly the easiest to fit.

Look at the Mira range- not cheap but we are very pleased with ours.

The ones you see in the "sheds" don't seem to be nearly as good- we've had those before and didn't plan on getting another electric shower. However, we came across the Mira several times while staying away and decided to risk it. Never regretted it.

[Newshound]

Didn't work for me. Whenever there was any cold water demand the pressure dropped enough to trip out the boiler so (with a long-ish pipe run) there was an unacceptable wait for more hot water.

You could check this for yourself by running the bath hot tap and seeing what happens when someone flushes the loo.

I bit the bullet and put in a tank above the shower, with a power shower. Your alternative might be a high rating electric shower (but expect it to need rewiring).

[Alex]

I run a standard Aqualisa Quartz non pumped shower from my combi and it is quite superb great pressue and flow,highly recommended not cheap but very easy to install.Also the backup from Aqualisa is superb .

[Mary Fisher]

Our shower is fed from the mains, heated and pumped by electricity. I'm always surprisedthat there's no drop in pressure or rise in temperature when someone flushes the lav next door, that used to happen with our old one.

Mary

[Martin]

Hi All,

Thanks for the info. Sounds like the combi is the best bet as it's only a few feet away. Pressure at the taps seems quite reasonable and constant.

I'd prefer the pumped option but it looks a nightmare to do.

Cheers for the help.