Shower not hot enough - Replace can?

Triton t50i used to be plenty hot enough with the temperature dial around half way. Now it's only just hot enough turned fully up.

I'd replace the whole unit, but it is an obsolete model, and I don't want to fit anything larger such as a t60i. So I'm planning to replace the can as I assume it's scaled up (we have very hard water). Sound reasonable?

Should I replace the stabiliser valve while I'm at it?

If it is a buildup of scale, can I descale the 'old' can and keep it as a spare?

Oh, flow rate is fine - Plenty of pressure. It popped it's PRD ages ago because I hadn't descaled the shower head for ages. Occasionally it trips it's MCB (maybe twice in the last year).

Any other possible causes that I haven't thought of?

Cheers,

Al.

Reply to
Al
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Don't forget incoming supply temperature drop. I'd say that it's more or less "normal" for electric showers to be less effective at this time of year.

Tim

Reply to
Tim

It's just been the coldest day so far in 2009?

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Al pretended :

The mains water temperature has dropped tremendously over recent weeks, from the 16 or so degrees down to the 5 or 6 degrees now. As the input temperature decreases, so the water has to flow through the shower much slower to achieve the same output temperature as before.

If the shower has two options for Kw, try both and make sure the higher rating makes the water warmer. That will prove both element sections are functioning.

Scaled up, would mean a poor flow of water rather than a poor flow of heat.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Shouldn't that drop the flow rate (to a trickle!) rather than make it run cold?

Andy

Reply to
Andy Champ

Depend on the shower I guess. Most of the ones I've used have a "temperature" control knob that is actually a flow control. The slower the flow through the heater, the hotter the water. Consequently, if you use the same "temperature" setting summer & winter, you will get the same flow but a lower temperature in winter.

More sophisticated ones might actually use thermostats & the like but not the ones I've used.

Tim

Reply to
Tim

Either way the shower quality is reduced presumably. My 8.5 kw is now only just warm enough, but I seem to remember it being hotter a few years back when we first installed it. For £60 I'll replace it rather than attempt a descale

Reply to
Stuart Noble

Tim pretended :

Our shower has an actual temperature setting dial - no adjustable taps at all. You set the temperature you want and it adjusts Kw in and water in, to achieve that temperature. In winter it runs maximum Kw and adjusts the water input down to get the temperature. In summer it allows full water flow and decreases the Kw input. If the water pressure changes, it adjusts to cope with it.

Pretty much set and forget. Touch a button it runs, touch another it stops - turns the element off, continues running the water for a few seconds to cool itself down, then stops.

Very, very rarely its processor crashes and needs to be power cycled to reset it.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

Scale doesnt make any difference to the amount of heat delivered to the water. What's controlled is the amount of power the element produces, not what temperature sid element runs at. Scaling means higher element temp but same power delivery

NT

Reply to
NT

Young people today must have no concept of what it's like to go through life without rebooting things every so often.

Owain

Reply to
Owain

Owain wrote on 03/12/2009 :

:-)

Do you remember the days when you could turn a TV on and it took maybe a minute for the valve to warm up and the picture to appear? Then came transistors and the picture appeared in just a few seconds. Now we wait a minute for the digi TV to boot itself up and the picture to show.

Reply to
Harry Bloomfield

I remember having to turn the radio on at 12.55 for the 1pm news

Owain

Reply to
Owain

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Owain saying something like:

I know. Their timekeeping's gone to pot, these days.

Reply to
Grimly Curmudgeon

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