I see that the question of shower flow rates hasn't been raised in, oh, hours, so to fill this gap....
Help! My shower flow is rubbish!
I'm not after spine tinging power shower performance, just enough flow to wash the soap out of my hair..
I've measured various flow rates, and my question is whether there is anything out of the ordinary with these figures given the setup? And if not can I 'fine tune' the flow up to acceptable in any way, or should I give up and buy a pump?
The setup is: Cold supply: 15mm pipe from cold tank to shower; total run of ~5m, with
2 gentle 90 degree bends, 2 90 degree elbows, and a 45 degree elbow. btw, the take off from the cwt is level with the take off to the hot tank (tut tut?). Hot supply: 15mm pipe taken from the 22m hot "down service" supply pipe taken off just below the up-to-overflow-into-the-cold-tank T (ie. the 22mm has already done a gentle 90 degree bend plus 2 Tees); total run of 15mm pipe is ~3m with 1 gentle 90 degree, 2 90 degree elbows, and a 45 degree elbow.Flow rate out of shower valve (~2m below bottom of CWT) is 14 l/min.
Adding the shower hose reduces flow to 8.5 l/min (level with the shower valve). Shower hose internal bore is around 12mm.
Adding the shower head reduces flow to 7.5 l/min (again level with shower valve). This would be ok, but the final straw is...
Raising the shower head 0.8m so I can stand under it reduces flow to 4.5 l/min. ARGH!
Assuming those figures are par for the course, sniff, then a google of the archive suggests my options are...
1 - improve flow, ie. fit 22mm pipe, and take the hot supply direct from the tank (surrey flange). Can anyone quantify how much difference these are likely to make? My guess is not very much, but then I'm working on marginal amounts here anyway...2 - improve pressure, ie.
2.1 - fit a pump 2.2 raise the height of the CWT.The maximum the CWT can be raised is ~60cm - lowering the handset by this suggests a flow of 6 l/min, not enough on its own, and a heap of effort.
I'm reluctant to go the pump route due to likely noise, and it's overkill in that it'll deliver more water than is needed. It may require
22mm piping too (and definitely the surrey flange).In summary, I'd like to avoid a pump, but am I stuffed?
rgds all, graham.