Water Pressure Problems - Electric Shower

[latz]

Hi Everyone!

Newby here looking forward to becoming a full fledged member :D

Ok so here is my problem... Have bought a Triton Topaz T100Si (the chrome one) which is 9.5kw requiring a min of 1bar inlet pressure to operate. Have fitted it and have connected the inlet to a compression fit which then connects to plastic speed fit pipe to the mains.

The problem is that when i switch it on, it switches back off in 2 seconds saying LP for low water pressure. Water will come out of the shower head but very slowly and only for a couple of secs before it shuts off automatically. It will do this as many times as i try to switch it on.

I have checked the inlet filter to the shower to make sure no debris is trapped and i checked the water flow visually only i.e. to make sure water would flow through the pipe leading up to the shower. I must admit it didn't seem to be under any great pressure like the rest of the house but i thought that was because it was going through 15mm pipe and not being squeezed through a fawcet of any kind.

I wonder if i have done something to this plastic speedfit pipe that is reducing the water pressure to the shower? or have i fited it in the worng place? The mains water comes through in the basement on 15mm pipe. I tee'd into this (before any taps etc) and ran plastic speedfit under the living room floor, up through the wall where the downstairs chimney was under the bedroom floor and up in to the shower with a tap style isolator at the base of the shower.

Here are some things you should know: The plastic speed fit pipe runs through where the downstairs chimney was. The height from the basement to the shower is 5 meters. The pipe run is about 10 meters. the pipe diameter is 15mm from the mains to the shower. No other part of the house suffers with water pressure problems.

Does anyone have any ideas why this could be?! I am more than happy to answer any questions if there is anything else you guys need to know.

Thanks

Latz

[mike]

[e-mail] wrote in news: [e-mail]:

It's all very strange...

My first thought is that you've missed the mains completely and tapped into a low pressure feed, but they're quite hard to come by these days.

First, if you're connected to a mains pipe there will be mains pressure there.

So disconnect after the isolater you put in, tkae precautions against drenching, turn on the isolater ( a little bit will do), till water comes, and see if you can stop the flow with your thumb.

It should be difficult to impossible, and squirt like a bugger.

If you've got this pressure, the next thing is flow, because if the pressure is there, you'll get the flow unless it's being strangled.

You could turn on the isloator and see if you get a free flow that you can't easily stop. A bit of spare flexible pipe might come in handy here to direct the water into a bucket or sink.

If you don't get a free flow, you've strangled it somewhere in the piping, by maybe a blockage or a kink. If you do, ditto, only downstream of the isolator, so look suspiciously at the shower itself. It's (just) possible that the unit could be faulty

HTH

mike

[latz]

Hi Mike

you are a Gem! Thanks very much for your advice, i'll give that a shot tonight and hopefully have some good news!

Thanks

Latz

[Stuart]

And did you follow the advice by the manfrs to commission the shower .It's something like running it at the cold setting with the sprayhead removed ......

Stuart

[latz]

Hi Stuart

Yes i did i made sure i did that before anything else, i also flushed the new pipework as a precaution.

Thanks for the suggestion.

[latz]

Hi Guys

Ok so here is what i have done tonight, i checked the piping thoroughy where i could, all seems fine. stopcock/isolator is in the right direction of flow.

The amount of water coming out of the union just before the shower is enough to fill an 8 litre bucket in about 30 seconds. Thats easily as good as the rest of the house if not better! I donty know where i got the impression from that it wasn't as good as the rest of the house!

But as soon as it is connected to the shower it seems to slow down to the rate of about 1 litre every 10 secs at most!

the shower is brand new - really starting to think its not my pipework but a faulty shower.

Any ideas anyone?

[Stuart]

I don't know the controls for this shower but if it has a knob that you turn to alter the flow of water ,and therefore the temp of the water ,have you fitted it on properly( in the right position on the spindle ) ?

Stuart

[latz]

Hi Stuart

thanks for your reply. Yes it has a spindle on the front of the shower that adjusts the temp, its all digital but it appears to be in the middle. Its funny you say that - i read the same in the manual too!