Duty cycle a joke!

May 31, 2006 32 Replies

Having finally decided against the electric shower option and lined up a nice power shower, I find that the duty cycle is only 15mins on/45mins off. I don't understand too much about this but am i right in thinking this means you can only use it for 15mins in an hour!!!



This is bloody ridiculous. By the time my wife is out of the shower, I'll get about 5 seconds worth!!



Get in their first then! ;-)

Sorry - dunno the answer to yoru question... just thought I'd make the suggestion! ;-)

Yes, you are right. And yes, it is very poor.

Go in together.

This is one of those single box solution "power showers" I take it? If so look at a decent standalone pump. That way you can tuck it out of the way and have it boost pressure and flow to all the taps in the bathroom. Have a look at some Stuart Turner pumps for example.

;-)

I believe I've read the same notice on my shower unit too. In reality, we have four consecutive showers of about 5 mins each. This doesn't seem to have caused a problem yet. Unless there is some magic recording device within the pump unit, then you'll get 5 years (the guarantee period) showering pleasure!

My trusty good-old Triton T80si 9.5kW *electric* shower suffers from no such duty cycle. We recently had the wife's family staying for the weekend (8 of us in a 3-bed semi, dormer bungalow - deep joy) and it coped with all 8 of us, one after the other.

Cast out the doom and gloom that the nay-sayers have planted and go and get one - you know you want to :o)

Steve.

I can't believe that he showers alone. What's the point?

Mary

That's what ours is, we have had no problems of any kind with it.

Could be worse ... could have been your family :-(

Or for more than a weekend. :-(((

There were seven of us before we kicked out the fearsome five, now they bring the terrible ten when they visit, with spouses, sometimes to stay. And if people think that a wife using ten minutes of shower is unreasonable they should time teenage and tweenie girls ...

Yes. Do what you want then there's no-one else to blame if it goes wrong and you can claim all the credit when it works to your satisfaction. Don't be influenced by know-alls.

Mary

The message from "Mary Fisher" contains these words:

Perhaps he wants to get cleaner quicker than he gets dirty.

I presume the duty cycle is in the shower instruction manual.

The duty cycle almost certainly originates from the safety certification of the shower. As part of the safety testing the temperature of all the internal components and insulation is measured and checked that it doesn't get too hot. most high power domestic electrical equipment is operated on a duty cycle, this gets written into the instruction manual and then the duty cycle is followed during safety testing

the limiting temperature is the worst case component at the highest ambient (air)operating that the shower is in - which will be warmer than your typical bathroom temp

Unless you're running the shower for a very long time on a hot day I wouldn't have thought you'd have a problem - other than electic showers are usually crap :-)

Charlie

n> Having finally decided against the electric shower option and lined up

A bit boring though ...

Mary

I don't have an electic shower but if I did you'd never have experienced it so how would you know what it was like?

Nobody knows everything.

Same here, Triton has been in for a good 12 years. (I am taking to the bunker now before the flak starts).

Dave

"Steve" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@individual.net:

Ditto my triton T90si pumped electric 10.5.

I can't imagine what this duty cycles about, for a power shower, unless it uses all the hot water in 15 mins, and needs 45 mins to heat up again.

An electric shower will give me a shower of unlimited length within 30 secs of getting in the door, whether the DHWs hot or not

mike

And that is a selling point?! You need an unlimited duration shower to deliver enough water to wash in.

The idea is that you shouldn't use the shower more than the published duty cycle, as it might overheat or otherwise malfunction. Why it will overheat after 16 minutes whilst it won't after 15 is an exercise left to the reader.

Christian.

so by your own admissions you know nothing about electic showers....

Simple comparison:

35kW combi vs 10kW electric shower - which is going to give a better flow rate of nice warm water?

don't be daft.

That's a reductio ad absurdum.

And you still can't spell.

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