Shower pressure slowly reducing

[ajg_xch]

Hi all. I'm new to this group, although not to usenet.

Last year I refitted my bathroom and put a shower in (Gainsborough Ambassador Thermostatic - Recessed). This was my first attempt at doing anything like this, and I was quite chuffed as all seemed to work well. However, recently, the pressure has been getting less and less and the shower is almost unusable now.

Technical stuff (well, technical for me).... I have Gas Central Heating with a hot water tank in the airing cupboard and a cold water tank in the loft. The 22mm pipework into the bathroom feeds the cistern, then the shower, then the bath, then drops to 15mm to feed the sink (this is as was, I've just fed off the shower from the existing layout). I've added stopcocks on the hot and cold feeds entering the bathroom. The pipes up to the shower are 22mm until about a foot below the shower mixer valve, when they drop to 15mm.

Thoughts I've had....

1/ I've tried removing the shower head and cleaning it (making sure I refitted it correctly). 2/ If it's a build-up of scale (I am in a hard water area), then I'm not sure how to try and clear it. 3/ I'm wondering if maybe there's air somewhere in the pipes between the feed from the mains pipes in the bathroom and the shower head, I'm guessing it's not before that as the cistern, bath and sink all seem as normal. If this is the case, then I don't know how to remove it, as the usual suggestions of connecting hot&cold together to clear the air aren't possible. 4/ If I need to put a pump in, then I guess it'll have to go AFTER the shower pipes feed of the main bathroom pipes, otherwise the bath and sink will get pumped water as well. Unless that makes no odds, but I don't really understand well enough how they work.

I've had a browse through this group for possible solutions, but without much success, so any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Al

[Harry Ziman]

I would look at the shower head - it is probably got a bit of scale around the holes. One give away is if some of the jets no longer flow straight from the shower head. This is not infallible so I would remove the shower head and soak it in a solution (ideally but not essentially hot) of citric acid or kettle descaler. This should loosen the scale. Normal cleaning does not shift the scale.

[ajg_xch]

Thanks for the reply. I have already thought of that (hence 1), but even if I take the head off, it seems to be the actual flow of water that is the problem.

[Set Square]

Are you saying that, even with the shower head removed, the flow out of the pipe is very poor? Is the flow at the bath taps ok? If so, I would suspect the flexible shower hose - and maybe replace it with one having a larger internal bore. If there are any gate valves or isolator valves in the supply to the shower, have you checked that they are all fully open?

With regards to cleaning the shower head, leaving it face down over night in a vessel containing vinegar works wonders.

[ajg_xch]

As others have mentioned cleaning the shower head again, I've tried that using a descaler, even though the holes appeared to be clear, as well as removing the shower hose and cleaning it. There does seem to be an improvement in the flow now, so maybe that was all that was needed (I certainly hope so). I do remember now that moving the hose about changed the level of flow, so it's possible that it's just a bit susceptible to disruption if the hose is twisted a little.

Anyway, thanks to those that replied.

Al

[John Stumbles]

Is it as bad whatever the temperature setting?

Have you checked the flow withthe shower head removed? Does your installation have a flexible hose of a fixed shower head? If it's a flex hose try with the entire hose disconnected.

Pump descaling liquid (from plumbers' merchants or decent ironmongers) through it. How is the diy bit :-)

If it was OK before whatever's causing the problem then you don't need a pump, just to fix the problem. You may like a pump anyway, but that's another matter.

[Martin Angove]

Because no-one has mentioned it:

It is also possible that the mixer has one or more inlet filters. These are usually of a very fine mesh and quite easily (IM limited E) get blocked. Quite how you access them for cleaning is down to the shower. If you fitted it yourself, have you kept all the paperwork? It'll probably say in there somewhere.

Hwyl!

M.