Surrey Flange

Jun 16, 2005 7 Replies
B

I'm soon to be fitting a Surrey Flange to the top of my hot water cylinder as the water pressure to my shower is poor and inconsistent despite having a pump recently installed. The pressure before fitting the pump (as left by the plumber who installed it) was extremely poor.



Question: Will I need a pump on the new set up? The bottom of the cold water tank to the shower head is only about 600mm but I can reduce the number of bends and use 22mm pipe if required. If not can I get a pump that operates next to the tank in the loft as many (like my old one) require about 2m of head.


There is also a lot of air getting into the hot water and I'd like to solve this at the same time if possible. Currently the pipe from the top of the hot water cylinder goes vertically up and vents over the cold water tank in the loft. Hot water is drawn off horizontally about



200mm above the cylinder.

Question: Is this set up ok or should the pipes be angled somehow to prevent air being sucked in?



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E

Can you raise the level of the tank in the loft?

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S

Isn't that a song from Oklahoma?

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B

Not without moving the tank to a different part of the loft and then by only about 1 meter. This would obviously involve moving all the pipe work.

I could do it though if it's really worth it.

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T

Bob

Check out the Stuart Turner pumps site. ISTR there are some recommendations, particularly on the placement of the hot take off from the tank. If your take off is from the central top connection of your cylinder this is definitely NOT what the pump manufacturers like to see! They want the take off below the top of the tank on the down feed to the bath. In other words, after the air has been allowed to vent back to the tank. The other option is an essex flange tapped into the side of the tank - a good google on these should give an installation diagram

Phil

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S

The head is the vertical distance from the shower head to the *top surface* of the water in the cold tank - not to the bottom of the tank.

Why not put the pump at bathroom floor level - or under the bath. You'll then have plenty of head from the tank to the pump - and can pump the water back up to the shower.

The reason you are getting air in the water is that you're pumping it

*without* using a Surrey Flange - so the line of least resistance is to suck air out of the vent pipe rather than sucking water out of the cylinder. That's the whole point of using a Surrey Flange - it takes water from lower down in the cylinder and eliminates the air problem. But it serves no purpose *unless* you're pumping it - which you will have to, anyway - because the Surrey Flange does nothing to alleviate the lack of sufficient flow by pure gravity.
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S

...and there is me wondering why the Surrey police were involved....

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