Where and if I should fit a pump for low shower pressure

Just completed a shower in an en-suite. Problem is that the hot flow is very slow and makes the shower very feeble. I've had a look at a pump but know very little about such things. Can someone answer the following:-

The hot water flow for reasons of practicality had to come down to the kitchen from the tank in the airing cupboard and then back up again to the en-suite (hence feeble flow). The mains cold just goes straight up to the shower and is quite strong. Should I get a dual pump or just a single for the hot? Does it matter where I place it? Ideally I would like to put it behind a tumble drier in the downstairs kitchen. Do you leave these pumps on all the time or do they have some mechanism that turns them on when you want a shower?

Thanks for help

Reply to
Pete L
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Sounds like you are mixing gravity fed hot from a storage tank, with mains fed cold. This is often a trickey gambit unless you have very low mains pressure. Adding a pressure reduction valve to the mains cold feed a bit before the shower can help.

Just a single[1], you are not allowed to attach a pump to the mains cold.

Unless you want to pay extra for the pump, they need at least some positive pressure, so at least a few feet below the water level in the cistern. You also want a nice unrestricted 22mm pipe run on the suction side of the pipe. You may also need a separate tap off or a surrey/warwix flange on the hot cylinder to stop the pump just sucking loads of air into the shower water.

You leave them permenently connected and switched on (they should usually be powered from a fused connection unit). Flow sensors in the pump will activate it whenever there is a demand for water.

[1] you could use a dual with both sides pumping the hot
Reply to
John Rumm

For some pumps you can get a negative switch so it can be in the attic. Most pumps push the water and instructions say they should be near the hot tank (in the airing cupboard). Best set up is seperate pipe from cold cistern to shower, and seperate take off from hot tank to shower. Instructions on my pump say you can not pump the mains water.

Reply to
nafuk

Um, the height of the pump is of absolutely no significance. It is the height of the shower head in relation to the bottom of the cistern (you can't assume the tank is full!) that is important. If it is a shower over bath arrangement, the bath hot tap will act as a negative head switch without the need for cabling or tangle switches mounted on the ceiling.

The best positioning of the pump is as close to the outlet hot water cylinder as possible, so it pushes as much as possible.

This varies on many factors. If the cylinder has a really good inlet connection to the cold tank, with flowed bends, full bore valves and at least 22mm pipework, you can often get away with using the top connection, especially if you turn the pump down.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

Oops brain fart. Yup you are quite correct!

(I was thinking about negative head, and then described a completely unrelated problem that will lead to airlock / priming problems due to pump location). ;-)

Hence why I said "may". I have successfully fitted a 1.4 bar pump to a system that was much as you describe - nice straight flow path from the cistern to the cylinder and it worked very well with no air ingress to the HW at all. One may have more problems with the OPs 3 bar pump however.

Reply to
John Rumm

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