Which "low pressure" shower?

[AnthonyL]

The electric shower (Triton T80) is upstairs and the pressure drops when the neighbours use cold water.

The drop in pressure obviously causes a flow decrease during which the water gets hotter and hotter then the low pressure valve clicks in and the heat is turned off so now it's a cold shower.

Are there showers that would accommodate the change in pressure more elegantly ie reduce power input as pressure drops rather than just cut out.

The alternatives of power showers etc are not worth the effort involved but a more intelligent shower with good flow rate sensoring may well solve the problem and the shower needs replacing anyway.

Many thanks

[John Rumm]

The difficulty you may find is that in general electric showers do not "modulate" the power of their heater. They allow you to set the temperature only by changing the flow rate (i.e. more / cooler water or less / hotter water). Some have a heater with more than one heat input setting (typically just "low" and "hi", but some have a "med" as well). Switching to "low" may enable it to run the heater for longer on lower pressure.

An alternative might be to replumb the shower to run from a dedicated tank in the loft via a booster pump. However, if you are going to that much hassle you may as well fit a proper shower.

[AnthonyL]

Tthat makes sense as it is probably easier to manipulate a valve.

Exactly. The problem is not so bad that the effort is worth doing but it is annoying when it happens.

Thanks for your response.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd say you must have terribly low water pressure if this happens. I'd guess below the legal minimum. Have you contacted your water board?

[AnthonyL]

It's an old (1860) cottage set within a block of cottages. The water pipes are shared, mine being shared with next door but I'm on the end. We both are also set back behind the others to form an L so we are quite a way from the road.

As I understand it we have the option of providing our own independent supplies to connect to the mains.

The problem however got worse when the water boards worked out that it was cheaper to drop the pressure than fix leaks so if we were borderline before we are more so now.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I'd have a right go about this shared pipe - unless you also have shared water rate, ie pay half the normal.

[AnthonyL]

Do you have any pointers to this?

to support my understanding.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

See also

course you could have adequate pressure but poor flow. Have you checked the usual suspects for this like stopcocks, etc?