Good shower required but what best to do?

[Goldspoon]

Any advice gratefully received!

I am fitting a WC, basin and bath. Fast flow shower is also required (I can buy whatever shower is reqd.) and I am wondering best way to go.

Head of water is only about 1.5m and another shower on same floor is pretty useless. Pipework in bathroom is 22mm for cold and hot (both gravity). Cylinder is next floor down and a way away (so cannot easily take water direct to a pump using a flange due to pipe routing issues). Also no easy way of adding a new pipe to the water cistern.

Q: I could fit a shower with a built in pump... are they any good?

Q: I could fit a pump within the bathroom (pump that boosts hot and cold) but I suppose this might not be a good idea as reading up on this suggests that pump should be close to cylinder... is this a feasible way to go?

Q: If fitting a pump close to cylinder presumably one can fit one pump that does cold and another that does hot... or one pump that does both? Problem here is that whatever I would do would mean the pump coming on for everything (hot water taps and shower, cold water taps and shower)... or is that a problem?

Q: I am also presuming cold water cistern has to be large (50L?).

Q: What about cylinder? What special requirements here?

Last Q!: 22mm pipes (actually 3/4 inch) have iso valves on ends at moment (first fix). Presumably this is not a good idea as they are a bottleneck due to being narrow inside?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Redhotferrari]

Is there any way of tapping into the mains cold feed and going into the bathroom in 22mm? If so go for a venturi type shower.

I have one that is no longer made, but its fantastic.

Have been told by a number of people that the trevi boost is brilliant, but it needs mains pressure cold and 22mm hot gravity feed, to get the venturi principle working properly, I think the cold mains pressure pulls through the hot gravity at a faster rate and gives a realy good shower.

Wait for me to be shot down in flames!!!!

 

[seco services]

i'd rather fit a wireless digital shower.
fit many of these and never had any unhappy customers yet and can be installed in a few hours.
hot doesn't need to come off a flange etc and unit can be sited under bath or loft etc.

 

[Redhotferrari]

Seco, just curious, does the remote part have a pump then to increase flow?

If it has a pump, how come you dont need a flange, or cant it pull air down?

Assume these require wiring to electrics? So do you then need a certified spark?

Only asking as would be interested in how these work and what the plumbing and electric requirements are.

Cheers

 

[Goldspoon]

Is there any way of tapping into the mains cold feed and going into the bathroom in 22mm? If so go for a venturi type shower.

I have one that is no longer made, but its fantastic.

Have been told by a number of people that the trevi boost is brilliant, but it needs mains pressure cold and 22mm hot gravity feed, to get the venturi principle working properly, I think the cold mains pressure pulls through the hot gravity at a faster rate and gives a realy good shower.

Wait for me to be shot down in flames!!!!

There is mains pressure cold in the room - 15mm first fix for basin (obviously 15 can become 22 with reducer). Will research more on the Venturi - thanks v. much!

 

[seco services]

Seco, just curious, does the remote part have a pump then to increase flow?

If it has a pump, how come you dont need a flange, or cant it pull air down?

Assume these require wiring to electrics? So do you then need a certified spark?

Only asking as would be interested in how these work and what the plumbing and electric requirements are.

Cheers

the unit has a pump inside that increases the flow and if you already have a mains pressure system you get the unit without the pump 2 types.

i surpose it's how it's designed
but the instructions say and i've spoke to aquilisa, grohe and they both state that they can be teed off anywhere.
and i have before teed off the hot supply from the cylinder etc and all work fine

some are off a 3 or 5 amp spur.

 

[Goldspoon]

Back to Venturi...

spec for Trevi Boost says:

[/i]Recommended for applications where the hot water pressure is between negative 0.05* bar and positive 0.3 bar pressure. Cold mains water pressure can vary between 1.5 and 3.0 bar[/i]

How do I measure bar pressure (pipe into room is under floorboard level, accessible, and 3/4" diameter)?

 

[seco services]

Back to Venturi...

spec for Trevi Boost says:

[/i]Recommended for applications where the hot water pressure is between negative 0.05* bar and positive 0.3 bar pressure. Cold mains water pressure can vary between 1.5 and 3.0 bar[/i]

How do I measure bar pressure (pipe into room is under floorboard level, accessible, and 3/4" diameter)?

use a water pressure gauge.
test cold on outside tap etc
hot on a bathroom tap.

or put a fitting on the pipe to the gauge.

 

[Goldspoon]

Phoned Trevi but they say that the hot supply has to be a unique link to cylinder (and I have not got this option at the moment).

Looks like every pump (from Triton and Trevi anyway) MUST have unique feeds back to cylinder or cistern or both.

Person I am doing work for asked if we cannot just fit a pump to the outgoing pipe on the cylinder and another on the cold from the loft cistern. Is this an option? Anybody know? I suppose that reason for this is that pump will come on when the loo fills!

Triton technician said that pumps designed for showers are "run for 15 mins and rest for 60 mins" so not suitable for anything other than showers (that plus potential for air being drawn in is reason why they insist on unique pipework).

At the end of the day I have a bathroom with a choice of mains cold (15mm), cylinder fed hot and cistern fed cold (3/4"). I cannot run new piping.

 

[Goldspoon]

... and since then spoke to a very experienced plumber who said talk to Salamander and not a shower company as he has fitted pumps many times and in a variety of situations...

So will be doing that next.

 

[Redhotferrari]

salamander do pumps that are continuous rated, therefore would work, they are not basic shower pumps, so not the 15 on 60 off situation