Leaking couplers to Shower pump

[Rob G]

My neighbours have an even older house (17th C at least) than mine and called me in to see why a damp patch had appeared in a downstairs room from an upstairs bathroom. I am always suspicious of upstairs showers, but it turned out that the shower pump is the problem - at least it is the flexible couplers from the pump that are leaking - both!! This pump is fitted in a small cupboard on the bathroom floor.

One coupler is bent over at 90 degs to join up with a copper pipe, and that is possibly the cause of the drips from the top of that - could someone agree with me on that please?

The other one has just a slight seep and is not bent over.

I'm not a plumber but have sufficient knowledge from undertaking a total replumb of my own house, albeit in the days when only copper pipes existed, and I haven't dealt with a shower pump before nor its associated flexible couplers.

My questions are :-
the one above on the flexible coupler being bent over at 90 degrees ?

and secondly are these flexible couplers really designed for plastic piping and not copper - and how do I dismantle them?

Many thanks for any help.

 

[oldbuffer]

1. Photographs are a great help to providing appropriate advice.
2. By coupler, do you mean the flexible hoses (braided outer casing) or the fittings which connect these hoses to the pump or to the pipework?
3. Where are the leaks coming from, the flexible hoses themselves or the fittings which join them to the pipework / shower pump?
4. What make and model is the pump? I find the flexible hoses on Stuart Turner "Showermate" pumps prone to leaking at the point the flexible hose is crimped to the end fitting. Replacements are expensive.
5. The fittings are designed for either 15 mm or 22 mm pipe. The material the pipe is made from doesn't matter. However, if plastic pipe is used it should have a pipe insert placed inside it where it goes into any fitting. No insert should be used for copper pipe, as the pipe is strong enough without reinforcement.

 

[Rob G]

Deleted - see below

 

[Rob G]

Many thanks for your answer OB.

1 Yes I did wonder about photos but really they wouldn't have shown much other than the water leakage on the cupboard floor, though probably it would have answered your question 4 if that is relevent.
2 & 3 The reason I used the word 'coupler' is that is what they are called on the Screwfix website - yes, these are the flexible hoses, and certainly the hot feed pipe, that was bent over to meet a horizontal 15mm copper pipe, had drips coming out of the top - the cold feed one appeared damp too but that might have been condensation.
4 I couldn't get access to the name plate - I only just was able to get to the isolator valves to put them to off.
5 On the basis that the outlet pipes are 15mm, then it is reasonable to assume these are 15mm flexible hoses. However as I said I've never worked with these pumps or their fittings before, and I don't know how to dismantle them - as Screwfix carrying stock I am assuming that connection and disconnecting them is standard but it is how that I would appreciate someone telling me.

 

[dilalio]

Photos show us the installation!
Not interested in photos of a close up of a drip!

So... As in "a picture speaks a 1000 words" upload photos of the setup not the "drip"!

 

[dilalio]

Flexible hoses off the top of a pump are "anti-vibration" hoses.

Not "bend the feck out of them to get onto the connecting pipework hoses"

Manufacturers installation instructions insist that these should be "pencil straight!"

Well, salamander do!

 

[Rob G]

My neighbours were away all yesterday and are not in at the moment so I will get a photo when they get back.

Thanks, Dilalio, for the comment about the flexible pipes being straight - that's going to have to be rectified. Could you let me know how to dismantle the connection between the 15mm copper pipe and the flexible pipe - I think it is something to do with a sleeve at the top of the flexible pipe but having not worked with one of these pumps before so am a bit in the dark.

 

[Rob G]

This project has taken an unexpected turn in that I've now learnt that the husband has done the repair himself despite not being into doing home repairs at all !! Good luck to him as he seemingly paid no attention to the fact that the hot water flexible pipe would have been required to being bend to the horizontal to meet up with the pipe to the shower head.

Possibly a bit of sour grapes but I won't be volunteering my services to that house in future, and my thanks to those here who have helped me.

 

[dilalio]

Hoses are pushfit connections on to copper or plastic - usually.

Again, can't advise you without seeing a photo of what you have.