Shower pump

[ricke]

Looking at installing a shower pump for a electric (8.5Kw) shower which is fed from the cold water tank (CWT). Shower head is approx 1m below CWT. Plan is to install pump in garage (more than 1m below CTW !) which then feeds water back to the shower head. Can anyone answer the following:

1. Does this sound feasible ?
2. Any pump recommendations ?
3. On some pumps I've seen, instructions state that there should be at least 50cm (in some cases less) between CWT and shower head. Why should this matter if you're going to use a pump ? I would have thought as long as the pump gets switched on by the water pressure from the CWT and then pumps the water to the shower head (at a higher pressure), the distance between CWT and shower head shouldn't matter ?

Any comments much appreciated.

Ricke

 

[Bahco]

Why not dispense with the pump idea and connect your shower to the rising main.
This can be done by capping your existing shower feed from cistern and taking remaining pipework to the cistern feed pipe.
This should give you better water pressure and be a lot cheaper as well as easier

 

[ricke]

Bit worried about the rising main pressue, it's not that great at the best of times. Got normal bath, washing machine, etc on the mains as well. Wanted to totally isolate the shower with a dedicated feed from cold water tank. This seemed to be the best option (if it's do-able!)

 

[Bahco]

Bit worried about the rising main pressue, it's not that great at the best of times. Got normal bath, washing machine, etc on the mains as well. Wanted to totally isolate the shower with a dedicated feed from cold water tank. This seemed to be the best option (if it's do-able!)

At present you have 0.1 bar of pressure from your cistern.
The mains should be at least 1 bar even in a poor supply area. Try my suggestion.
You may be pleasantly surprised and if you are handy you can do it yourself for the price of a few materials.
Suck it and see

 

[ricke]

But what if there are other demands on the cold water supply, surely the pressure would go down ? Would it not be better to have a dedicated pumped supply that didn't get affected by someone turning on the washing machine ?

 

[Bahco]

But what if there are other demands on the cold water supply, surely the pressure would go down ? Would it not be better to have a dedicated pumped supply that didn't get affected by someone turning on the washing machine ?

You must have extremely low water pressure for this not to work
The choice is yours but I think you are over worrying
See what the other guys think

 

[solderjoint]

DO NOT connect your shower to the rising main or else you will have problems with temperature fluctuation.

 

[Bahco]

DO NOT connect your shower to the rising main or else you will have problems with temperature fluctuation.

HELLO it is a single cold feed electric shower

 

[solderjoint]

Single cold feed electric showers running off the mains are suceptable to pressure changes at the best of times, I ditched mine and fitted a mixer shower running off seperate hot and cold tank [gravity] fed supplies via a pump which I situated in the airing cupboard. If this idea doesn't appeal to you then why not consider a power shower instead. Regards

 

[Bahco]

Any other views

 

[BigHammo]

I have had all three:

A shower fed from the cold and hot water supplier, only had about 8 ft of head, ok, but not much pressure.

An electric shower fed from the mains, briliant until some flushed the toilet.

A power shower brilliant but the first one I had was a cheap one and only lasted 18 months.

Without a doubt the power shower is the best. The only installation difficulty I had was fitting a Surrey flange and running pipe from it to the shower, but you may be able to pick up the hot water supply from elsewhere but be wary of pressure drops when using the other thing that the supply is from.

 

[ChrisR]

Watch it. I mean literally. An electric shower only uses 4 litres a minute. Set a mains tap to that flow and turn on other mains taps or run water from the CW cistern ie hot taps, and see if your measured tap varies.

It would be handy to know what your mains pressure is likely to be - call your Water Authority. Then measure the total mains flow with all mains taps open (probably just the kitchen and garden , & washing machine). Add em up.