Warm water coming through cold tap in bathroom

[xr4x4]

......so are you leaving the mixer taps hot and cold open or closed when not in use?

 

[stem]

When I moved into my present house, I found the same problem. It turned out that a hot water pipe had been installed very close to the cold water pipe to the bathroom sink for some length, so that it warmed the water in it. There was just enough 'warm' water in the cold pipe to last whilst cleaning my teeth. Separating the pipes and some foam pipe insulation sorted it. Has the shower pipe been recently installed, and if so is it close to the cold water pipe?

It appears to me that this is also wrong on several levels.

we clean our teeth with the cold water from the bathroom tap....This morning I turn on the cold tap in the bathroom (which gets its feed from the cold water storage tank in the loft not from the mains)

So you are cleaning your teeth with water that has been stored in a tank in the loft Unless it's a relatively new property with a Water Bylaw 30 kit installed, I wouldn't like the sound (or should I say taste) of that.

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• stem
• 16 Nov 2012
• 1

and disconnected the terminals to the heater inside.......I leave the lever on and then pull the 45amp cord

As you have disconnected the heating part of the shower, is the shower still fitted to a 45A supply? If so, unless it has some internal overload protection you will be running a pump likely with final connections of 1 or 2 mm2 wires and consuming no more than 1 or 2 amps that is now protected by a 45A MCB / fuse, meaning that it probably wouldn't trip until a 3,000% overload occurred. If a L to N fault occurred inside the pump that pulled say 45A, your MCB wouldn't trip but it would soon turn your pump and its connecting wires to toast.

 

[hazetimesfive]

yeah i brush my teeth in that stuff... aint no thing really..

 

[stardanny]

Why don't you use the button on the front of shower to isolate it instead of the pullcord ?
And turn the lever off the same time.

It's not really the ideal setup for this type of shower.

I have got the Shower unit tucked away neatly in the airing cupboard (which is behind the shower cubicle / mixer tap /shower head) so i didnt have to drill into tiles and have the shower unit inside the shower cubicle - in any case I think the front switch on the shower does any different to what pulling the ceiling cord does which is to kill the 240v electrics thereby de-energising the solenoid in the shower thereby shutting off the water to the shower head. I may be wrong but I think thats how it works.

Why can't you buy single shower pump and put it in airing cupboard between mixer shower outlet and shower head?
It work by turning on shower mixer and pull shower knob and the pump switch on itself. Turn off shower mixer and the pump will stop.

Dan.

 

[xr4x4]

What does the bylaw kit do?

 

[andyr123]

So you are cleaning your teeth with water that has been stored in a tank in the loft Unless it's a relatively new property with a Water Bylaw 30 kit installed, I wouldn't like the sound (or should I say taste) of that.

for 47 years of me life have always washed my teeth from water from the cold storage tank up in the loft which goes to basin in the bathroom - we have only ever had cold mains at the kitchen sinks in all the houses i have lived in - yeah but admittedly there are dead flies and scum and god knows what else in the tank up in the tank up in the loft when I've been up there and had a look inside em!

As you have disconnected the heating part of the shower, is the shower still fitted to a 45A supply? If so, unless it has some internal overload protection you will be running a pump likely with final connections of 1 or 2 mm2 wires and consuming no more than 1 or 2 amps that is now protected by a 45A MCB / fuse, meaning that it probably wouldn't trip until a 3,000% overload occurred. If a L to N fault occurred inside the pump that pulled say 45A, your MCB wouldn't trip but it would soon turn your pump and its connecting wires to toast.

The 45amp cord switch is attached to 3amp fused spur off the sockets, no problem at all there, should also trip the RCD in the consumer board should there be leakage to earth - I suppose if I wanted to what I could have done is put a 5amp ceiling cord switch instead of 45A switch but the 45a switch has on & off indicator and light so i used that instead. So now I have disconnected the 9kw heater tank in the shower the only things connected is the solenoid and motor and the motor must be what only 80w at max I suppose so 3amp fuse in the spare should be OK for it.

 

[andyr123]

Why can't you buy single shower pump and put it in airing cupboard between mixer shower outlet and shower head?
It work by turning on shower mixer and pull shower knob and the pump switch on itself. Turn off shower mixer and the pump will stop.

Dan.

cheapest shower pump I found was 220euro and I had a Mira Elite pumped shower unit lying around that I boot from car boot sale for only 20quid, dont think the heater tank was/is working OK so I disconnected heater alltogether i only wanted to use the pump part anyway so just left the pump part of the shower wired up, works quite well as a pump and the shower is much more powerful than when it just run on gravity fed.

 

[andyr123]

Thanks everyone for your help and solutions but I turned on the cold tap this morning and cold water flowed out! - I dont get it, its like its magically fixed itself! - I didnt do anything different from the day before I still left the shower mixer turned on and just switched off by the power cord switch as the day before and i didnt divert any pipes or anything - very strange I shall be keeping an eye on it. Thanks again for the answers everyone

 

[stem]

What does the byelaw kit do?

Basically it keeps dust, "foreign bodies" and insects out of the tank so that the water stays clean.

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• stem
• 17 Nov 2012
• 1