Worcester 240 and a combi shower

[patrocks]

Hi,

I'm about to have my bathroom updated and I'm thinking of changing from an electric shower to one fed from my boiler but I'm concerned about it having enough oomph.

The house has good water pressure. Our current electric shower has plenty of pressure but the hot water is nowhere near as good.

I have been told that the hot pressure should be as high as the mains but this is certainly not the case in my house. If I run the hot and cold taps upstairs there is a big difference in pressure and the hot can almost stop if it is run downstairs. Is this normal? Also does anyone have experience with the Worcester 240 and know if it has enough power to run a shower?

Thanks for any advice/help.

Pat.

 

[mikeyd]

Hi,

Having grown up in a house with an electric shower, then moved to a house with a thermostatic shower fed from a combi boiler I would say no comparison the boiler fed shower is by far the better. We have good water pressure which I believe from other posts on this site is a key factor with a combi boiler.

If our washing machine is on when I'm in the shower I can tell when it is filling as the water flow drops slightly (as in from very high to just high) but it's not a problem.

My hot water pressure is equal to the cold as I think it should be with a combi boiler so it sounds like you have something wrong. I'm no plumber so I can only suggest the obvious such as are all the isolation valves if there are any around the boiler (NOT the filling loop obviously) fully open?

You say your electric shower has good pressure but that might be misleading as electric showers don't need much. How long does it take to fill a bucket of water from the cold tap in the kitchen sink?

 

[DP]

You boiler will only supply 9.5l of hot water (subject to gas line being adequate). Mains pressure will be much higher.

Having said that, combi boiler is around three times more powerful than the electric shower, so showers will be better with combi boiler.

When combi breaks down (which they do often), then you will start to smell as you will have removed the electric shower.

Combi boiler can only deliver a measured quantity of hot water (9.5l in your case). If two taps are side by side, water division might be equal. If one tap is near the boiler and another remote like in the bathroom (boiler being in the kitchen), running kitchen and bathroom taps will result in no water from bathroom tap.

Hope above is helpful.