New Bathroom Problems...

FrinkDink

Hi all,

Was away for a couple of weeks, and while gone I had arranged for my uncle and his 'crew' (plumber, plasterer etc) to totally upgrade the downstairs loo, adding a a shower, replacing sink, toilet etc, and tiling on both floor and wall. It looks absolutely mint, but he put in a damn mixer shower (which does look great) but has negligible pressure, even our electric upstairs has better pressure.

Now this makes little sense to me, how can a mixer shower have such bad pressure? Is it possible to use the mains supply for a mixer, or would I have to have a sealed system for this?

Corkey123

If the shower is being feed directly from the Hot tank and Storage tank and these are upstairs and/or in the attic then you should have enough pressure. However if they are not fed direct and there is taps etc in between then the pressure will fall off dramatically. Do you know the route of the hot and cold feed?

FrinkDink

I don't know the route exactly... the taps in the downstairs bathroom seem to have higher pressure than the shower itself, yet I don't know if these are 'in the way' or not. Is there an easy way to find out? And it is fed from the upstairs tanks it appears.

garyh3

Did you check the shower head as sometime they put a little rubber washer in them to reduce the pressure.

Garyh3

FrinkDink

a rubber washer? what would it look like, and how to remove?

Corkey123

Frink

Turn on the shower - hot only and turn on the hot in the downstair loo . You will see a decrease in pressure if they are on the same feed.

FrinkDink

@ Martin

I'll check that out, if there is a decrease in pressure is it feasible to get it sorted?

Yeah, when I checked the hot tap/shower hot water, the shower pressure decreased, so this must mean they're on the same feed. I just need to know if there is any way to increase the pressure at this stage in the shower, I mean the tap pressure seems considerably higher.

Endymion

feeding the shower from a storage tank should provide more pressure then the mains. Could it be he connected it to the mains? It doesn't matter how many taps are also feed off the same tank, if they are off when you use the shower it won't affect pressure in any meaningful way. Increasing the volume of the tank will increase your presure, but it sounds like the tank is providing enough pressure if other taps are working ok.

bascially ask him what way he connected it up. You can add small inline pumps to closed systems in order to increase presure, if needs be.

Corkey123

It really is down to the route the source is taking.

If the taps are fed by the hot tank and then subsequently then moves to the shower at ground level this requires the source to move up again to feed the mixer and then up again to feed the shower head. This will definately have an impact on the pressure. I suggest an independent pump is the only way of increasing the pressure again.

Endymion

The two factors affecting the pressure are the hight of tank and the volume of the tank. the order in which the taps and mixers are plumbed actually won't make a significant difference in pressure.

dras

As Garyh3 noted, if you take off the shower head there may be a fine mesh screen and a rubber washer. Just check that its clear (just in case).