Advice needed about shower pump install

Adam anto

Hi all,

We our getting our bathroom refurbished at the mo. All seems good except.....

I'm a bit worried about what way they have done our plumbing. Tonight when they left we went to check out our new toilet (no more flushing with a bucket....nice...) and discovered that when you flush the toilet the shower pump kick in and stays on for a minute or two, then shuts off. Also, when you turn on the hot water tap in the kitchen the pump starts then too.

Does this mean that they connected the pump to wrong pipes or is there some reason that the pump would activate for another reason.

The pump has hot and cold in and out and is located in the hotpress just under the immersion tank.

Any advice very welcome as need to sort it out before builders go off site.

Thanks

Anto

ircoha

Adam anto wrote: »

Hi all,

We our getting our bathroom refurbished at the mo. All seems good except.....

I'm a bit worried about what way they have done our plumbing. Tonight when they left we went to check out our new toilet (no more flushing with a bucket....nice...) and discovered that when you flush the toilet the shower pump kick in and stays on for a minute or two, then shuts off. Also, when you turn on the hot water tap in the kitchen the pump starts then too.

Does this mean that they connected the pump to wrong pipes or is there some reason that the pump would activate for another reason.

The pump has hot and cold in and out and is located in the hotpress just under the immersion tank.

Any advice very welcome as need to sort it out before builders go off site.

Thanks

Anto

The pump has been connected to the cold water feed from the attic tank which passes through the hot press and to the hot water from the top of the HW cylinder also in the hot press, nice easy simple plumbing which means that all taps and heads in the house other than the rising main cold in kitchen will start the pump when used so when you flush the ceann at 3am the neighbours will know: Anto has just had a jimmy riddle or a bad takeaway:)

If all u wanted was the shower pumped then the plumbing is a bit tricker: it depends on ease of access, whether you live in a house or apt or whatever and if the bathroom is fully tiled etc.

One simple solution is to have a switch on the pump that u use when having the shower and then turn it off or just turn it off at night.
The pump will restrict the flow a bit when not in use but not by much.

311

I install bathrooms myself and I've never left someones house like this.

Your pump is going to be used a lot more this way ,shorter lifespan.
Theres not much work in supplying pumped only connections to the shower/bath.Run the pipes through the attic and down the wall.

Edit : The above is in a house by the way ,apartments are different and need a pump supplying everything

Adam anto

Thanks for the replies. What's worrying me more now is the fact that we had everything done from scratch. The bathroom was down to concrete walls and no floors. Every pipe was accessible to change/reroute at some stage or other. And it's a house. Would this mean that the pump should have fed the shower directly and nowhere else?

Thanks again for replies..

Anto

311

Essentially theres nothing wrong with the job ,some people don't have a choice in the matter.

As ircoha says ,the toilet filling will be noisey:(

Adam anto

Would it be the norm for a toilet to start the pump? It seems to me that we did have a choice because all the bathroom plumbing was replaced.

Would it be unreasonable of me to ask for the builders to provide direct connections to the "shower/bath" now considering that they had access to re-plumb everything. The partition that houses the shower mixer is new.

Ta again

Anto

311

Anto ,there might be a good reason for them not piping the shower seperately.

Do you have an en-suite that is situtated away from the hot press ? ,if so then the builders might have thought it best to pump the shower there also.
That would mean connecting everything to the pump in the hot press.

If not ,
Is the attic space accessible ? ,it's actually very easy to run two qualpex pipes from the hotpress ,over the attic space and down the partition.

ircoha

Anto, its your decision at the end of the day.

Given that the job was all new from bare walls, I concur with 311 that it is a bad job, however what is done is done and I would not be ripping out tiles etc: it will never look right.

I would in fact leave it as is, with the switch I mention, so as u can turn it off after the shower is used.
It is sometimes useful actually to have the option to refill the toilet cistern quickly:) so I would leave it, with switch.

If you wanted to be even more advanced u can have a timer fitted to the switch and the switch is a push button like a bell push so as it will go off after say 10 or 15 mins.
I did this in my first house: saves the water as well if u have 'preening teens'

Adam anto

Thanks for all the good advice. The decision is......

As suggested - Timer switch fitted to pump which will turn on in the morning for a couple of hours with an option to override when ever required.

Am just after wiring up the spots and having first shower. Nearly got lifted out of it with the pressure.. sweet sweet sweet !!
Apart from the strange plumbing they have done a fantastic job. The workmanship is 100%.

On a side note. I split the lighting into two groups in the bathroom. Group 1 is over the bath/shower and group 2 is the rest of the bathroom. I put a double dimmer in the attic so I can adjust the balance of lighting in the room. I wasn't sure if I'd need it but it turns out that I was worth doing. Can get a great effect by small tweeks (god I'm sad)...

Thanks for all the very good advice ircoha and 311. You've eased my pain :-)

Anto

oleras

Adam anto wrote: »

Hi all,

We our getting our bathroom refurbished at the mo. All seems good except.....

I'm a bit worried about what way they have done our plumbing. Tonight when they left we went to check out our new toilet (no more flushing with a bucket....nice...) and discovered that when you flush the toilet the shower pump kick in and stays on for a minute or two, then shuts off. Also, when you turn on the hot water tap in the kitchen the pump starts then too.

Does this mean that they connected the pump to wrong pipes or is there some reason that the pump would activate for another reason.

The pump has hot and cold in and out and is located in the hotpress just under the immersion tank.

Any advice very welcome as need to sort it out before builders go off site.

Thanks

Anto

your pump should work your shower and bath, thats it. why do you need pressure on your toilet ? toilet and sink ( brush your teeth, wash hands) should not splash. plumber took a short cut.

i have just had my bathroom done, 3 bar pump to shower and bath, the rest off mains/head pressure.