Another Triton T90i shower question

hadook

We have a Triton T90i and it's not well. We can have scalding water on the highest setting or lukewarm water on any of the other settings (obviously freezing cold on the cold setting). It's giving a decent enough shower on the highest setting and trickles out on the others so there's a pressure problem there too. The shower is about 4 years old but we have very hard water and lots of limescale so we're not surprised when things like this break.

My OH tried descaling it with the trusty vinegar again last night (point to note - that's the same tank that fills the cold water tap in the bathroom. Toothpaste & vinegar = still not feeling well at work several hours later!) and it made no difference. We think it's the pump itself that's the problem, but we're not sure. Does this sound like a pump problem? Any other suggestions?

The current plan is to fix this if it's easy to fix or replace it with the T90x which apparently will fit in its place.

ART6

Could be the valve between the pump and the heater can -- they do stick on those showers. Try turning the shower on and giving it a few sharp taps with the handle of a knife or something -- but watch out for live electrical connections and don't open the cover unless you are familiar with electrics. There's more than enough power on bare connections to fry you is you aren't careful.

niceirishfella

ART6 wrote: »

Could be the valve between the pump and the heater can -- they do stick on those showers. Try turning the shower on and giving it a few sharp taps with the handle of a knife or something -- but watch out for live electrical connections and don't open the cover unless you are familiar with electrics. There's more than enough power on bare connections to fry you is you aren't careful.

no, this will not matter (for the OP now)and its toooooo dangerous.:eek:


OP, there's no getting away from the fact you have a hard water problem and you'll have to address this to fix your issue. A dedicated water softener will sort out your entire domestic water supply and will allow your shower to work as it should. Bad news is is could cost up to €800 installed and about €7 a bag of salt which should last between 2 to 4 weeks depending on the severity of the hardness.

Re; the shower, sould like its completly clogged with hard deposits of lime.
Until you start to run soft (treated) water through it, its will never work properly or have a chance to cleanse/clear itself of the deposits.

TIP - after you get a softner,take the shower head off and open it and clear it of deposits - infact, if its full of lime, just buy as new one in argos for a €10!
Now,with the shower head off, turn on the shower on, put it on max HOT for a few mins, the abruptly turn it to MAX COLD for a few mins.....and repeat, and repeat, and repeat....................for days and days. It does work, you'll see all the hard deposits coming out and onto the shower tray. MASSIVE LUMPS EVEN.

I was in this exact same postion and until i took the hit and fitted my softener, my shower was never right.
Now, it works perfect, and i don't have scum in the kettle, and my washing machine is protected and the central heating etc etc. Its better for your skin too!:)

any questions, just pm me.

hadook

Little bro is a sparky so I've got someone else to get electrocuted thanks

It's a tiny old cottage and we are planning to extend over the next few years and get a proper water softener then as we'll also be ripping out the old pipework and redoing everything in the cottage bit. Doing anything now bar basic maintenance and repair will be wasted because we plan to gut and restore it (there's a new well on the plans too thanks to an amusing National-Road-In-The-Way-If-Anything-Goes-Wrong issue, old houses - aren't they great :rolleyes:). We do clean the shower head and hose to keep it clear of limescale on a regular basis so we believe that the problem is in the bits of the shower that we can't clean easily.

Is my best option to call out a repair guy?

willbur

a client of mine had a the same problem they where waiting to do loads of work on the house so i but a second 100 gl tank in the attic just for the shower which would be used later anyway and collected the rain water from the roof using automatic water pump it worked fine as its not hard water allso be carefull if you extend the shower hose make sure the internal hole size is the same

quietsailor

Some showers have an internal water filter fitted, I thnk the triton has them as well.

Turn off the electricity and water first. Open the cover and where the water pipe comes in you'll see a black plastic nut. When you open this some water will come out so stand back a little.

After you've taken off the filter open the water valve to flush the line, only open it a little.

Depending on how used you are to working with tools screw the filter back in so its still loose, turn on the water again slightly and let the water flow until all the air is gone - hissing noise/bubbles stop. Now close the filter fully. These don't need to be overtightened - its plastic so you'll break it if you tighten it too much.

If your not good with tools just screw the filter back again (don't overtighten) and turn on the water again. Put the cover back on again, take the head of the shower and let it on the ground, turn the shower to cold and start it. Don't let it run more than 10 seconds with no water coming out, stop it for a while if it does. give it 30 seconds and try again. Eventually you'll get water out of the shower head.

I don't know if that'll help but I have to do it every 3-4 months in my mothers house.

thekingoftara

quietsailor wrote: »

Turn off the electricity and water first. Open the cover and where the water pipe comes in you'll see a black plastic nut. When you open this some water will come out so stand back a little.

After you've taken off the filter open the water valve to flush the line, only open it a little.

Depending on how used you are to working with tools screw the filter back in so its still loose, turn on the water again slightly and let the water flow until all the air is gone - hissing noise/bubbles stop. Now close the filter fully. These don't need to be overtightened - its plastic so you'll break it if you tighten it too much.

If your not good with tools just screw the filter back again (don't overtighten) and turn on the water again. Put the cover back on again, take the head of the shower and let it on the ground, turn the shower to cold and start it. Don't let it run more than 10 seconds with no water coming out, stop it for a while if it does. give it 30 seconds and try again. Eventually you'll get water out of the shower head.

Hi, I just wanted to reply and say thanks very much to quietsailor for the above information as it just saved the day!

I have a Triton T90xr pump fed electric shower and what happened in my case was a pipe froze in the loft, I didn't know this I had a shower and all was fine. The wife went to get into the shower and it made the pumping sound (more like a high pitched version of the pumping sound) but no water.

Once I discovered the frozen pipe and thawed it out with a hair dryer I thought everything would be fine as all the taps worked but the shower didn't. So I opened up the T90 cleaned the filter (it was OK) and tapped the solenoid (which I read about in other posts on here) and no joy.

I suspected an air lock in the system so I took off the water pipe at the junction where it joins the shower (white plastic pipe) and could see water was getting through. I connected it all back up again and no good. Being dense I persisted at this for about an hour thinking if I tinkered long enough, tapping the solenoid as I went, then it would all start magically working again. It didn't.

I followed the advice above, the only slight difference being that the filter assembly is large and white rather than a black nut
http://www.showerdoc.com/shower-spares/triton/TRITO-PARENT-20-Triton-T90xr-Pumped
It says it should be finger tight, but mine was much too tight to loosen with just my fingers.
I took it off and pressed the little thing in the centre until a continuous stream of water came out (and my left arm was soaked!). I put the filter back in (finger tight, but tight finger tight) and took the spray head off and let the pipe dangle to the floor, I put the cover back on and switched the shower on at the isolator switch and then turned it on and, after a few seconds, the noise of the pump pumping changed and I got water back out again.

I'm not 100% sure if my problem was dirt from the bottom of the tank or an air lock or a bit of both but quietsailor's directions got the problem sorted!