Shower and immersion problem

lorr1981

Hi Guys,

Long time listener first time poster

Was wondering if anyone would have any solutions or insight into this problem....Will try to explain it as best I can :

I bought a new house a few months ago and since day one there seems to be a problem with the stand alone shower in the ensuite bathroom. When I put on the immersion (which is on a timer BTW) it does not seem to heat up the water for the shower - but the rest of the taps and the main bath is fine - piping hot water. The shower has a pump and I thought maybe this was the problem but the shower is still cold with the pump switched off.

The main thing that confuses me is that the shower works fine off of the central heating - but only for about 5mins at a time. Was hoping I could get some help here before trying to chase the builder down - you know how that is!

Cheers

Lorr

ART6

lorr1981 wrote: »

Hi Guys,

Long time listener first time poster

Was wondering if anyone would have any solutions or insight into this problem....Will try to explain it as best I can :

I bought a new house a few months ago and since day one there seems to be a problem with the stand alone shower in the ensuite bathroom. When I put on the immersion (which is on a timer BTW) it does not seem to heat up the water for the shower - but the rest of the taps and the main bath is fine - piping hot water. The shower has a pump and I thought maybe this was the problem but the shower is still cold with the pump switched off.

The main thing that confuses me is that the shower works fine off of the central heating - but only for about 5mins at a time. Was hoping I could get some help here before trying to chase the builder down - you know how that is!

Cheers

Lorr

The central heating will heat the whole hot tank because it does so through a coil inside it. Immersers generally have a "sink" and a "bath" setting, which means than on the former they only heat the upper part of the hot tank. Maybe that's your problem. Try switching the immersion to "bath".

lorr1981

ART6 wrote: »

The central heating will heat the whole hot tank because it does so through a coil inside it. Immersers generally have a "sink" and a "bath" setting, which means than on the former they only heat the upper part of the hot tank. Maybe that's your problem. Try switching the immersion to "bath".

Hi Art6,

The immersion works fine - the whole tank heats up fine it just seems like the shower is not hooked up properly. Thanks for your response anyway - If only the solution was that simple

blueyedson

Hi Lorr

can in get in touch with previous owners to ask about this?

ART6

lorr1981 wrote: »

Hi Art6,

The immersion works fine - the whole tank heats up fine it just seems like the shower is not hooked up properly. Thanks for your response anyway - If only the solution was that simple

Weird! The only difference for the hot tank is as I said. If the shower is cold when you have the immerser on and only hot for a short while when the CH is on, and it's a new house, I have a suspicion. Is it possible that whoever did the shower installation connected it into the central heating circuit rather than the hot water one? If so it's definitely for the builder's snagging list. In an older house in that case you would get brown water out of the shower, but in a new one you might not. However, you would be introducing oxygenated water into the radiators, and that would reduce their lives to months rather than years.

lorr1981

ART6 wrote: »

Weird! The only difference for the hot tank is as I said. If the shower is cold when you have the immerser on and only hot for a short while when the CH is on, and it's a new house, I have a suspicion. Is it possible that whoever did the shower installation connected it into the central heating circuit rather than the hot water one? If so it's definitely for the builder's snagging list. In an older house in that case you would get brown water out of the shower, but in a new one you might not. However, you would be introducing oxygenated water into the radiators, and that would reduce their lives to months rather than years.

Would that be common? Sounds kind of incompetent if they did that. Better get onto the builder ASAP then! Thanks ART6, I'll let you know what happens.

Blueyedson - its a new house.

L

ART6

lorr1981 wrote: »

Would that be common? Sounds kind of incompetent if they did that. Better get onto the builder ASAP then! Thanks ART6, I'll let you know what happens.

Blueyedson - its a new house.

L

It would be worse than incompetent since it would take a bit of effort to even be able to do it, and I have never heard of such a thing happening before. It might be a possible explanation for the strange shower problem though. Another thought --does the shower have a thermostatic mixing valve? If so that could be at fault.

Dixy

Its unlikely that even the worst plumber in the world would manage to pipe a shower direct off the heating circuit.
Other possible's are ifs its a thermostatic shower the feeds may be reversed - hot in the cold and cold in the hot.
This can cause all sorts of problems
The problem i think you are having is that the shower hot feed is piped off the cylinder expansion pipe up high and only when the boiler gets the cylinder to full temp and near pitching are you getting hot water up that high.
There is only one fix for the problem you are having and it should be fitted as standard to any shower is to insist your builder sends his plumber back and fits a warix (or York) flange to your cylinder ensuring the shower gets a dedicated hot supply.

lorr1981

Dixy wrote: »

Its unlikely that even the worst plumber in the world would manage to pipe a shower direct off the heating circuit.
Other possible's are ifs its a thermostatic shower the feeds may be reversed - hot in the cold and cold in the hot.
This can cause all sorts of problems
The problem i think you are having is that the shower hot feed is piped off the cylinder expansion pipe up high and only when the boiler gets the cylinder to full temp and near pitching are you getting hot water up that high.
There is only one fix for the problem you are having and it should be fitted as standard to any shower is to insist your builder sends his plumber back and fits a warix (or York) flange to your cylinder ensuring the shower gets a dedicated hot supply.

Thanks Dixy I will suggest that if he does not resolve the problem. I initially had a feeling the problem may be that the pipe may be too high off the cylinder. We shall see what he says.

ART6 wrote: »

It would be worse than incompetent since it would take a bit of effort to even be able to do it, and I have never heard of such a thing happening before. It might be a possible explanation for the strange shower problem though. Another thought --does the shower have a thermostatic mixing valve? If so that could be at fault.

Well I spoke to the builder who says that he was there when the plumber installed the system and theres no way that its hooked directly to the CH. He is going to take a look at it next week so hopefully its a minor problem. Not sure if it has a thermostatic mixing valve.

Thanks guys for your help I'll let you know what happens in case it happens to someone else in the future.

L