Water pump question

Darando

Renting a 1st floor apartment.

In the hotpress is a Techflow pump (yellow) with 4 large pipes attached, attached is a control unit (Controlmatic) which has a guage. It reads 1 bar at present.

2 Issues I wonder about:

1) When i want a shower i turn the knob on the wall- a trickle comes out, however to get the shower started I have to run the hot tap on the bath to kick the pump into life and then turn the tap off. Is that normal???

2)Dishwasher and Washing machine is fed from the pump afaik, when I turn on dishwasher/WM the pump will not kick into life (pressure on guage goes from 1 to nearly 0), however if i run the hot tap in the kitchen - no problem - pump comes on and get a good flow. I can't use the dishwasher as it doesnt get pressure to start (and its not like I can leave the tap running)..

Is this normal or something amiss? seems strange that I need to turn on hot tap to kick pump into life.

items

Seen this problem a good few times, so much many big site had to have pumps replaced.

You prob have a combined cylinder, stored cold water on top, stored hot water underneath. Pump fitted in hot press beside combi cylinder? If so opening a hot tap (shower) does not move enough water to activate pump, cold water or lower tap will activate pump because its stored higher than hot water or water has less height to travel, cold stored water gives out just a bit more pressure than hot same way a lower tap will have more pressure.

How your pump comes on is no way to operate a pump, the only way to solve problem is to replace pump, fit new pump designed to work better in cases just like yours. The pump you need is called a negative head pump, after you close a tap pump has a built in vessel to charge / pressurize pipe work, pump builds up enough pressure for when next time a tap opens, any tap or WM etc pump will come on as sufficient amount of water will move to activate pump.

Stuart turner or Grundfos is pump brand to go for, see if you can have new pump fitted under house insurance, management company, land lord etc, you might not have to fork out for pump, costs over 700 euro + fitting.

Darando

Cheers items,

few clarifications:

turning on the hot tap in the kitchen or bathroom (sink or bath) kicks the pump into life no problem, this is what I do when I want a shower. It works fine with hot taps.

Issue I really don't get is that the pump doesn't kick in when I open the cold taps (or DW/WM).

Not sure what cylinder I have, on top of the cylinder is a storage tank.

items

From your first post, you mention how turning shower wont bring on pump (shower head to high) but bath brings on pump (lower than shower close to pump). I could figure that one out but now you say only hot water @ taps work pump, what about toilet?

Just a bit confused now, WM and DW could be off mains water, toilet and basin could come directly off storage tank, are they all working or do you have to run a separate tap to activate pump to supply cold water to WM / DW, toilet and basin?

Either way, any supply which is fed from pump should activate pump when supply is calling for water, ie tap on, WM on. Having only one or two taps turning pump on is a bad set up and needs fixing.

Darando

Toilet doesnt get the pump working either- it fills but not fast - tthink its from the tank.

DW/WM are not on the mains for sure (I checked today - the mains has great pressure!!!)

There is water coming to the DW and WM but not strong pressure. If I turn on the hot kitchen or bathroom tap, the pump kicks into life and the water pressure to the DW /WM also becomes great!!!

It appears that no cold tap into the apartment will kick the pump into life but a hot one will!!!

Because of all this my dishwasher will not work - it needs a minimum pressure. The WM is also slow.

It has me driven mad!! all washing up by hand.

items

Well in that case you could have a problem with flow switch on cold side, its could be faulty, to diagnose flow switch problem, shut off the 4 isolation valves, disconnect pump flexi's and swap pump around, have the hot now going into cold and cold going into hot, if problem now changes over to hot, then its flow switch problem. You might also find some debris built up inside cold inlet, should be a little mesh filter, if its got some debris then no need to swap over clearing debris should solve problem.

I'm not a big fan of any pump other than ST or Grundfos, one is made of brass other of stainless, if your pump is made of plastic, after fixing cold problem, later on you'll find problems with hot, plastic pumps start failing after prolonged use, some will not take water hotter than 65c, if any hotter than 65c plastic pump will soon stop working.

Best thing for you to do is play dump, ring up landlord, mention how shower wont work, WM or DW, land lord will prob just call out plumber, if plumber is good enough plumber will replace pump with one of the above (negative head). Sus out whats wrong before plumber arrives if you can, then as plumber is working away give some tips, pointers etc, show plumber how you get pump to activate.

Best info I can give.

Darando

Cheers items,

its all handy to get to, I will turn all the valves off and have a look on th ecold side. I didn't know there was 2 sensors..

will have a look and report back..LL option I think is not an option. Sure barely get him never mind fix it.

Cheers again.

Darando

Juat to update - it was the circuit board that was bust - indicated by the power and on light being illuminated together. Contacted a guy called Shay Dunican who looks after pumps and sorted for €130.

Happy days.