No hot water supply to bathroom All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[dfarram]

I have a problem in that I have extremely low pressure on the hot water supply to all taps. There is no supply whatever coming from the bath or basin taps upstairs and a reduced flow to the kitchen hot water tap downstairs. The hot water supply comes from a combination hot and cold water storage tank that is on the same level as the bathroom as the upstairs of the property is built into the roof space. The property was converted from a bungalow into a two storey dwelling some years ago before my friend purchased it. This means that the cold water storage tank which is on top of the hot tank only holds about 40 litres of cold water. Originally there was a low voltage 1.7 bar shower pump fitted to the hot water supply from the tank which has now packed up. I did think that I could simply replace the shower pump but have been told by the sales people at Grunfoss (who make Watermill shower pumps) that I cannot do this unless there is a cold water storage tank feeding the hot water cylinder of at least 50 gallon capacity, which I do not have and more importantly have no way of fitting unless it went on top of the roof.
All of the hot water taps worked normally when the pump was working.
I asked about fitting a negative head pump and was told that that would normally be the case but again it would need the 50 gallon capacty cold water tank otherwise the tank would drain too quickly and I would run the risk of running the pump dry. I guess that this is what has happened to the previous shower pump.
Would a circulatory pump do the job? I know they run at a much lower pressure but would it be enough to power the taps and would it run off of the combination hot and cold water tank?
Any help or advice would be extremely useful and much appreciated.
many thanks Dave

[stoneyboy]

dfarram,
Unless you want to spend big bucks just replace the pump with the equivalent model, make sure you are getting the maximum flow out of the mains cold feed and limit uses which use lots of water.
end

[rosebery]

You have a combination cylinder which do suffer from poor pressure.

I suspect that the pump which has "packed up" is a whole house pump rather than a shower pump.

The Grundfoss people are right about the CW storage requirement if you are talking about a pump for a shower but if you don't have a shower by all accounts. I think they have misunderstood the question.

It boils down to two possibilities:

1. Replace the whole house pump.

2. Ditch the current arrangements and fit a combi boiler.

The former is obviously the cheaper solution.

HTH

Cheers

[dfarram]

[quote="rosebery"]You have a combination cylinder which do suffer from poor pressure.

I suspect that the pump which has "packed up" is a whole house pump rather than a shower pump.

The Grundfoss people are right about the CW storage requirement if you are talking about a pump for a shower but if you don't have a shower by all accounts. I think they have misunderstood the question.

It boils down to two possibilities:

1. Replace the whole house pump.

2. Ditch the current arrangements and fit a combi boiler.

The former is obviously the cheaper solution.

HTH

Cheers[/quote]

The pump fitted was a 1.7 bar low voltage shower pump but as you say it provided the water pressure to the taps and not to a shower. I have tried fitting another standard type shower pump but there was not enough pressure coming from the tank to start the pump so I removed it again.
I'm not sure what you mean by 'whole house pump'.
The hot water and central heating are powered by an oil fired boiler of that makes any difference.
thanks
Dave