What are options to improve my shower? All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[spib]

Hi,

We have a fixed shower over the bath which is fed from the bath mixer tap. When the shower is on hot, the water flow seems to about half that of when it's running cold and is generally not good enough.

I don't know anything about plumbing, but from the info on this site I believe we have an Indirect Boiler (two tanks in the loft).

Could anyone offer any suggestions for improving the flow/pressure of the water? Would a pump help or a power shower?

Thanks

James

[spib]

Anyone?

[Dave From Leeds]

Hi spib,

Is this a problem that has just started or has it always been that way? If the second option and you do have two open water tanks in the loft, along with a hot water cylinder, you may need to raise the larger tank to a higher position to get more hot water pressure to the shower head. The hot water pressure to your taps and shower is governed by the cold water in this tank pushing hot water out of the cylinder so if the tank is not much higher than the shower head this would explain the low flow of hot water.

[spib]

Thanks for the reply. The problem has been there since we bought the house 3 years ago, we just haven't got round to fixing it.

There is probably about 2 feet of distance between the top of the shower and the bottom of the tank in the loft but I also see the same symptons on the bath mixer tap itself when running a bath so does that suggest it's not caused by lack of distance?

[Dave From Leeds]

Hi again spib,

Is the flow of hot water to your hand-wash basin OK? The chances are that this outlet is higher than the tap to the bath. If it is OK it suggests a possible restriction in the feed to the bath/shower mixer or in the mixer itself. So you may need to fit a new mixer tap. However 2 feet from the shower head to the cold water tank seems a bit low. The distance that matters is from the top of the liquid in the cold water tank to the shower head. I believe that this should ideally be at least 1.5 metres (~5 ft.). Please bear in mind though that I'm no more of a plumber than you are.

Dave.