O/T Plumbing
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Well after the last mini project at home, sorting the gas hob has been completed, my next job is to sort the shower out.....

At the moment I have a gravity fed type shower that has a mixer tap on the bath with the lever to use the shower head, you know the type.

At present its pretty feeble, as the hot water is gravity fed, so you turn the hot water on full bore, then crack open the cold supply about 1/8th of a turn, with some balancing a trapese artist would be proud of you can get a reasonable temperature but not much pressure, however moving the cold water supply a NATs up or down goes from freezing to boiling.

What I'm thinking of doing is installing one of these double-ended booster pumps, to boost both hot and cold to hopefully a similar pressure, my cunning plan is to site said pump under the bath where there is a space, with the take offs to the sink and bog etc bypassing the pump, so the pump will only supply the bath/shower mixer tap......

Something like this - http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie...86393&rd=1&rd=1

Any thoughts from anyone thats done this? I have considered a full electric shower, but this would need a supply running to it, and probably my fuse box upgrading, the method I'm thinking of is to hopefully do it semi-on-the-cheap.......

you need a high level water tank iirc

i have a mira thermostaic running off my combie its far more powerfull than the electric jobbie i had before

I have got that, both a hot and cold water tank up in the loft, above the level of the shower head.....

Hi,
You want the cold feed coming out of the hot supply tank in the loft, then you get equal pressure on both
Cheers,
Gavin :)

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yes, check that your cold isnt from the mains, i.e. when you turn the tap on can you hold the pressure with your finger

If not its mains, and you may get away with fitting a pressure limiting valve on there, or a pump to the hot only

yes a line from the cold tank in the loft and a direct line from the hot water tank would be ideal. This is how my dad plumed his system in not long ago using the same type of pump.

I've seen the future and tbh its Pie

I'll have to check where the cold supply comes from.....cheers chaps.....

What is wrong with a bath???? Musch nicer to relax in a nice hot bath IMHO.

Been "getting round to fitting" a shower for Candice for about 2 years .......

It is worth making sure that you have large enough diameter feed pipes, especially the hot side. I know several people who have used 15mm pipe and suffered problems with inconsistant temperature and poor flow.
Guess it all depends on the relative positions of all parts of the system as much as anything else.

Flow rate doesn't bother me .... can always leave a bath running whilst doing something else ......... (waiting for the suggestive comments from Rob and Nic ..)

Every day is a school day ...........

How fast and how expensive ...... the same question...

Roger, please keep your smutty comments about your "15mm pipe" to yourself

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Its up to you but I would not recommend using one of those pumps, pretty sure screw fix sells the same type and to be brutally honest, there shit.
Last one I saw installed lasted dead on a year and was replaced twice!

Something like this is more what you want.
Or look for the higher end of the range of Salamander pumps.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/stuart-turner-shower...1QQcmdZViewItem

Thanks for the pointer, however cheap and cheerful is the name of the game currently, I might try a cheap one to see how sucessful it is, with a view to upgrading in the future if it works OK.

my folks have gone through a couple of pumps as well in a short space of time.

they're also quite noisey so that might determine its postion a bit more. i'd make sure its rubber mounted and possibly create a sound proof box round it, wouldnt cost much.