UK Plumber Forum

[Londonwelsh]

Our upstairs on-suite shower has never been great - the cold water comes directly off the mains and is very high pressure. The hot water is very low pressured. The hot water tank is on the landing. We have been advised that rather than get a pump installed to improve the shower flow it may be best to get an unvented cylinder installed. We have gas central heating. The water tank is over 20 years old and we are thinking of refurbishing the on-suite so we thought it would be a good time to do something about the shower pressure at the same time.

Wondered what people thought? Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

[joni os]

Never a good idea to mix mains pressure cold with tank fed hot water. cold should come off same tank that feeds DHW cylinder. An unvented cylinder will give good pressure, but at a cost. A pump for tank fed hot and cold will also increase pressure at less cost but with noise and vibration. Mira do a mixer shower with built in pump ,also with noise, circa £400.
A power shower upstairs needs other considerations. Shower tray should ideally have perimeter upstands and normal tiles on plasterboard backing will be susceptible to leakage after a few months usage.

[REDSAW]

sounds to me someone has just chucked in a shower without really calculating its performance!

be worth getting someone who knows what their looking fo to see where the issue lies tbh.
an unvented may cost around £1500 but for what, mains pressure?
have you considered an electric shower then its independant to the boiler/gas and a lot cheaper solution.

[Best]

If either, or both your cold water tank and hot cylinder are needing replaced anyhow (maybe due to bad install or age deterioration), then the cost to just put in an unvented cylinder will be one of the best and cheapest options.
When you consider a really good shower pump could cost you £500 to buy and as Joni said, always noise from them, it makes the unvented cylinder a good choice.
Depends on what you require - a new combi gas boiler could be used for partial or all outlets, still keeping stored gravity hot water cylinder, or doing away with it.
Or you could use a power shower on the wall (or separate unit type - like Aqua Lisa Quartz) but expensive and still basically a noisy pump.
An electric shower that uses mains water and heats it is a handy shower that 24/7 you can use without the worry of needing stored hot water. But a little feeble in flow rates and needs heavy wiring back to consumer unit.
Personally, I prefer an unvented cylinder for performance and reliability.

[Londonwelsh]

Thank you all for your response and advice.

I'll explore all the options you have suggested, certainly been very helpful and given me a good starting point.

Cheers

[ememma]

Our upstairs on-suite shower has never been great - the cold water comes directly off the mains and is very high pressure. The hot water is very low pressured. The hot water tank is on the landing. We have been advised that rather than get a pump installed to improve the shower flow it may be best to get an unvented cylinder installed. We have gas central heating. The water tank is over 20 years old and we are thinking of refurbishing the on-suite so we thought it would be a good time to do something about the shower pressure at the same time.

Wondered what people thought? Your advice would be greatly appreciated.

Rather than installing a pump, it is easier to replace a improve pressure shower head. When I moved to a new apartment with a very low water pressure, I found that the ordinary shower head installed by the landlord would only drip water in the shower. I can't install a pump, although many people recommend it. Until I found this high pressure shower head, something magical. The first time I used this shower head shower, I was able to thoroughly cleanse my hair and end the day with a full-scale relaxing shower with massage and relaxation.