Z
zaz
Hi all, new to these boards - and plumbing, be gentle!
So, i decided to replace our bathroom suite and tiles etc, did the legwork on how to go about waterproofing the room etc, didnt really think much about the plumbing as i made a schoolboy error and assumed it would be a straigt swap out.
Anyhoo, we had, as it turned out apparently, a thermostatic shower mixer (always thought they were electric ?) but i bought a standard wall mixer assembly, elbow bracket fixed to the blockwork, mixer exposed.
Never had an issue with the water pressure before, turned it on and off you go shower-wise, now however i get barely a dribble at standard operating height. I had a read about and i figure this is because i have a gravity fed system, there appears to be a pump for the house but the feed from the tank reaches the shower first before going anywhere else, the pump seems to be for something else (heating maybe?)
The old pipework was a mixture of plastic to copper to plastic again, welded here, compression there, a real mishmash, so i cut the feeds at the main sources which seem to be 3/4" of both plastic and copper. I PTFE'd the pipes and fitted 22mm compressions, which i then joined onto JG speedfit 22mm pipe.
Now, the cold feed is fine, the mains pressure is great here so regardless of where i wave the showerhead, it runs fine. The hot just doesnt seem to want to know and, if its because of the tank height/head ratio, i cant figure out why it worked before and not now.
For reference, the 3/4" copper feed exits the tank at about 1.7m and the shower has always sat about 2m. From that alone, i cant see how i used to get any hot pressure at all !
My theory for the pressure drop,dont shoot me if im wrong, i that the speedfit pipe has a smaller ID than standard copper/plastic and therefore the volume would be lower. That said, the actual run of pipe ive replace is only about a meter all in, ive tried both ways with mostly 15mm (as it was)and mostly 22mm as it is now.
Should i just use some compression copper instead or look at should the speedfit do the job ?
Been a loooooong day, heads buzzing now, thanks for reading
So, i decided to replace our bathroom suite and tiles etc, did the legwork on how to go about waterproofing the room etc, didnt really think much about the plumbing as i made a schoolboy error and assumed it would be a straigt swap out.
Anyhoo, we had, as it turned out apparently, a thermostatic shower mixer (always thought they were electric ?) but i bought a standard wall mixer assembly, elbow bracket fixed to the blockwork, mixer exposed.
Never had an issue with the water pressure before, turned it on and off you go shower-wise, now however i get barely a dribble at standard operating height. I had a read about and i figure this is because i have a gravity fed system, there appears to be a pump for the house but the feed from the tank reaches the shower first before going anywhere else, the pump seems to be for something else (heating maybe?)
The old pipework was a mixture of plastic to copper to plastic again, welded here, compression there, a real mishmash, so i cut the feeds at the main sources which seem to be 3/4" of both plastic and copper. I PTFE'd the pipes and fitted 22mm compressions, which i then joined onto JG speedfit 22mm pipe.
Now, the cold feed is fine, the mains pressure is great here so regardless of where i wave the showerhead, it runs fine. The hot just doesnt seem to want to know and, if its because of the tank height/head ratio, i cant figure out why it worked before and not now.
For reference, the 3/4" copper feed exits the tank at about 1.7m and the shower has always sat about 2m. From that alone, i cant see how i used to get any hot pressure at all !
My theory for the pressure drop,dont shoot me if im wrong, i that the speedfit pipe has a smaller ID than standard copper/plastic and therefore the volume would be lower. That said, the actual run of pipe ive replace is only about a meter all in, ive tried both ways with mostly 15mm (as it was)and mostly 22mm as it is now.
Should i just use some compression copper instead or look at should the speedfit do the job ?
Been a loooooong day, heads buzzing now, thanks for reading
