shower pumps

[RogerS]

Does anyone have any experience of the centrifugal pumps sold by Bathstore.com? In their blurb they say that they are quieter than one from Stuart Turner...true..the ST pump I have is a bit noisy in use but it is also reliable.

But before I choose to go down the centrifugal pump route I thought I'd check here first

Cheers

Roger

 

[jasonB]

I fitted one of their whole house pumps in a flat, the guy only used it once and the neigbours complained, they are much noisier than the easyboost ones that I usually fit. Do you need the whole house setup or is it just for a shower?

Jason

 

[RogerS]

jason

It's for the whole flat ..when you say you fitted a whole house one, I assume it was a Bathstore.com one?

Cheers

Roger

 

[jasonB]

Yes, the ESP75CPV

Jason

 

[RogerS]

Ah ..thanks..the one that their brochures says "This technology is much quieter"

Are you in this line of work then?

Roger

 

[jasonB]

Although I prefer the furniture I do quite a few kitchens & bathrooms as well, here are a few of the ones I have done.

Jason

 

[RogerS]

Very nice, Jason. I particularly like the Oast range and the first picture answered one question that was bugging me for ages..namely where does the waste pipe go on those standalone baths! All the bathroom brochures (in common with hifi brochures) suffer from not showing any nitty-gritty like pipes or cables. Now I know. Straight down...good news for the flat below :wink:

 

[RogerS]

I have fitted a twin Salamander ESP.CPV pump to feed the whole flat (negative head option selected). My prior experience with pumps was fitting a Stewart Turner pump to drive a power shower in another property. The Turner pump works perfectly.

The Salamander pump comes with loads of electronic gizmos and I consistently get it going into lockout mode. (In fact, I have tried a second Salamander pump and that locks out as well.)

I know that the Turner pump doesn't have all these gizmos. It's possible that the water is getting aerated and that of course stops the Salamander pump.

Guess my question is this ..'Is the Salamander too damn fussy in its' requirements for perfect operation' and would it be simpler to just ditch them on eBay and buy a couple of Turner pumps instead? I am reluctant to rip out the cold and hot water tanks just to satisfy the requirements/quirks? of the Salamander

 

[jasonB]

Where have you taken the hot water feed from?

I took it from the top of the cylinder and found that the pump was sucking air in down the expansion pipe. Had to drill the cylinder and fit an essex flange in the side. This cured the cutting out but it was still noisy.

Jason

 

[Travis Byrne]

Hello everyone

I have to ask a dumb question
why do you use a pump in your home?
Is this to up the water pressure or to pump waste water out?
I don't have a pump but maybe I need one,

Travis

 

[Chris Knight]

Travis,
Generally pumps are need to increase the pressure to modern bathroom stuff especially showers. So many are now being imported from Europe where the standard supply pressure is much higher than here (we still use the infrastructure the Victorians gave us - heck there are still a few Roman sewers in use! - and it won't take the high pressure) and the ID (something like a quarter inch) of a lot of the pipes to the taps is too small for an unpressurised supply if you want to shower in less than a week..

 

[jasonB]

They are to boost the pressure of the stored hot & cold water. In this case from approx 0.1 bar to 2.0 bar, not sure what that is in PSI. Infact if Roger is using the negative head setting then he has zero pressure at the shower head as the top of his storage tank is below the level of the outlet.

Jason

 

[Chris Knight]

Jason has reminded me that continental systems often have the whole hot water system pressurised (ie mains pressure) not gravity fed with a tank iin the roof.

 

[les chicken]

1 bar is equal to 14.7 psi. I have the reverse problem where I live, our water pressure averages 6 bar or nearly 90 psi. We have our shower connected to an individual hot water gas boiler gives out 14 litres a minute need to keep the drains clear. The problem arises where manufacturers will not honour guarantees as the pressure is too high.

Les

 

[Jake]

Easy to regulate the pressure down, though

 

[RogerS]

Jason...not a lot of choice as the hot water tank and cold water tank came as a pre-installed unit in the 50's. No way of getting an Essex flange in...other than replacing both tanks....not an ideal solution

Your point is very well made and I had not thought about the pump sucking water down the expansion pipe. The Salamander instructions also state that the outlet of the cold water tank that feeds the pump should not be immediately below the cold infill....ah well...when starting from scratch guess that's easy to do.

Anyway delighted to say ...nay chuffed... that pump 1 gave me 3 error lights. Pump 2 gave me a full house with 5 error lights lit. That was sufficient information for the guys at Salamander to tell me that the pump hadn't been commissioned correctly...guided me through the process (simple but NOT in their instruction bumf :evil: ) and all seems to work OK...so no major replumbing work..

Travis...what everyone else has said.... now we in the UK seem to be going for more stylish continental taps..these come with a very small bore and we don't have enough pressure in our cold/hot water tanks to cope...hence we need one of these pumps to drive the whole house/flat.

Can't remember from my many trips to the US whether you use a similar system ie mains pressure to some taps..usually kitchen for drinking purposes; a separate cold tank (fed from mains but now at a lower pressure as it's sitting in a tank) and a hot water tank (indirectly heated from the central heating system) that is also fed from the cold water tank.

 

[Travis Byrne]

Thanks for the answers.
Here in my little hamlet, the pressure is 60+lbs in the summer time, but when ereryone is watering lawns, the pressure down some. In the winter months,, the city drops the pressure to about 50 psi.
Most of the new shower heads have the small hole in them. Water Savers is what they are called here. I don't like them but still able to get clean. 8)

Travis