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gselby · Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 5 Location: London

Hi there,

I'm gutting the old bathroom soon and want to add a power shower over the bath. There is no shower in the bathroom at all at the moment. I’m looking at buying a Triton AS200XT. I was reading the technical guide for it and I have a few concerns. If you look on page 4 and 5 (http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/images/tritonas2000xtinstallation.pdf) it shows how the shower should and shouldn’t be plumbed in. With the way my house is set out there is no way that I can run a dedicated cold supply from the back of the cold water tank to the shower. I have a loft conversion and the tank is housed in a cupboard with very little access (enough to replace the tank and that’s it!)

I have a 22mm cold pipe coming down in to the bathroom. This is fed off the same side as the ball valve in the cistern. This pipe feeds the bath, sink and toilet only. Downstairs is all mains pressure. I have one 22mm hot pipe running under the floor from the hot water cylinder and this connects directly to the bath with a T coming off and feeding the bathroom sink and kitchen sink directly below it.

So my questions are:
1. How critical is it to have a dedicated cold feed?
2. Can I get away with T-ing off the existing 22mm pipes?
3. Should I look at buying a lower powered shower or would that make no difference?

Thanks in advance for any help.
Glenn

thescruff · Moderator Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 4249 Location: Bath

1, yes, although you could connect to the tank, whereever is practical, provided, it's not under the ballvalve, and it's level or lower than the colg feed to the cylinder.

2, not a good idea unless you add an shock absorber vessel.

3, no different only in the perfomance

gselby · Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 5 Location: London

If I use a shock absorber vessel can I still use the existing pipe work or do I still need to ensure that the feed is not fed from under the ball valve?

Also, is it possilbe to move the ball valve to the opposite side of a tank?

Thanks,
Glenn

thescruff · Moderator Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 4249 Location: Bath

You could move the ballvalve to the other end, no probs.

When the valve is running you get turbulence which contains air, you don't want that being drawn into the pump, because it will shorten the life and give fluctuating temperatures.

The optimum way to do the job is to follow the manufacturers guidelines, otherwise the performance and life will be reduced

gselby · Joined: 27 Mar 2008 Posts: 5 Location: London

Ok thanks. I'm leaning towards an electric shower now. There is mains pressure water in the bathroom and it's a lot easier to run a 10mm cable to the FB than a 15mm pipe to the CWT.

Thanks for your advice.
Glenn.

thescruff · Moderator Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 4249 Location: Bath

Quite often an electric shower is the better option, and you also have a back-up if the boiler breaks down