Advice re shower in loft?

[Hallamoo]

Hoping someone can help.

We had a loft conversion with shower room about 3 years ago. We had an electric shower put in. It worked fine initially but for the last couple of years it's been very temperamental.

Sometimes it works fine and sometimes it runs cold and indicated 'low flow' on the display, and sometimes it won't work at all.

So, any advice welcomed; is it a problem with the particular shower we have and another electric shower would be OK, or should we have gone for a shower which works from the hot water system? (We have a pressurised system with no loft tank).

Frustrating to have spent all that money on a beautiful shower room that we can't use!

Thanks in advance.

[PigletJohn]

If you have an unvented cylinder (probably white or silver) then I would get a plumber to test its pressure and flow, it will probably be suitable.

It sounds like not enough water is getting to the loft. This might be because people are running other taps or appliances off the same pipe at the same time and using it up. You would notice that the loft basin taps also go weak. Sometimes you can deal with this by running a larger or separate pipe into the loft. It is easier with plastic pipe as it is flexible and does not need to be jointed so it can be poked up ducts and under floors. Small 15mm pipe and service valves, braided flexible connectors, and ball-o-fix valves are very constricting.

If you are really lucky the shower has an internal filter, or the squirty head holes, that has got clogged with limescale or other sediment and be cleaned out. Have a look at the instructions, which you can download from the maker if lost.

An unvented system often needs a new, larger supply pipe run out to the watermain under the pavement, to give of its best.