Shower with combi boiler. Do I need/Can I install a pump?

[MyLlamasGoneBananas]

We are soon to have a new shower installed. Have been looking at installing a 3 way shower with the body jets.

We have a Worcester Bosch combi boiler and have no idea what the bar pressure is. Alot of these shower units with jets specify a minimum 2 bar pressure.

I have no idea what bar is really. Am a complete numpty when it comes to all this. Can anyone explain in simple terms what this means and if there is a way to find out what Bar I currently have please.

Also if we don't have 2 bar pressure can we get our plumber to install a pump? Or is this a no no with a combi boiler.

Any words of wisdom (put simply) would be very much appreciated.

[PigletJohn]

no and no.

Pressure out of a pipe varies with, for example, the height it falls. If you had a water tank ten metres (33 feet) above you, with a pipe running down to you, it would come out of the tap at 1 bar pressure, which gives a tolerable, rather than a good, shower. 2 bar is twice as much.

If you have a combi boiler, it will most likely be able to supply a decent shower. You can ask a good plumber or heating engineer to measure it at your bath taps if you want. You should expect the water to squirt out of your bathroom taps rather forcefully. If you have ever had hot water supplied from a loft tank, but the cold tap at the sink supplied from the watermain, you should recognise the difference between low pressure and high pressure.

Pressure is not the same as flow.

[MyLlamasGoneBananas]

Ok. Thanks. We did have a shower there before that worked well (apart from the enclosure leaking) so we know a standard shower will work. It's just if we want the jets too. I think I'll ask my plumber to tell us what Bar we are.

Thanks for your help and simple explanational PigletJohn.