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Property/DIY

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Original poster

Combi boiler/hot water help please!

13 replies

AuroraBora · 20/09/2016 19:36

Just moved into a new house and the shower doesn't seem to ever get hot hot.

The boiler is fairly new, combi, and the water comes out the taps very hot.

We have excellent water pressure, I was nearly blasted out of the shower the first time I turned it on but after doing some research I'm wondering if this is the problem? Is the boiler not able to heat the quantity of water that flows through for the shower? It is better when I turn down the "speed" of the shower, although never toasty warm.

I've just been up and turned the boiler up to max (is that ok!?) and I haven't tested the shower, but seeing as it was only one notch below max before, I don't think I'm suddenly going to have a lovely steamy shower!

Any ideas? I'm scared I'm doomed to lukewarm showers for the rest of my life

I have a photo, and I'll try to post it!

Thanks in advance!!

OP posts:

Original poster

AuroraBora · 20/09/2016 19:37

Photo!

OP posts:

Mol1628 · 20/09/2016 19:38

Could be the thermostat on the shower?

Does the boiler actually fire when you turn the shower on or not?

Original poster

AuroraBora · 20/09/2016 19:48

We have the temperature on the shower up to the max, and as far as we can see it can't go higher (hopefully I haven't missed anything obvious!).

No idea if it fires, but water comes though warm and the temperature fluctuates, so I assume it must be otherwise it would be freezing right? I can get OH to look while I put the shower on if needs be.

Thanks!

OP posts:

Ruhrpott · 20/09/2016 20:19

Sometimes you have to press a button on the temp shower tap bit to get it to go higher and turn further.

Ruhrpott · 20/09/2016 20:22

Like this, though hours is silver like the tap so not as obvious

Original poster

AuroraBora · 20/09/2016 21:14

Thanks Ruhrpott, I've had a look for one of them, but i couldn't see it. I'm hoping there is one and I've missed it as that would be an easy (albeit embarrassing) solution! I'll get OH to check again later with me.

OP posts:

dun1urkin · 20/09/2016 21:26

if the water is coming out of the taps hot enough it's your shower not your boiler.
Our showers can be taken apart to adjust the amount of hot and cold flow, so that, when they're put back together the coldest setting isn't 100% flowing from the cold infeed, or that the hottest setting isn't 100% from the hot water.
Try googling your make of shower to see if there's an online FAQ or manual available.

dun1urkin · 20/09/2016 21:28

(It was really easy to adjust, by the way, once we had the manual)
Oh, and this depends on the fittings being external rather than being behind the tiles/hidden in the wall

Original poster

AuroraBora · 21/09/2016 20:45

I fixed it!!!!

Thanks dun1urkin and Ruhrpott, both of you got me thinking, and I did some googling which led me to the conclusion that if the max isn't hot enough, I can take the shower apart and change it so the temperature knob goes past the current max.

It was actually very easy. It's a bar shower with dials at each side, and all I did was pull off the small cap that hides the screw in the center of the temperature knob, unscrew the screw, pull of the knob and put it back on at different orientations until the max was just a bit too hot, but the min was still cold.

I just had a gorgeously hot and powerful shower, and I'm feeling smug that I solved the problem rather than OH, seeing as FIL doesn't seem to think I'm capable of anything remotely DIY related and has spent the last couple of weekends insinuating as much

OP posts:

dun1urkin · 21/09/2016 22:02

Yay! I too felt ace when I did ours

Ruhrpott · 21/09/2016 22:08

Well done and don't believe your FIL. I do more diy than DH (though he's not that bad at it either)

Original poster

AuroraBora · 21/09/2016 22:51

Thanks my FIL means no harm, but is clearly of the view that diy and cars are manly jobs.

When we first moved in, he went up in the loft and proclaimed our boiler excellent (he doesn't work particularly with boilers), then spent far too long explaining to me how it heats water on demand. If he'd just said "it's a combi boiler" then the conversation would have taken about a tenth of the time he also started to explain how sometimes the pressure in the system drops and we might need to go up to the boiler to fix it, but then stopped himself and said he'd tell DP

If the pressure ever drops I'm googling it or asking on here and fixing it myself. I don't need it to be mansplained to me or only told to DP because he has a willy.

Sorry to moan! I can't moan to DP irl about it really.

OP posts:

HereIAm20 · 22/09/2016 20:06

Re pressurising is dead easy. I googled our brand and did it after we moved in. Its usually a case of releasing 2 valves and then watching the arrow go up and then shutting them off!

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