Change from electric shower to mixer combi?

[CurlyhairedAssassin]

Argh, I just want a decentish shower that lasts!

We have had 3 electric showers in the past 15 years and now it has gone again. Nothing happening at all. Someone who I thought was competent has replaced the PCB and got it working again BUT there is water dripping fairly fast out of the bottom of the unit. Unfortunately DH checked it and paid him and didn’t notice. I checked after he’d gone and noticed it immediately and am not happy to use it like that.

I called the guy who said he told me about a little leak when he was inspecting the inside when he first came round and “a PCB is not going to sort a leak. All showers do that after a while but it’s safe to use as not near any electrical bits. The PCb has got you’re shower working again”

I told him I wasn’t happy with him as the shower isn’t safe to use but he’a Trying to say that I was aware of the leak when he first suggested replacing the PCB to get the shower working and didn’t seem bothered about it (I thought he would just tighten it up, he didn’t say that he could get the shower working but that it would still leak. If I’d known that I would have just opted for a new shower.)

Anyway.....I’ve left it to DH to arrange with him to try and sort the leak out as I am so pissed off with him (shower guy) I can see us falling out!

I am wondering if I can run a decent mixer shower off our combo boiler (which is only 4 years old and when researching it yesterday seems underpowered for a decent shower. Extended bed semi, 9 radiators, one bathroom)

It’s a Vaillant Eco Pro 28, flow rate only 11.1 litres per minute but seems much less than that from bathroom hot bath tap. Shower pressure in mains ok.

PigletJohn, could you advise? Am I stuck with shitty electric showers on this underpowered combi?

Fill a bucket at some hot taps. How many litres per minute does it deliver at each tap? They will differ. Which of them are joystick mixers, and which of them are individual pillar taps?

Same with the cold water.

How old is your house?

What colour and diameter is the incoming water supply pipe?

Thanks, Pigletjohn. Am at work not but will check later and let you know flow rate from hot taps.

House is 1930s semi. Lead pipes were replaced when we had our extension done so presume they are up to modern standards.

standards vary. Colour and diameter will be informative.

Sorry for delay.

It seems to be 8 litres per minute from each hot tap (kitchen, bathroom sink and bath tap) Pressure seems higher from kitchen tap. They’re all mixers.

5mm (I think, it was difficult to measure accurately) cooper pipe.

We have our electric shower working properly again now with no leak. I can’t see it lasting though, none of them have lasted more than about 3-4 years.

If you're happy enough with an electric shower which will be about 10kw, you will be happy with a Combi shower with over 20kw.
We have an ecotec 24 and we just run a single shower off it, hot tap only, and the flow is fine. You can run the basin at the same time but it's a bit weak then.
I worked out it is using about 17kw input power during the winter for a shower.
The other benefit is it will be cheaper to run than electric shower.

PS our boiler has been going 6 years so far, presumably it will last longer than an electric shower.
Another thing I thought I'd that it takes a little longer to warm up, maybe 30 seconds. Also the radiators go off when the shower is in use.

Yes, that’s my reason for wanting to switch to mixer off combi next time the electric shower breaks. It’s not cost effective long term to keep replacing them that often or good for the environment to just throw a load of metal and plastic on the tip.

What size house do you have, John, with your ecotec 24? Just wondering whether it matters.

I’m not that bothered about water to radiators doing off for a short time while shower is in use. They retain the heat for ages so we’d be ok.

Sounds like it might be doable.

The radiators issue is only really noticeable in mid winter, also depends how long your showers are
Our house the size itself is not relevant, but what is is that we only have a single bath/shower room at present but we will add an ensuite with shower later. Not sure whether both will be usable at the same time, I doubt it, we would have to upgrade to a bigger boiler perhaps 35kw? But that's not a big issue at the moment.

8 litres per min is OK for a shower, but slow to fill a bath.

The incoming pipe can't be 5mm copper, but it might be 15mm which is rather small for a combi or an unvented cylinder.

Are you sure it isn't bigger where it comes out of the ground and meets your indoor stopcock? I was hoping it would be blue plastic in a bigger size.

Oh so sorry! It was a typo, it should have said 5 CM!!

Definitely copper at the stop cock

5cm is two inches. I have never seen such a large copper pipe serving an ordinary domestic house.

You do mean Diameter?

Ohhhhhh.....

That was circumference! was I supposed to measure the diameter?!

Hang on, I’ll check.

Er, at the risk of making myself look even sillier how do I measure the diameter without cutting into the pipe? or doing some maths involving pi?

Ok, using pi, I reckon the Diammeter must be a 15mm pipe.

OK, that's not unusual, but it is rather small by modern standards.

Often when people replace an old pipe, they use a larger one which will give better flow. Useful with a combi, near essential with an unvented cylinder.

Either way, assuming your electric shower is running off the mains, it won't be worse than that. But if you want to put in a fancy shower head then they use a lot of water very quickly. Our shower has one of those free heads from the water company, they are supposed to save water.

No rain shower head required here.im not into planet-destroying power showers.

Pigletjohn: yes, I’m starting to realise that the boiler replacement And pipe replacement wasn’t done to the highest spec, but more to the pile em high, sell em cheap new build type of standard. I trusted our builder to appoint a decent gas fitter and more fool me for not doing more research at the time.

Yes electric shower is running off the mAindrea.

Mains!