slow bath taps

[Donhill]

Hi, any help and advice would be greatly appreciated! We are having a new bathroom fitted. We have just tried out the new bath with new taps for the first time. The flow rate of the water is a LOT slower than it was with our old taps. Is there a reason why?? The new tap is a contemporary style mixer bath tap and we have checked it has the right bar(??) as we have a water tank gravity system and all that looks ok (the taps say they are suitable for 0.2 bar to 5 bar (we think ours may be 0.3 or 0.4 bar)). It can't be because we have rubbish water pressure surely, as the bath water ran well before - so what has changed?

I am willing to spend more money if necessary to replace them as it seems so annoying how slow they run and after all this work on the bathroom I don't want to end up with something worse than the old bathroom! But when I look at other taps online none of them specify the rate of flow. So how can I check that any new tap I buy will be better without actually plumbing it in? Any recomendations for modern style mixer or seperate taps? What should I avoid? The current new taps have a ceramic disc(?). Is that causing the problem? Ceramic discs seem to be the only option. Would seperate hot and cold make any difference?
Help please!

Bumping in case anyone can help with this.....

Ask the plumber? Has he used smaller pipe or is it just that the tap has a slower flow? Out mixer tap in the kitchen is noticeably slower than separates

First of all check that your stopcock has been turned all the way to open - I assume at some point it's been turned off to have the work done. We had a plumber out for slow bath taps once and he simply went downstairs, turned the stopcock a couple of times and it was fine! Weirdly all the other taps in the house were fine it was just that bath it was affecting.

It probably isn't that but worth checking first!

modern flashy imported taps are often designed in countries that have high water pressure.

If your taps are fed from a loft tank the pressure will be pretty low.

There are still some UK designed taps suitable for low pressure, if you want them.

it's also possible that the plumber may have used lball-o-fix type valves, which obstruct the flow of water; and flexible hoses, which are narrower bore that the original pipes you taps would have used. Most likely 22mm (or 3/4") pipes were original.

Interestinglty, for people that have combis, the volume of hot water they can deliver is limited, and the water will become less hot the more you draw, so supply to bath taps is often deliberately restricted.

Thank you everyone for your responses. Very helpful.

This is an example of a tap with good flow at low pressure, though the style may not suit you. If you're looking at taps in a showroom, bigger ones with big spouts will tend to have better flow than small ones.

www.bristan.com/products/bathroom-taps?code=r%201/2%20c

We had a bath filler that ran very slowly. Turned out it had a flow restrictor in it - basically a piece of plastic with a few small holes in to limit the water flow (designed for countries with much higher pressure to avoid water wastage). My dad drilled some bigger holes in it and now it’s much better. Worth checking if yours has this especially if it’s a a European brand.

I have the same issue but only on my kitchen sink mixer tap. If you figure anything out let me know as I'm thinking about replacing it but not sure what to buy.

Check that the taps haven’t had a flow device screwed into the end of them.

Thames Water came to our house and did free a survey of our systems and supplied a free shower head, fitted a device to our toilet cistern and then water flow slowing devices to our bathroom taps. These latter are small circular thugs that screw into the tap and have a mesh on them that slow the flow. All had to be removed as a) the boiler no longer worked with the new shower head b) we had to flush the toilet twice rather than once c) the taps were pathetic.

Not thugs - mesh ring!

the causes may or may not be the same.

Is it the hot water, orthe cold?

Have you got a hot-water cylinder? What colour?

Have you got a flashy stylish imported new tap, with ceramic discs and a single joystick?

Have you looked under the sink, and does the tap have connector pipes the size of a pencil, going into braided metallic hoses?