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View the thread, titled "Rainfall shower unit fitted. Gainsborough shower unit now blows PRD." which is posted in Showers and Wetrooms Advice on UK Plumbers Forums.

Units involved: Gainsborough 10.5SE heater unit with Swirl (Screwfix 278PG) overhead shower kit with diverter.


Hi guys. I have a Gainsborough 10.5SE shower heating unit. It has never given any trouble in the years I have had it. Until now it has been fitted with a generic handheld single shower head and rail unit joined directly to the heater. I recently upgraded the shower head to a fitted rainfall type shower unit with an overhead shower and a secondary handheld head with a switch to swap between the two. This is a Screwfix bought (278PG) Swirl unit. It is a very basic "screw to the wall and flexipipe to the unit" installation. It went up without any issues and worked right from the off. Everything was wonderful.

The next day, while my wife went in for a shower, the heater suddenly started to flood water out and down the wall from its bottom edge. The PRD had popped out. I have no idea what form these usually take but this was a simple squishy ball fitted into a cavity with a narrowed neck and where the water flows past the rear side of the ball. Any increase in water pressure will pop the ball out and release the water against the wall. I removed the feed pipe and popped the ball back in with a blunt pencil end. No problem. Now, two days later, preparing to shower the dog 🙄, it has just done the same thing again.

My wife is not the most technical of people but it seems to me to have happened when the change is made from overhead to haldheld and vice versa. Now that suggests to me that maybe the diverter completely blocks the flow in between selection of each function and the pressure for that instant is then too much for the PRD. Are these units prone to that sort of issue? Or is it possible that the supplied shower heads are just not flowing enough water for the PRD to sit comfortably and it is constantly on the edge of popping out? It certainly does not act as though it has some sort of fault as in a blockage inside when it is use, it seems to flow water just fine until the PRD pops.

Alternatively, do PRDs reset correctly and reliably after releasing or are they basically one shot devices which weaken from then on?
 
And I really should revert back to the original head Shaun. Not such good news to hear as you can imagine. I'm not sure why that would be as long as both head units flow about the same amount of water or if the new heads flow even more, but if that is the official advice I shall take it on board.
 
Thank you for the prompt replies, your help is much appreciated. Common sense can only take you so far. There's no substitute for advice from someone who knows the field well.

Replacement outlets are available. I'll get one and fit it. (Why has it taken me ten minutes to post that without getting flagged for "inappropriate content"?)
 
3 posts in 4 mins it’s sensing maybe spam

The rain head has more resistance than the good old hand held and that’s caused the prv to pop / leak
 

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Rainfall shower unit fitted. Gainsborough shower unit now blows PRD.
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Showers and Wetrooms Advice
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Bordonbert,
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ShaunCorbs,
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