water pressure problem

[mattdailey]

Hi, I recently fitted bath and shower mixer taps to my bath but when swithcing to the shower function the water just dribbles out. Discovered the tap has a minimum pressure of 0.5 bar and I have a low pressure system which I assume is under 0.5 bar. So question is, if I buy a new mixer with a lower miminum pressure limit will this fix the problem, or will I just need to connect the taps to the pump that runs the showers? The old taps seemed to deliver a better flow and when I used to connect an attachable rubber hosed shower to the taps it worked fine. Any advice appreciated as I don't want to connect to pump if I dont have to.

 

[steadyon]

I assume you have a traditional system, cold water storage cistern (CWSC) in loft, hot water cylinder in airing cupboard. The head of water you have is the distance from the bottom of the CWSC to the shower head, in metres, and this divided by 10 gives you a close approximation to the pressure head in bar.

You may be able to calculate the pressure and then find a suitable shower mixer. If not you'll need a plumber to see your current set-up and advise. Its most unlikely you will get satisfactory results teeing into the pumped circuits, and quite possible that you'll ruin the pump. Most are designed to pump hot and cold at the same time, which is nearly always the case for a shower. They are not designed to pump hot or cold alone, although you can get special pumps that will.