Forget the Power Shower – What about the Plumbing?
As a bathroom fitter working in the UK I focus on shower refits, and it’s quite clear from the questions I’m asked about power showers that much confusion still exists about the different types of shower available. What’s also really clear is that most potential customers don’t appreciate that plumbing built into houses 10-30 or more years ago is often totally unsuitable for modern powerful showers. Although fitting a pump may well give an adequate shower, if the pipework is rectified, the shower will be even more refreshing. And in some cases, correcting the pipework will mean that a great shower can be enjoyed without fitting a pump to the system at all. This can save several hundred pounds of expense.
The most common cause of poor shower performance is pipe size, or lack of it. Larger pipe diameters will result in higher flows for the same driving pressure. It’s common sense that more water will flow through a large diameter pipe but what ‘s often forgotten is that the area is proportional to the square of the pipe radius so a minor increase in pipe size gives a much bigger increase in area.
The most common domestic pipe sizes in the UK are 15mm and 22mm – the old ½ inch and ¾ inch. 15mm pipe has a sectional area of 177 mm2 whereas 22mm pipe has a corresponding area of 380 mm2, which is more than double the area of the smaller pipe. So for the same driving pressure the flow will be more than double for the larger pipe size.
In the UK, many older houses have gravity hot water systems, i.e., there is a storage tank for cold water in the roofspace that keeps the hot water cylinder topped up. The driving pressure behind the hot water is determined by the height of the tank in the roof relative to the showerhead on the wall, often in the bathroom on the floor below. The relative height between tank and showerhead is often only a metre or so which means the driving pressure is quite low (0.1 bar) so pipe size and diameter are vital in producing a good refreshing shower.
Before going to the expense of having a pump fitted to give an invigorating but often noisy shower, it’s worth checking pipe sizes, and if the pipe runs are found to be only 15mm yet are accessible, i.e. in the roofspace, change them for the larger size. While working on a bathroom refit recently I discovered very long 15mm pipe runs trying to feed two showers simultaneously, so it’s not surprising that the householder had put up with poor showers for many years.
In some situations pipe work is totally inaccessible and fitting a pump to boost the flow is the only realistic solution, but make sure that plumber or bathroom fitter you hire to do the work understands the importance of correct pipe sizes or you may still be disappointed with the end result.
Source: Home Improvement
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