Hi, I've been having an issue with my shower pump for a few months now and no one seems to know what the problem is. Any help would be gretly appreciated. We have a gravity fed water system with a positive head. I have cold water tanks and also my hot water tanks in the attic. My old bathroom had a bath, one sink and a bidet and ofcourse the toilet. The water pressure was very good and we never had any issues. I decided to get a new bathroom fitted. As a result, I had a new shower installed where the bath used to be, the bidet was replaced by a bath with a freestanding bath tap and the sink stayed where it was. Once everything was plumbed in, we tested out the bath tap, shower and sink. Due to the location of the shower in close proximity to the water tanks there wasnt enough water coming out so I was advised to get a water pump installed which could pump more water to the shower only. Since having this installed I have been through 6 shower pumps within under a year. My bathroom installer doesnt know whats going wrong. Everytime I switch on the bath tap and I switch it off, water starts leaking out of the shower pump. The shower pump is piped off the main copper pipes coming down from my attic. Under the floorboards of the bathroom the copper pipe feeds my bath tap.m aswell. The plumber has tried installing multiple one way valves as he thought the bath tap was backfeeding. He has installed one just off the bath tap and two seperate ones next to the shower pump. I thought this had been resolved until I used the bath tap today and water started leaking out of my shower pump after I had switched the bath tap off. The worst that happened, about a month ago, was when I switched the bath tap on once, the shower pump end cap split in two and flooded my living room below due to the amount of water coming out. I wasnt at home hence why it flooded my living room. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If you need further info pease do let me know. Thanks
What make of shower pump is it? Was the pump installed to instructions? Was the pump manufacturer contacted about the leaks?
Its a Salamander CT50 xtra twin hesd 1.5 bar. I think he has installed it correctly but I wouldnt be too sure. I should probably get a second opinion. The manufacturer has not been told yet as this pp was okly fitted a few days ago. The one previous to this, the plumber returned back to the shop and got the replacement which is in now.
It isn’t a high quality pump, but shouldn’t be failing. I use Stuart and Turner Monsoon pumps A few obvious things to have checked - The pump should only have gravity fed supplies to it (not mains!) The hot water temperature has to be controlled in cylinder, or blended, Hot water supply must be air free supply (see instructions) Cold tank water volume must be large enough
hopefully its installed correctly with independent gravity low pressure feeds Maybe get the installer to register the warranty and see how it preforms,if its faulty let the installer contact sallypumps for their advice they will need some info from the installer to see if they are competent and see how it goes from there. doing reviews on products can be helpfull,see trustpilot
Yes its a quater turn tap woth a plastic valve. We get quite abit of water hammer, some from that tap but some generally when we switch off the hot water at the boiler. You can usually hear creaks and hammer throughout the day. (Our boiler is also fairly old, not sure if this has anything to do with it). Im not sure if that water hammer is destoying the seal, as about 5 seconds after you switch off the bath tap water, you get water coming out of a seal on the water pump.
It's the cold water side that leaks and it is always the same end. After further investigation, I have however noticed that it leaks on the cold side of the pump whenever the hot water is turned on at the shower, or the bathroom sink or the bath tap. It doesn't do anything when the cold water is on, just hot. I have uploaded a picture of the pump, its the side closest to us that leaks. It leaks at the bottom of the end cap between the two legs Could it be something to do with my hot water tank in the attic?
UPDATE: I HAVE NOW FOUND OUT THAT THE PUMP LEAKS WHENEVER I SWITCH ON THE BATH TAP ON HOT, THE SHOWER ON HOT OR THE SINK TAP ON HOT!
Is that a bad thing? yes that is where the cold water comes into the pump. I'm assuming by what you have said that the cold water should NOT be coming from there and instead it should be coming from the cold water tank in the loft.
The cold water supply should be coming from the storage tank NOT the water main. The mains pressure could be far to great for the pump.
Because the two end chambers are only connected by the motor shaft we can rule out water transfering from one chamber to the other. Firstly I don`t think the pump is installed correctly with all those elbows however that said I think that is a different problem not related to the leak. I can`t explain why from here but it seems like it is an over pressure problem causing the cold chamber to leak when a hot tap is opened. Are these taps both mixer taps by any chance fitted with water isolation valves on the incomings to the taps, if so then isolate water to all taps and turn the shower on - What happens then? Edit Mike may of got there as I was typing.
Agree with what you say however why does that cause the cold water end to leak when a hot tap is opened Mike?
Ok brilliant, No there are no isolation valves fitted to the sink or the bath tap however the plumber recently installed a 'no return valve' just before the bath tap. The same as the two in the picture above. I will speak to the plumber about this. In regards to the way this has been installed. The plumber that is from the bathroom company is new and didn't install this last year when the bathroom got fitted. When he first came to have a look at this, he said that the pipework is rubbish because of the elbows, bit didn't think ti would be worth re-piping the whole thing. He thought we would be ok like this.
Mike, the first pump cracked as soon as I had switched the bath tap on to cold water. so I'm assuming it has something to do with what you said, I have attached a picture of the first pump which cracked.