Shower supplied by combi boiler

Discussion in 'Plumbers' Talk' started by PaulBlackpool, Feb 7, 2016.

  1. PaulBlackpool

    PaulBlackpool Screwfix Select

    Good Evening,
    I recently have had a combi boiler installed and my plumber says it could provide hot water for a shower very well. The boiler is in our second unused (except for storage) bedroom and is a foot or two from where the shower would be over the bath in the bathroom. I have a spare way in my consumer unit and have laid 10mm sq T & E cable up into the loft as I always intended to have an electric shower. However electric showers always appear to be highly stressed pieces of kit that don't seem to last long these days although my mate has a Redring which is nearly 20 years old. We have never had a shower up to now and my wife prefers baths but I would use both. I am coming round to just having a mixer shower connected to the cold and hot pipes as we are having our bathroom redone sometime this year. Am I right? Something like this?

    http://www.screwfix.com/p/mira-coda-ev-exposed-thermostatic-mixer-shower-chrome/77447
     
  2. Brian_L

    Brian_L Active Member

    If the hot water flow rate of your boiler is enough to meet the requirements of the mixer then I cannot think of a reason not to use a mixer.
     
    PaulBlackpool likes this.
  3. kiaora

    kiaora Guest

    PaulBlackpool likes this.
  4. Brian_L

    Brian_L Active Member

    PaulBlackpool likes this.
  5. Hi Paul.

    Leccy showers are pretty stressed, but should still last a goodly few years.

    However, they do give a carp shower...

    If you like yer showers at al at all, then fit the mixer run from yer combi - it'll be fivehundredandtwentythree times better. Roughly.

    And a thermostatic type makes sense, I think, as combi-driven showers are affected by other peeps running taps at the same time.
     
    PaulBlackpool likes this.
  6. PaulBlackpool

    PaulBlackpool Screwfix Select

    Thanks Guys. I think I will give the electric a miss. The bloke doing the bathroom put in the boiler and knows what he is doing. I am going to take a back seat on this one. I think I will just have to paint the ceiling. :)
     
    Deleted member 33931 likes this.
  7. Cool.

    My own personal preference on this is to chose a mixer that's thermostatic (with, of course, adjustable temp) and has a separate adjustable flow control.

    You'd be surprised how many shower mixers are simply 'on' or 'offski' - and 'on' is often too powerful.
     
  8. PaulBlackpool

    PaulBlackpool Screwfix Select

    Hi Dev
    Yes, the Mira one I linked to in my original post looks good. I will see what my guy says about it.
    Thanks again
    Paul
     
  9. Glad its Friday

    Glad its Friday Active Member

    If you fit an electrical shower you'll at least be able to have a shower if your boiler packs up, just a thought.
    Combis are not great at supplying constant temp hot water so definitely fit a thermostatic one, money well spent. I'd never fit a non thermostatic on a pressurised system.
     
    PaulBlackpool likes this.
  10. fire

    fire Well-Known Member

    If your boiler has 24kw or more on the Hot Water output then yes, a mixer shower taps for your bath would work nicely.

    You must also consider something many overlook.

    Pre-Heat.

    Combi boilers have Eco and Pre-Heat mode. In Eco the boiler will only ever fire up when you turn on the hot water tap. This takes about 1-2 minutes for it to get warm.
    Pre-Heat mode maintains the hot water heat exchanger in the boiler so when you turn on that hot water tap, boom 5 seconds and its hot.
    To do this obviously the boiler will be smouldering away to keep the Hot water tap circuit hot ready to go. You burn more gas and cause more boiler ware.

    30Kw hot water circuit is best for this as the extra 5-6kw heats the water faster on demand and overcomes somewhat the pre-heat circuit. More economical..

    With combi Hot Water circuit one can also consider adding a shower pump to increase the woosh factor from ones shower. Oh the power shower is sooo nice and massaging but hey i digress.

    Electric showers can achieve this but you have to get at least a 12kw or higher and have it correctly installed with a rather large twin and earth cable(16mm2) which needs its own RCBO in your consumer unit. This can be expensive as 16mm2 cable really does not come cheap.

    So if you have a 24kw or higher combi boiler and wish to lower your installation cost mixer taps are a good way to go. If you choose a electric shower i would choose a Triton, i have had 3 different Triton showers in my life and they almost always last well over 10 years. Parts are available and reasonably prices too.
     
  11. "This takes about 1-2 minutes for it to get warm."

    Really? That long?

    And Paul probably has 'pre-heat' on anyways for his other taps. And if he didn't, it wouldn't be a greater wait for his shower than he already has to 'suffer' to his bathroom hot taps.

    Ie - it ain't an issue.



    "With combi Hot Water circuit one can also consider adding a shower pump to increase the whoosh factor from ones shower."

    This would require a mains booster pump and would surely only be of benefit if Paul's mains supply was below 13lpm (the max you can boost your incoming by) - which I doubt it is.
     
  12. PaulBlackpool

    PaulBlackpool Screwfix Select

    Thanks. The boiler has a hot water output of 30kw and is in ECO mode. I don't profess to understand it all. I will leave it to the guy who put the boiler in and has done several plumbing and heating jobs for us
     
  13. fire

    fire Well-Known Member

    Sound, see if it is 30Kw as you say your time to heat the water for your hot water to come out the tap is greatly reduced. i mean what is having to wait 30 seconds or so before the water comes out hot vs having the boiler on pre-heat standby so you get hot water in 5 seconds.
    Nothing in it really compared to the saving us working folk can make on our gas bill. We don't use hot water out the tap all day long and need that instant on or do we? lol

    Either way it is just a push of a button to flick through the modes on a modern boiler anyway so it is not like you need call the plumber every time to have it changed if you needed it.

    If you have a Worcester you can use a Comfort II controller. This can set via a timer to automatically set into pre-heat mode at a given time of your choosing. I have this but seriously i leave it off as i work all hours and have no set rota But hey at least you know it can be done, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
     
  14. fire

    fire Well-Known Member

    Well i was just saying as i don't know the full setup of his plumbing(Urmm that sounds so wrong)

    Power showers are just awesome in my opinion, especially after a hard day. Next best thing to getting a lovely lady to rub you down with a wet lettuce leaf of course.
     
  15. 'Tis ok. I agree - I don't think the slight delay in getting hot water will be an issue, even with pre-heat offski. Mine has pre-heat, but it still takes a good 30 seconds or more for the hot water to get from one end of t'house to t'other. So's I simply go into t'bathroom, turn onski the shower, and drop ma kegs.

    By then it's hot enough...


    I'm sure power-showers are awesome, but I don't see how you can do that with a combi; you are limited by the heating capacity of the akshull boiler, so no pump is gonna give you more hot water.

    In any case, a shower from a 30kW combi is pretty darned good - as that's wot I have.

    It is literally millions of times better than a leccy shower. Well, a goodly twenty times anyways.
     
    fire likes this.
  16. fire

    fire Well-Known Member


    Yes sorry my error, you can't add a pump to a combi system. That is for a system with a boiler tank. My error, i had a brain fart for a moment.

    Its all in the shower heads technology that jets out the pressure of the water flow.

    I was just trying to pint out that power showers are nice and the electric power showers are an option. I agree with you though, most areas have a good inlet water pressure and plumbed correctly one can achieve equal if not better results from a mixer shower.

    DO NOT add a pump to a combi Boiler, this was my error i was meaning a pumped power shower is nice but you can NOT add this to a combi boiler circuit. You need a hot water cylinder(tank) for that.
     
  17. CGN

    CGN Screwfix Select

    Shower off the combi def the way forward. If 2 showers in the same house, then I like to have one leccy, just in case boiler goes down, but primary one always off combi.
     

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