I recently had an electric shower fitted in my attic. It has never worked. The cold water tank is below the shower unit. I have had the water pipes moled from the water board supply to my house and the pressure has improved. I now have to purchase a replacement shower. Given the circumstances can you recommend an electric shower to go in my attic please

sharon, December 2008

Always have a qualified or competant person do the work. There are two types of electric showers. One of the most common takes mains cold water and heats it via electric elements known as a instantaneous electric shower and the secont type tends to be mixing valves in a similar white casing with a pump built in. If you have the first ( instantaneous) the shower requires a min of 1 bar maintained pressure from you mains supply while another outlet is running similtaneously. If this is in the attic you may not have enough pressure to trip the flow switches. If you have enough pressure evident at the supply pipe check the service filter as any debris will stop it from working. Plus have a competant person demonstrate that you have the correct voltage . Dont be fooled by pretty lights they are only 12 volts but you need 240 to make the thing work.

Alan, December 2008

you should consider a mains water pressure fed electric shower, then the cold water tank being below the shower wont be a problem as it wont be feeding the shower, or if you want to feed the shower with the cold water tank you could try a negative head pumped unit, you will have to look at the manufacturers info to check if they meet your requirements prior to purchase, you can usually download the manuals from the manufactuers websites, if your current shower is a mains fed unit and it is getting its supply from your cold water tank this could be the reason it has never worked, you should check this because if so you may not need to change the shower, just change the feed to it from cold tank to mains feed, hope this helps

H.I.S., December 2008