Picking The Right Shower

Nowadays there seems to be a trend towards having a shower rather than having a bath. And, for those of us who are moving toward showering, we need to ensure that our shower facilities are up to scratch.

There is nothing worse than a slow trickle of variable temperature water that is so often called a shower. If the shower in your home doesn't work properly perhaps now is time to upgrade it.

There are so many types of showers available that it would be difficult to describe all of them in a short article. However, I will outline the basic types of shower and the domestic water system required. When it comes to making the final choice, you will need to go to your local FOCUS store to select the appropriate shower.

Slowly but surely, houses in the United Kingdom are being installed with up-to-date, effective domestic water systems. Unfortunately, that still leaves many millions of homes that have a below par plumbing system. Many houses, even modern ones, have a hot water cylinder (usually in the airing cupboard) with the water supplied to it from a cold water tank (cistern) in the attic and heated by a boiler. The disadvantage of this system is that the hot water is at a low pressure compared with the pressure of the cold water mains supply. This is not a problem when running a bath or using other domestic appliances but it does mean that the imbalance in pressure between the hot and cold water makes it difficult to get the shower to a suitable and stable temperature. To get a mixer shower working properly with this system, it is usually necessary to run a cold water feed to the shower from the cold water cistern. If this pressure is too low, that is the cold water tank is not very high above the shower, then a power shower can be fitted. This pumps both the hot and cold water to provide adequate pressure to the mixer shower.

Alternatively, to avoid using the hot water from the cylinder, an electric shower can be installed. These require a cold water feed directly from the mains and a large cable run from the consumer unit (fuse box) to the shower. If you are not sure how to do this, ask an electrician to do it for you. If you are doing it yourself, be absolutely certain to follow the wiring regulations and to ensure that you use the correct size cable. One big advantage of the electric shower is that it does not have to be supplied with hot water and can therefore be installed in out of the way places like the space under the stairs - providing there is a suitable outlet for the waste water.

If you are lucky enough to have a modern house you will probably have an up-to-date plumbing installation. The domestic hot water maybe heated by a combi boiler. These boilers heat water for the central heating and the domestic hot water on demand, that is to say there is no hot water storage tank (cylinder). One advantage of these boilers is that the hot water is supplied to the taps at a fairly high pressure (usually about 2 to 3 bars). With this type of boiler, a normal mixer type of shower will work well.

There are many types of variation of domestic hot and cold water installations. Before installing a shower I strongly recommend that you find out exactly how the plumbing is installed in your home. When this is done, it is quite straightforward to follow the choice charts available to select the correct shower. To avoid getting a very hot shower, install a thermostatically-controlled mixer shower, they are more expensive but are a good safety feature especially if young children or elderly people use the shower.