Low pressure in the shower

Nonamigo

Hi all. Hope it's a proper place to ask my questions.
I have just moved into apartment. Everything is perfect but the shower. The water is literally dribbling, it takes forever even to get wet under that shower. Every other tap is working perfectly with good pressure. We have no additional pump installed. I've tried several new shower heads installed and it didn't change anything. I'm so dissappinted now:( so I have two questions:
1. What can be wrong with the shower and how to fix it?
2. Please point me to the wright section of this forum to ask this question if this section is wrong. I want to complain to landlord about it when he comes over to bring some furniture he promised. Is it his responsibility to fix it or once the tap in the bathtub works he doesn't have to provide a shower? I really love this place and don't want to move out. Please, help me on this one...
Ps if it helps I'm renting through agency but landlord told me I have to deal directly with him if there are problems.
Thanks

sullzz

What type of shower is it , is it connected onto the bath taps or is it a shower valve separate to the bath fitted into the wall , when you turn it on can you hear the pump running , mabey take a picture of the shower so we know exactly what we are talking about

Nonamigo

sullzz wrote: »

What type of shower is it , is it connected onto the bath taps or is it a shower valve separate to the bath fitted into the wall , when you turn it on can you hear the pump running , mabey take a picture of the shower so we know exactly what we are talking about

There is no pump. There's a tap in the tub with kind of separator. If you pull it up shower will work, pull it down-tap will work. The other problem is i can't fully pull it up, only half way and both shower and tap are working that way. But by looking at it I'm 100% sure that even if i could fully pull the separator up it wouldn't run much better. I think it's faster to wash using 1ml syringe than my shower:(
I live on the forth (top) floor in the apartment. Asked neighbors around and they have normal water flow in the shower

Billy Bunting

Remove the shower head from the hose and see if your getting much water through the hose, if you are then clean the shower head with vinigar, if not, check the hose for cincks, failing that the fact your loosing your water at the tap is your problem, some of these plunger mechanisms are repairable some you need to replace the taps, without seeing it couldnt advise more.

sullzz

I agree with Billy you can repair some of these diverters but I'd say you may have to replace the taps , it could also be a problem with the overall pressure as you need a certain amount of pressure to keep the diverter up

Nonamigo

I've tried several shower heads and hoses, all new. here are the pictures of it and the water flow on maximum. My neighbors don't have the pump either but they don't have same problem...
Is it my landlords responsibility to fix it (even if pump needs to be installed) or, because tub's tap is in perfect working condition, he doesn't have to provide a sfower?

Joey the lips

I would stake my wages that its a high pressure bath shower mixer. Meaning standard gravity as in ireland will not work

Normally apartments are pumped but yours sounds like its a converted block of old apartments.

There is 2 solutions open to your landlord

1. Have a plumber fit a pump. Highly unlikely to happen

2. Have a plumber change the bath shower mixer.

If it were me I would tell your landlord in writing your not happy with the bath shower mixer. You had a plumber come out and look at it. He advised you that it is a high pressure bath shower mixer and it will need to be changed. There may be other plumbing problems but without paying for a report he will not investigate but the tap seems the most obvious problem.

If you want i will pm you my telephone number. He wont know me from adam and i know enough to talk about the problem.

Have a look at the bath taps on the apartments that are working. See are these the same as yours. I would like to bet they are not.

Nonamigo

thanks a lot for your help. I'm new in this building, only a couple of days since i moved in, so i doubt people would let me in to their apartments to show their taps:)
The landlord will come over on monday (i hope) and i will talk to him about it. I was hoping it's an easy enough fix but it seems it isn't. So i'll leave it with landlord. I don't need a super strong shower but at least the one that could be used as a shower. Hopefully he will agree on fixing it (or even better installing a pump, my last landlord installed a pump on my request and i thought he wasn't the most generous landlord:))
Thanks again for your help

Spook80

Hi all, hope its ok if i jump on this thread as my problem is similar although it has been working great up until this week.

Its a similar shower, i turn the taps on at the bath and pull up some lever and it comes out the hose.
Tuesday evening i was just about to have a shower when we had a power cut, since there was still some natural light left and i really wanted a shower i went ahead except the water pressure was useless just dribbling out.
I assumed it was just related to no power in the apartment so just put up with it until last night i went to have a shower and its still bad.
Is there anything i can try myself, im usually fairly handy once i get some guidance?
could the power cut have been related to this or was it just a coincidence?
Thanks

Joey the lips

DaveM80 wrote: »

Hi all, hope its ok if i jump on this thread as my problem is similar although it has been working great up until this week.

Its a similar shower, i turn the taps on at the bath and pull up some lever and it comes out the hose.
Tuesday evening i was just about to have a shower when we had a power cut, since there was still some natural light left and i really wanted a shower i went ahead except the water pressure was useless just dribbling out.
I assumed it was just related to no power in the apartment so just put up with it until last night i went to have a shower and its still bad.
Is there anything i can try myself, im usually fairly handy once i get some guidance?
could the power cut have been related to this or was it just a coincidence?
Thanks

Apartment....Pump..... airlock.....

Your pump in the apartment has most likely developed an airlock and thats why the bath shower mixer is not working.

You contributed to the airlock by emptying the water of of the line unfor,

Tbh i am not to sure what you can do without seeling it if you can force water backup the bath spout hot and cold it does clear it with a bang but be careful as you dont want to force it out the top of your cylinder,

Spook80

thanks for your help joey, i might try a few things at the weekend or else maybe fork out for a plumber.
Cheers

Spook80

just a quick question to anyone about this problem.

I noticed the pump isnt making any noise at all, almost as if its dead when i turn on the water.
Would this still be an airlock or could it be something different?
The 13amp fuse in the switched fuse spur is fine and cant seem to find any other fuses to test although its says "5amp fuse" beside "dry run protection" on the pump in the hotpress.

Thanks in advance.

Joey the lips

DaveM80 wrote: »

just a quick question to anyone about this problem.

I noticed the pump isnt making any noise at all, almost as if its dead when i turn on the water.
Would this still be an airlock or could it be something different?
The 13amp fuse in the switched fuse spur is fine and cant seem to find any other fuses to test although its says "5amp fuse" beside "dry run protection" on the pump in the hotpress.

Thanks in advance.

If its not making any noise it could be the flow switch stuck although as you say it could be other problems.

tbh there is only a couple of things that go on a pump either

the flow switch

capactor

pcb

seals

and if you have the time and are confident enough you can fix them all.

Spook80

great thanks again im gonna give this a go.