solution of a quiet electric shower under the gravity fed wate

icylava

I'm looking for a solution of a quiet electric shower in an ensuite bathroom under the gravity fed water system.

A Mira Elite ST shower is currently installed in the bathroom and it's really noisy. I know there is a build-in pump inside. If a new and latest shower of the similar model would be quiet, I'll just go for a replacement.

If it is normally noisy for gravity fed electric showers, I would be thinking of having a dedicated booster pump in the hot press (or in the attic maybe) for a non-Gravity Fed electric shower. Will this be possible?

I do not want to use the cold main to feed the electric shower if that may be an option, as I'm concerned that the washers/taps in the kitchen will divide the main water pressure and cause the shower to stop.

I've asked some builders on this and they all say it is not possible and the best I can do is to get a new gravity fed electric shower installed. But I've really seen lots of posts saying this is possible. Plus I do see the booster pump solution is doable because it is like moving the build-in pump inside the shower to a place where the noise is kept so that the cold water feeding the shower should always have sound pressure. Am I correct?

I would greatly appreciate any comments and suggestions. Thanks.

Sleeper12

You could fit a Triton T80 mains fed shower as this has no pump. Instead of connecting it to the mains you would connect it to attic tank. Somewhere between the tank & the shower you install your pump. This can be in the attic or you can drop the pipes into the hotpress for the pump & then run them back to the attic.

The only problem I see after the job is done is you wont be happy as you will now be listening to the pump in the attic or hotpress. I would suggest leaving well enough alone & whatever you dont connect to the mains. It'll break your heart when the mains puessure drops

icylava

Sleeper12 wrote: »

You could fit a Triton T80 mains fed shower as this has no pump. Instead of connecting it to the mains you would connect it to attic tank. Somewhere between the tank & the shower you install your pump. This can be in the attic or you can drop the pipes into the hotpress for the pump & then run them back to the attic.

The only problem I see after the job is done is you wont be happy as you will now be listening to the pump in the attic or hotpress. I would suggest leaving well enough alone & whatever you dont connect to the mains. It'll break your heart when the mains puessure drops

Thanks for the comments, Sleeper12! I agree with you that the cold main should be left alone, just for the sake of the 2010 cold winter...

I'd imagine a pump in the attic or hotpress would be fine as there are few occasions that you want to go into the attic and the door of the hotpress is normally closed. Or do you think a separate pump would be a lot more noisier that a pumped electric shower?

I'm thinking of the "booster pump + non-Gravity fed electric shower" idea only because there is a booster pump in the hotpress in the apartment I was previously living in. The electric shower in the apartment is a Mira Sport. It not only looks much nicer but also is extremely quiet and vigorous. The bathroom is just next to the hotpress and while the shower is on, the pump is working and you literally hear nothing.

So this is technically doable, right?

A2LUE42

icylava wrote: »

Thanks for the comments, Sleeper12! I agree with you that the cold main should be left alone, just for the sake of the 2010 cold winter...

I'd imagine a pump in the attic or hotpress would be fine as there are few occasions that you want to go into the attic and the door of the hotpress is normally closed. Or do you think a separate pump would be a lot more noisier that a pumped electric shower?

I'm thinking of the "booster pump + non-Gravity fed electric shower" idea only because there is a booster pump in the hotpress in the apartment I was previously living in. The electric shower in the apartment is a Mira Sport. It not only looks much nicer but also is extremely quiet and vigorous. The bathroom is just next to the hotpress and while the shower is on, the pump is working and you literally hears nothing.

So this is technically doable, right?

Go see somewhere this solution is installed. If you think the shower pump is noisy, wait until you hear the separate one.

icylava

A2LUE42 wrote: »

Go see somewhere this solution is installed. If you think the shower pump is noisy, wait until you hear the separate one.

Right...It looks like a booster pump is going to be very loud.

The previous owner installed this Mira pumped shower and perhaps it's making noise only because it is kind of old or there's something wrong?

Let me upload an audio clip of the noise this Mira Elite ST makes when I get a chance.

Thanks for all your comments.

Sleeper12

icylava wrote: »

Thanks for the comments, Sleeper12! I agree with you that the cold main should be left alone, just for the sake of the 2010 cold winter...

I'd imagine a pump in the attic or hotpress would be fine as there are few occasions that you want to go into the attic and the door of the hotpress is normally closed. Or do you think a separate pump would be a lot more noisier that a pumped electric shower?

I'm thinking of the "booster pump + non-Gravity fed electric shower" idea only because there is a booster pump in the hotpress in the apartment I was previously living in. The electric shower in the apartment is a Mira Sport. It not only looks much nicer but also is extremely quiet and vigorous. The bathroom is just next to the hotpress and while the shower is on, the pump is working and you literally hear nothing.

So this is technically doable, right?

It can be done exactly as you had in the apartment (pretty much as I described above). You mira elite st is 9kw 230v or 9.5kw 240v. You probably have 6mm cable. The mira sport could well have been 10kw 230v & this had 10mm cable. Unless you change to (or already have) 10mm cable you will have to stay with a 9kw shower. Nothing wrong with 9kw I'm just pointing out that anything more powerful needs 10mm cable.

icylava

Sleeper12 wrote: »

It can be done exactly as you had in the apartment (pretty much as I described above). You mira elite st is 9kw 230v or 9.5kw 240v. You probably have 6mm cable. The mira sport could well have been 10kw 230v & this had 10mm cable. Unless you change to (or already have) 10mm cable you will have to stay with a 9kw shower. Nothing wrong with 9kw I'm just pointing out that anything more powerful needs 10mm cable.

Thanks for sharing this, Sleeper12! I will check for this as you have pointed out.

Sleeper12

icylava wrote: »

Thanks for sharing this, Sleeper12! I will check for this as you have pointed out.

It's possible a bearing in the pump is gone. This would give a loud grinding noise.

K.Flyer

There are some pumps that are ultra quiet which you can leave in the attic or relocate to the hot press and there is only a slight hum from them, well worth considering.

icylava

K.Flyer wrote: »

There are some pumps that are ultra quiet which you can leave in the attic or relocate to the hot press and there is only a slight hum from them, well worth considering.

Thanks very much K.Flyer!! This really sheds some light!

Would you be able to PM me the brand of the pump you are using or some quiet booster pump you recommend? Thanks very much!

K.Flyer

icylava wrote: »

Thanks very much K.Flyer!! This really sheds some light!

Would you be able to PM me the brand of the pump you are using or some quiet booster pump you recommend? Thanks very much!

P.m. sent.

icylava

icylava wrote: »

Right...It looks like a booster pump is going to be very loud.

The previous owner installed this Mira pumped shower and perhaps it's making noise only because it is kind of old or there's something wrong?

Let me upload an audio clip of the noise this Mira Elite ST makes when I get a chance.

Thanks for all your comments.

Here's the audio clip.

dropbox.com/s/vokdpld4txilynb/Noisy%20Mira%20Elite%20ST.m4a

Add "www." before the link to download.

Is this normal noise for a pumped electric shower? Is the tone all right?

travist

Love to know what you did in the end ?

travist

Love to know what you did in the end ?

Sleeper12

So would I. It's like missing the end of a movie. It's always a good idea to report back here when everything is done. Lots of people look at these threads years later looking for advice

icylava

Thanks for everyone's interest.

As Sleeper12 and K.Flyer pointed out, a quiet booster pump in the attic/hotpress plus a main-fed electric shower would be the solution for gravity-fed water system.

Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to implement this solution.

Calibos

Two showers in our house.

One is an pumped electric Mira. This one is annoying in the bedroom next door, very audible in the next bedroom, quite audible in the other two bedrooms and audible enough downstairs and in attic conversion that you know someone is having a shower in that bathroom.

Attic conversion has a conventional shower connected to the CH. All water in that bathroom comes via a Grundfos Hot and Cold pump. ie. Brushing of teeth and flushing of toilet also trigger the pump. It was annoying at first and audible on first floor but not ground floor, so even then it was less disturbing than the electric shower. Despite having rubber shoe isolators it was still transferring a lot of vibrational energy into the subfloor and joists and thus noise. I read about a trick with 2 tiles and silicone where you put some spacers and a bead of silicone between the tiles and between subfloor and tiles. When the silicone cures you remove the spacers. Pump sits on top of tiles. This dampens and isolates the pump from the floor more than the shoes it comes with alone. No longer annoying and only audible in the attic conversion bedroom next door and 2 bedrooms below at that end of the house. Inaudible in the other two thirds of the house.

On the other hand, in a previous house there was an inline pump for the CH in the hotpress and one never knew that was on unless one opened the hotpress door and even then one only heard the water flow not the sound of a motor.

So depending on the type of pump needed and where you put it you may indeed render the shower inaudible everywhere in the house with no knock on effects of moving the noise elsewhere in the house. ie. . No point in the shower not waking you up anymore but it wakes the kids up in their bedroom instead who then wake you anyway. However, even with a louder pump there are things one can do to mitigate the noise like I did above along with connecting to pipe work with flexible hose.

I'm glad this thread came back up and got me thinking because for a few years I've been saying to myself that when we redo the electric shower bathroom I'd think about an in-wall pumped electric to try to mitigate some of the noise but never knew about non-pumped electric. That'd be much less destructive if I went with an inline isolated pump in the attic hooked up to a non-pumped electric.

K.Flyer

You could swap out your current noisy electric shower for a mains fed model. This should be straight forward enough as long as the mains pressure is adequte (measured correctly) and your current electric shower takes its water supply directly from the cold tank and is accessible.
As for your water pressure boosting pump, if its a plastic bodied pump, they can be very noisy and there is not a lot you can do about them other than invest in a better quality pump.