Hot water...

ryan_t

Hey,

Moved to Ireland with the family from Australia about two months ago, and we're struggling to work out the hot water systems here... Back home it was easy: you either have electric or gas hot water and they just worked - no need to turn anything on or off...

We've recently moved into a rental place, and we have a main bathroom and an en-suite - the main has an electric shower / bath with switches for the shower, and another double-switch panel with on/off and sink/bath - I think this is to heat the hot-water tank, we turn it on about 30 minutes prior to giving the little ones a bath and get piping hot water out of the tap.

The house also has a gas boiler, and radiators throughout it - this is programmed to come on three times a day for 1 hour, and has a "boost" button.

Now - the issue that we're seeing is that we can't figure out where in the house the hot water for the en-suite shower comes from - when I get up and have a 7am shower prior to work, there is plenty of hot water and pressure, though over the Christmas break we have been getting up and showering later and even at 8am, there is only about 30 seconds of decent water, then a drizzle.

I've tried running the boost 30 minutes (I've tried it for two hours as well, no difference) prior to showering, and I've tried switching on the bath switch for the hot water tank, and whilst I can get hot water in the bath I can only get luke-warm water in the shower.

Any help would be greatly appreciated - I want a sleep-in and a hot shower!

mikemac1

ryan_t wrote: »

no need to turn anything on or off...

You didn't turn off the hot water? :eek:

That's a hanging offence in Ireland. You will be bankrupt soon OP if you try that here

ryan_t

mikemac1 wrote: »

You didn't turn off the hot water? :eek:

That's a hanging offence in Ireland. You will be bankrupt soon OP if you try that here

No, for electric we'd have a large tank normally about 500L either outside or inside that generally heats in the off-peak power cycles. We'd generally just switch it off if we went on holidays.

Gas was great though, it would be a small boiler in the hot water line and heat when you ran the hot water, took a little longer to get hot water but it was "unlimited".

cloud493

You left the immersion on :eek:

kneemos

The gas burner probably heats the water when it's on.

The Backwards Man

Ha, best one I've seen in a while to be fair.

Dirty Steve

Can someone post the Des Bishop bit about leaving the immersion on?

I haven't got the posting power..

ryan_t

kneemos wrote: »

The gas burner probably heats the water when it's on.

That is what I first thought, but having it on when showering, and prior to showering seems to only give a small hot trickle when the mixer is on full hot.

kylith

Are you running the mixer in the bath at the same time as the shower? That'd be why you're only getting a trickle.

ryan_t

kylith wrote: »

Are you running the mixer in the bath at the same time as the shower? That'd be why you're only getting a trickle.

No, tested the bath separately - shower is the only thing running in the house.

Like this morning, I got a good hot solid flow (from the shower) but it lasted all of about 30 seconds, then back to the drizzle. If I shower around 7am then I get a good flow for the duration of the shower.

ryan_t

ryan_t wrote: »

No, tested the bath separately - shower is the only thing running in the house.

Just to clarify, I turned the hot water heater on, tested the bath and got piping hot water out of it (like when we bath the little ones) and then tested the shower - same weak drizzle of hotish water - I can stand under it when it is on full hot, nothing like what was coming out of the bath.

CelticRambler

Dirty Steve wrote: »

Can someone post the Des Bishop bit about leaving the immersion on?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52bna-tn_dY

ryan_t

CelticRambler wrote: »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52bna-tn_dY

Ok, this 100% sums up my experience...

mass_debater

Op, don't be using the immersion, that'll rob you. Figure out how the central heating heats the water and time that.

kylith

Get onto your landlord and ask him what the hell is going on with your water. If the shower works at 7 it should work just the same at 8, and if it's not then something's wrong with it. Really though, none of us would be able to even make a reliable guess without seeing it first hand.

G2ECE

What is the brand and model of the problematic shower?

ryan_t

mass_debater wrote: »

Op, don't be using the immersion, that'll rob you. Figure out how the central heating heats the water and time that.

Right, as it didn't seem to work for the en-suite shower we've only been using it for bathing the little ones each night.

Does the central heating normally heat the water in the hot-press also?

ryan_t

G2ECE wrote: »

What is the brand and model of the problematic shower?

It's not an electric shower, it is literally just a mixer knob and a shower head coming out of the wall.

mass_debater

ryan_t wrote: »

Does the central heating normally heat the water in the hot-press also?

Yes, the pipes that heat the radiators usually pass through the hot water tank

mass_debater

Are the dishwasher or washing machine plumbed to the hot water, do you run them in the morning? Could be using your hot water

K.Flyer

When you say only drizzle, is the pressure bad on both hot and cold?
If it is, could there be a pump on the system that has a time clock on the power supply.

wyndham

Plumbing Forum?

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1320

ryan_t

mass_debater wrote: »

Are the dishwasher or washing machine plumbed to the hot water, do you run them in the morning? Could be using your hot water

I'm not sure if they are or not, but we usually run them at night as we go to bed.

I'm at a loss as it feels like I've tried every combination of boost/immersion to try to get the same flow as I get at 7am but to no avail.

ryan_t

K.Flyer wrote: »

When you say only drizzle, is the pressure bad on both hot and cold?
If it is, could there be a pump on the system thats has a time clock on the power supply.

Possibly. I get great pressure on the cold - but I'm not really a cold-shower kind of guy. When it works well it is great, I only need a fraction of the hot water in the mixer but it can go downhill quite quickly needing me to go full hot on the mixer when it just starts to "drop" out of the shower head rather than spray.

I suspect this is because of the hot water temp needing more hot.

osarusan

OP, Boards has a plumbing and heating forum - you have actually gotten more serious and helpful answers than I'd have expected, but you'd probably be better off posting there:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=1320



EDIT: Beaten to the punch I see!

K.Flyer

So no pressure on the hot, but at the same time plenty of pressure on the cold and pressures on hot and cold everywhere else are fine.

BeerWolf

Sure it ain't an electric shower that is off but for some reason connected to the hot water piping?

kneemos

The way they were throwing up houses I wouldn't be surprised if it's coming from next door.

Pinch Flat

cloud493 wrote: »

You left the immersion on :eek:

Looks like we've found the source of global warming

stimpson

Have you tried running the electricity off the gas and the gas off the electricity?

Sir Osis of Liver.

Sounds like the hot water booster pump is turned off/fcuked.

wmpdd3

Sounds like the 'Boost' button is only for heating and not water heating. Most new homes seem to have an option of turning the central heating on to water or heating.

OP, do you have neighbours, if its an estate usually everyone is in the same boat and you can be sure the neighbours have worked out the best value way of using the system by now.

ryan_t

After speaking with the neighbors we worked out what the issue was.

It turns out we have a small electric pump in the hot-press that equalizes the hot and cold water pressure for delivery to the mixer in the shower, what had happened (and apparently this happens every 3 months or so) is that the hot water inlet filter to the pump got clogged up with gunk. Pulled the filter out and gave it a clean and she is as good as new - loads of pressure and glorious hot water.

osarusan

Good stuff.

How come it was ok at 7am though?

bjork

We ran the electricity off the gas and the gas off the electricity and we saved 200 pounds a year!

Edit: I see you've solved it
"Whats you favourite humming sound... now that first one was the sound of a fridge and the second one was the sound of a man humming."

ryan_t

osarusan wrote: »

Good stuff.

How come it was ok at 7am though?

So I think the blockage must have occurred very soon after we moved in, which was right before christmas. So I correlated the lack of flow with using the shower later in the day - correlation & causation and all that...

somefeen

ryan_t wrote: »

So I think the blockage must have occurred very soon after we moved in, which was right before christmas. So I correlated the lack of flow with using the shower later in the day - correlation & causation and all that...

Welcome to Ireland. See that dirty water that neccesitated a filter and clogged it? You need to pay for that and the electricity to run the pump, and the bin to dispose of the crap that clogged the filter, and property tax for owning the house that contains said filter and pump.

antodeco

At least he doesn't need to contend with giant spiders anymore!

Gyalist

OP, your post brings back memories. When I moved to Ireland in the mid-80's I had to learn to deal with these shower attachments. You'd fiddle with the things for about five minutes to get the temperature right only to be scalded mid-shower because someone else in the house flushed a toilet.

I once bought a brand new house, in fact it was the show house in the estate and we had been living there for a few weeks when suddenly one morning I heard a piercing scream from my daughter. Rushed to the bathroom to see what was the problem only for her to tell me that she had flushed the toilet and the water in the bowl had scalded the back of her legs. The plumbers had connected the hot water to the toilet cistern!

GreeBo

somefeen wrote: »

Welcome to Ireland. See that dirty water that neccesitated a filter and clogged it? You need to pay for that and the electricity to run the pump, and the bin to dispose of the crap that clogged the filter, and property tax for owning the house that contains said filter and pump.

Unlike living on the moon where you dont pay for anything.

somefeen

GreeBo wrote: »

Unlike living on the moon where you dont pay for anything.

You'd need to buy/lease the site off Disney though and they're after getting very expensive now altogether

YFlyer

ryan_t wrote: »

Just to clarify, I turned the hot water heater on, tested the bath and got piping hot water out of it (like when we bath the little ones) and then tested the shower - same weak drizzle of hotish water - I can stand under it when it is on full hot, nothing like what was coming out of the bath.

Did they get scald?

ryan_t

YFlyer wrote: »

Did they get scald?

No, was just like a warm summers day for them back home

ScumLord

somefeen wrote: »

Welcome to Ireland. See that dirty water that neccesitated a filter and clogged it? You need to pay for that and the electricity to run the pump, and the bin to dispose of the crap that clogged the filter, and property tax for owning the house that contains said filter and pump.

GreeBo wrote: »

Unlike living on the moon where you dont pay for anything.

Or Australia where water grows in abundance on trees and kangaroos take your rubbish away each night to be ecologically disposed of.

Ruu

Have moved this thread from After Hours for you.

Mod