Electric shower too hot

angeldelight

We have an old Triton electric shower - in hot weather the shower is unbearably hot, almost scalding. I know we need a new one I’m just curious as to why this problem only occurs when the weather is hot?

phester28

Most likely its a pumped shower and the tank in your attic is heating up. If you feed warm water to your shower the result will be a lot hotter water for the same setting.

inforfun

Mine does that when the shower head needs a vinegar bath, or in other words, needs limescale removed. It only takes cold water but the water temperature with this kind of weather is a lot higher than say in january

My triton is a "power" shower. Pump seems a bit quieter after have removed the limescale from the shower head

Krombopulos Michael

Happens with mine too. Its just the water in the tank has gotten warm which the shower is then heating.

I put my shower on cold setting and its OK but you do lose pressure.

Sleeper12

angeldelight wrote:

We have an old Triton electric shower - in hot weather the shower is unbearably hot, almost scalding. I know we need a new one I’m just curious as to why this problem only occurs when the weather is hot?

What model triton is it?

angeldelight

inforfun wrote: »

Mine does that when the shower head needs a vinegar bath, or in other words, needs limescale removed. It only takes cold water but the water temperature with this kind of weather is a lot higher than say in january

My triton is a "power" shower. Pump seems a bit quieter after have removed the limescale from the shower head

I’ll give that a go anyway for now!

angeldelight

Krombopulos Michael wrote: »

Happens with mine too. Its just the water in the tank has gotten warm which the shower is then heating.

I put my shower on cold setting and its OK but you do lose pressure.

When I put mine on cold it’s freezing, definitely couldn’t have a shower in it

angeldelight

Sleeper12 wrote: »

What model triton is it?

T90Z, will be replacing with a SR but not for a few months

NickNickleby

inforfun wrote: »

Mine does that when the shower head needs a vinegar bath, or in other words, needs limescale removed. It only takes cold water but the water temperature with this kind of weather is a lot higher than say in january

My triton is a "power" shower. Pump seems a bit quieter after have removed the limescale from the shower head

Yep, different make of shower, but only yesterday had to 'fix' that problem. Fortunately the shower spray holes are made from rubber and are flexible, simply crushing them by running my finger round the shower head (over the holes) a few times does the trick.

jmBuildExt

angeldelight wrote: »

When I put mine on cold it’s freezing, definitely couldn’t have a shower in it

Surely there is some middle setting where the water is bearable?
The water is fed from your tank in the attic and the shower heats it up by a certain amount based on the dial (the dial isnt based on temperature). If you set the dial in winter and never change it, in summer the water in the attic tank is hotter, and the shower will still apply same amount of power to heat the water up and you ultimately end up with hotter water coming out the shower.

That explains why you see the issue in hotter weather. But it should be just a matter of turning the dial down.

inforfun

NickNickleby wrote: »

Yep, different make of shower, but only yesterday had to 'fix' that problem. Fortunately the shower spray holes are made from rubber and are flexible, simply crushing them by running my finger round the shower head (over the holes) a few times does the trick.

About every 2 months i get 2 of those:



I run it through the coffeemaker, let it cool down a bit, boil it in the kettle and then dump the shower heads in it. And everything that needs to be limescale free, is limescale free again.
Your method does work but a vinegar bath really works better.

FishOnABike

The water in your attic tank is much warmer in Summer so it will be much warmer having passed through the shower.

The fine temperature control changes the rate which the water flows through the heating element in the shower. Turn this towards its cooler (anticlockwise) setting. This should give a lower temperature and stronger jet.

There should also be a three position rotary switch (low, medium, high settings) marked with a single blue, single red and double red symbols.

If the shower jet is too powerful at a comfortable temperature, turn the three position rotary switch to its middle setting and turn the fine control clockwise until you get a comfortable temperature + jet.

Sleeper12

angeldelight wrote:

T90Z, will be replacing with a SR but not for a few months

The top dial has blue = no element / cold

One red = one element / summer setting on very hot days

Two red = two elements / winter setting.

The water is a lot warmer in the attic tank at this time of year. If you have it on two elements then the end result is water is too hot. Try one red setting. This should work fine.

We get several calls daily about this in the warm weather. Using a spurious shower head can cause this as can extreme limescale build-up in the head or element

NickNickleby

inforfun wrote: »

About every 2 months i get 2 of those:



I run it through the coffeemaker, let it cool down a bit, boil it in the kettle and then dump the shower heads in it. And everything that needs to be limescale free, is limescale free again.
Your method does work but a vinegar bath really works better.

Hahaha, love the economy involved - exactly as I have done in the past (although subsequent inspection revealed the coffee maker was aluminium so , goosed!) but I emptied the kettle into a big jug, shower head wouldn't fit in the kettle!
Also, I had bought that acid stuff from Woodies one day it was on special 5 sachets for *less than* 'not much more than' the vinegar. Still have four, must give the shower heads another proper seeing to soon!

angeldelight

Yep this is the setting we have the shower on and it is scalding! The only other setting is to turn it to blue and then it’s icy

Will try the descaling in the short term!

Our attic is intensely hot, we have next to no insulation in the attic (another job on the list before winter arrives) so I’m guessing that doesnt help matters

Sleeper12

angeldelight wrote: »

Yep this is the setting we have the shower on and it is scalding! The only other setting is to turn it to blue and then it’s icy

Will try the descaling in the short term!

Our attic is intensely hot, we have next to no insulation in the attic (another job on the list before winter arrives) so I’m guessing that doesn't help matters

Take the shower head off altogether & run it. If you can regulate the temperature without the head then the issue is definitely with the head


As others said above leaving the head in white vinegar over night will descale it. Brown vinegar will stain it

Sleeper12

One last thing that could be wrong. In the photo the bottom dial is as far as it goes for cold If you turn the same dial & it doesn't go all the way to hot then the dial isn't fitted correctly & the valve can't open enough. If it goes all the way to hot then it's not that

angeldelight

It was the shower head - took it off and the water is a perfect temperature. Thanks so much everyone, 45c for a bottle of white vinegar makes me much happier than a new shower!

Sleeper12

angeldelight wrote:

It was the shower head - took it off and the water is a perfect temperature. Thanks so much everyone, 45c for a bottle of white vinegar makes me much happier than a new shower!

It goes great with chips too

inforfun

NickNickleby wrote: »

Hahaha, love the economy involved - exactly as I have done in the past (although subsequent inspection revealed the coffee maker was aluminium so , goosed!) but I emptied the kettle into a big jug, shower head wouldn't fit in the kettle!
Also, I had bought that acid stuff from Woodies one day it was on special 5 sachets for *less than* 'not much more than' the vinegar. Still have four, must give the shower heads another proper seeing to soon!

Yeah well, I am Dutch so...

Something i have never been able to find here is "cleaning" vinegar.

Buy 1 liter of that stuff for €0,37 in The Netherlands so €0,45 for a pint is a huge investment

TAPlank

The water temperature of these showers is adjusted by turning the flow rate control knob. i.e. slow flow is hotter than fast flow. Many of these shower units have 1, 2 or 3 power input settings with an adjusting knob can be set at 1, 2 or 3 bars shown on the cover.
Hope this helps