Trouble with Triton Power Shower

budgemook

Hi,

I have some trouble with the shower in the main bathroom - it is a Triton power shower approximately 2.5 years old. For a while now this has been happening perhaps once or twice a week but sometimes more.

The shower starts operating normally but pretty quickly it begins making a very high pitched sound like the pump is working very hard and water stops coming out. To fix the problem I usually turn off the shower, turn on the bath hot tap for 10 seconds and turn on the shower again - I often give it a little tap on the side when I turn it back on which may or may not get it going again

I have read some posts on here about clearing the filters but if that was the problem then I would expect the shower not to work at all although we do have a lot of limescale in this area so I have not completely ruled this out.

I am thinking that it could be air in the system that causes the shower to get into this situation and turning on the tap helps clear it out - would that make sense? A different tap in the house often splashes and splutters a bit as if there is air in the pipes.

If it is air regularly getting into the pipes, how can this be fixed?

punisher5112

Check the head of the shower and hose too....

Link or curled up can cause this too.

Run it at cold first then put to hot see if it continues.

listermint

How is the shower plumbed ? It should be ideally on its own line off the attic tank.

If it's being starved of water through bad install this would be the result

budgemook

punisher5112 wrote: »

Check the head of the shower and hose too....

Link or curled up can cause this too.

Run it at cold first then put to hot see if it continues.

Hi, do you mean check for blockages, or something else.

listermint wrote: »

How is the shower plumbed ? It should be ideally on its own line off the attic tank.

If it's being starved of water through bad install this would be the result

I don’t really know but will try figure it out.

Sleeper12

What model triton do you have?

Is it only on the hot side that runs out of water? Or both hot and cold?

If you reduce the flow/speed does it still run dry?

If plumbed incorrectly it can suck in air. Saw one a couple of weeks ago where hot feed was taken from the expansion pipe, in the attic, no less. With shower on full power the hot ran dry.

budgemook

Sleeper12 wrote: »

What model triton do you have?

Is it only on the hot side that runs out of water? Or both hot and cold?

If you reduce the flow/speed does it still run dry?

If plumbed incorrectly it can suck in air. Saw one a couple of weeks ago where hot feed was taken from the expansion pipe, in the attic, no less. With shower on full power the hot ran dry.

The issue is intermittent so hard to say. My wife was saying she could get the water flowing again by reducing the flow dial but usually she does what I do and turns it off, turns on the bath tap and turns it back on again. Next time it happens I can try drop it to cold and low speed to see what happens.

Sleeper12

budgemook wrote:

The issue is intermittent so hard to say. My wife was saying she could get the water flowing again by reducing the flow dial but usually she does what I do and turns it off, turns on the bath tap and turns it back on again. Next time it happens I can try drop it to cold and low speed to see what happens.

By reducing the flow dial the pump pumps slower. It won't suck in air on an incorrectly plumbed system on reduced flow.

If it fails on both hot and cold then it could be a faulty solenoid. If it is only on the hot side then it is most likely plumbed incorrectly. It's not that there is air in your system. It's most likely that the pump is sucking in air from outside the system, through the expansion pipe.

What model triton is it?

budgemook

Sleeper12 wrote: »

By reducing the flow dial the pump pumps slower. It won't suck in air on an incorrectly plumbed system on reduced flow.

If it fails on both hot and cold then it could be a faulty solenoid. If it is only on the hot side then it is most likely plumbed incorrectly. It's not that there is air in your system. It's most likely that the pump is sucking in air from outside the system, through the expansion pipe.

What model triton is it?

https://www.tritonshowers.co.uk/thermostatic-power-shower-satin

It is this one.

Just to reiterate something - this only happens at the beginning of a shower - the hot tap workaround fixes it for the fully shower and possibly the rest of the day - very rare that you'd have the same thing in the next shower.

greasepalm

Similar noise from mine as it needs to be set to cold to stop the high pitched screech and less water coming out and then comes back to normal operations,bit like a fan belt screech from a loose belt,unsure what triton model and plumbed into cold water tank in roof.
It was working ok before bathroom make over and moved about 6 feet to use as a backup to my rain head shower.

I might get this the next time i go to use the shower,last used a month ago.

Sleeper12

budgemook wrote:

Just to reiterate something - this only happens at the beginning of a shower - the hot tap workaround fixes it for the fully shower and possibly the rest of the day - very rare that you'd have the same thing in the next shower.

The hot tap workaround suggests that it's only on the hot side & isn't a fault with the shower itself. So far it sounds like it wasn't installed correctly.

budgemook

Sleeper12 wrote: »

The hot tap workaround suggests that it's only on the hot side & isn't a fault with the shower itself. So far it sounds like it wasn't installed correctly.

Thanks for the suggestions, I’ll do some more experiments over the next few days.

1. See if turning the shower to cold or reducing the power brings the flow back.
2. See if the cold tap on the bath gets it going similar to how the hot tap does.

Any other things I should check?

greasepalm

My model is T90XR

Sleeper12

greasepalm wrote:

Similar noise from mine as it needs to be set to cold to stop the high pitched screech and less water coming out and then comes back to normal operations,bit like a fan belt screech from a loose belt,unsure what triton model and plumbed into cold water tank in roof. It was working ok before bathroom make over and moved about 6 feet to use as a backup to my rain head shower.

greasepalm wrote:

My model is T90XR

Yours is a bit of a puzzler. Unlike OPs shower, the only way yours can get airlocked is if the tank in the attic ran dry. I'd rule out airlock. It could be a faulty motor. Shower is old enough now and officially obsolete. It's always possible that something was done wrong with the new plumbing when moving the shower. I've seen people use basin flexis instead of proper elbows. This could cause flow issues if there was a kink in the flexi.

listermint

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Yours is a bit of a puzzler. Unlike OPs shower, the only way yours can get airlocked is if the tank in the attic ran dry. I'd rule out airlock. It could be a faulty motor. Shower is old enough now and officially obsolete. It's always possible that something was done wrong with the new plumbing when moving the shower. I've seen people use basin flexis instead of proper elbows. This could cause flow issues if there was a kink in the flexi.

I'd assume his has multiple air locks in his feed. Needs to take the filter out and run the water through for a few minutes till all the stuttering is gone


I had this a few times with mine working on the tank last year the trition would act the bollix and need to be bled for a bit.

greasepalm

Sleeper12 wrote: »

Yours is a bit of a puzzler. Unlike OPs shower, the only way yours can get airlocked is if the tank in the attic ran dry. I'd rule out airlock. It could be a faulty motor. Shower is old enough now and officially obsolete. It's always possible that something was done wrong with the new plumbing when moving the shower. I've seen people use basin flexis instead of proper elbows. This could cause flow issues if there was a kink in the flexi.

Think i remember seeing all copper fittings when room was under construction and tank has never run dry even with the water shortage.If there was a kink in a flexi there should be a permanent issue with flow i would think and it corrects itself after a minute or so.I do have another one same model i could try and use.