Triton T90SR Shower Install

fatbhoy

Hi folks, I'm a quite unskilled at DIY but I think I might have a go at replacing my existing Triton T90XR with a new T90SR. Both are fed water from the attic water tank, and both have very similar footprints so the existing screw holes on the wall should work for the SR.

Anyway, the problem is this: I discovered that the install has mainly three important things: disconnect the power (I've tested this and I can do it no problem), disconnect the water (that's the problem, see below), and prime it.

My plumbing is old and weird. In short, I looked in the attic for the stop valve from the tank to the shower water feed pipe, I found only one, and I think it's the one. You see, I say "think it's the one" because this seems to be the only feed from the tank, and it comes out of the tank via a narrow copper pipe, has a red valve wheel / stop-cock, and continues along the attic under the insulation. When I look over in the attic at the feed to the shower, that's a rubber type hose tube that emerges from under the insulation. So I'm not sure 100% at the moment if the copper pipe joins with that rubber hose tube somewhere under the insulation. I installed the insulation, but I can't remember if this is the case. I plan to get up into the attic soon and look under the insulation, but I'm not looking forward to that because it's a pain of a job.

The main question is this: I'm wondering if I can close that stop-cock valve at the water tank, and test the shower on full cold to see if that's the water feed into the shower. Obviously I can't do that on warm/hot setting because if it is the water feed and no water is going to the heating element, I presume the element will burn out or the shower will be damaged in some way. So I wonder if I have the shower set to fully cold, will no water getting fed to it cause a problem, or will it simply be the case that no water will come out of the shower head, confirming that the stop-cock pipe was in fact the water feed to the shower, and then I can simply open the stop-cock, run the shower in cold mode, wait till it has purged all the air from the feed pipe and water comes from the shower head, and then safely set the shower thermostat back to hot?

SteelyDanJalapeno

You should be able to see how many outputs are coming from the tank by looking at the tank, if it is indeed one and it has a stop valve on it, then that will turn the water off at the shower, it may branch elsewhere too but as long as the stop is on the copper output from the tank you should be fine.

Could you test on the shower you replacing 1st?

No need to test on hot, you're just test water flow and there's only one input to your shower

fatbhoy

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122028991#Comment_122028991

Thanks for the reply. I'll try to take a close look soon next time I go into the attic. The shower is still working, but it's over 11 years old and sounds like it's on its last legs.

The last time I was in the attic looking at the tank, a couple of days ago, I closed the stop valve and left the bathroom sink taps running. What I witnessed then doesn't make sense to me: the taps kept running, and the water intake pipe to the water tank started pouring water into the tank (like when you press the ball-cock down). So maybe that means that either that stop valve doesn't work and the water to the sink was coming through that pipe, or there's another pipe from the tank to the sink.

My next step is to get up and have a closer look: really check what outputs are coming from the tank, and lift the insulation and see the path that the pipe with the stop valve takes, to see if it connects up with the rubber shower hose.

Sleeper12

The shower should have its own dedicated pipe from the tank. You could have turned off the correct one for the shower and the rest of the house would still work