Plumbing issues in a flat

[Tan]

Hi

We have a flat that is on the second floor of a purpose built block, recently our tenant started to complain that the water in the shower was always cold in the mornings.

We called out a plumber who tested the system and found all to be ok, he then advised us that it may be the water pressure in the building as it worked ok during the day, but not first thing in the morning.

We then found out that the neighbour at the flat is also suffering the same problem, so we contacted the management company who sent out two plumbers and they have decided that the showers in both flats are faulty and its not the water pressure, even though both flats are experiencing greatly reduced water pressure.

Does anyone have any idea what may be causing the problem as I am not buying the idea that both showers have gone faulty at the same time.

Many thanks

Tan

 

[Merc Owner 2B]

First test would be to time (seconds) the filling of a bucket from a particular tap at different points of the day to test for fluctuations in supply.

Is there any industry or business premises nearby that could be major users of water?

 

[Ade B]

My experience in our flat (ground floor in a Edwardian conversion of 5 flats) is that water pressure can drop during early morning peak loads. This had never until recently affected the shower temperature though..

We had a similar issue where the thermostatic mixer was simply not delivering enough hot water consistently. Temperature would fluctuate and after about 2 weeks it went permanently cold. I replaced the cartridge this weekend and reduced the amount of cold water on the adjustment and it seems fine now albeit with a bit less oomph in the pressure due to cutting the cold feed.

London water furs things up very quickly and I suspect the hot supply has a partial blockage which I couldn't check as I haven't the correct tool to open the valve..

Back to your problem - having two adjacent properties with the same issue would point toward a supply problem, although it could also be the mixers, being of a similar age (?) are packing in/ out of adjustment and are therefore more sensitive to fluctuations in pressure.

My stuff is from the Bathstore.co.uk and doing a bit of googling showed that their thermostatic mixers do suffer problems of a similar ilk..


Ade

 

[w124coupe]

A few things easy to check:

The shower mixer will have strainers on the inlets - they may be furred or have debris on them reducing the flow. They usually hide inside the fitting where its connected to the inlet pipes and can be cleaned with a toothbrush and descaler.

While the mixer is off...

Check is the cartridge inside is scaled up - if it is, get anew one or descale it (check with manfacturer if it can be descaled).

The shower mixer may be set up for high pressure and therefore failing to mix when the pressure drops - Googling the model should get you to instructions on how to check/change this as it varies.

The pressure difference between the cold and hot supplies may be outside what the mixer can deal with - you need the "flow" pressures checked not just the static pressure - a plumber can check this for you. This will also arm you with numbers in case the pressure is below what's "reasonable".

 

[renault12ts]

Is this an electric shower or a plumbed in one running off the hot water system.

If it is electric then the reduced water pressure will indeed render it inoperable.

 

[tippandy]

Hi

We have a flat that is on the second floor of a purpose built block, recently our tenant started to complain that the water in the shower was always cold in the mornings.

We called out a plumber who tested the system and found all to be ok, he then advised us that it may be the water pressure in the building as it worked ok during the day, but not first thing in the morning.

We then found out that the neighbour at the flat is also suffering the same problem, so we contacted the management company who sent out two plumbers and they have decided that the showers in both flats are faulty and its not the water pressure, even though both flats are experiencing greatly reduced water pressure.

Does anyone have any idea what may be causing the problem as I am not buying the idea that both showers have gone faulty at the same time.

Many thanks

Tan

hi tan, if the hot water is controlled by a timer it may be as simple as a recent power cut and the timer has not been reset to the correct time. worth checking