Shower replacement advice needed

[Jane M]

Recently moved into a house and have been told that a shower needs replacing as it has water coming out of the fittings when on and is increasingly hard to turn off.

When looking for new showers we ideally want one that will fit into the current holes, and have noticed that some shower valves are fixed width, others have a bit of flex, my first question is whether this is correct, or if even those that are described as a certain width would actually also have a bit of give either way?

The second question is to do with water pressure. Our water pressure into the house is around 6.5 bar, and lots of showers are listed as being 5 bar max - would this cause is problems if our water pressure is higher? I wonder if this is part of the reason the previous shower didn't last as long as I would have expected (it was 5 years old).

 

[Ben-gee]

It is sensible to take the measurements that the manufacturers give you, there may be a couple of mil play in your pipes though.

If you have 6.5 bar this will be a problem, fit a pressure reducing valve where the mains comes in and set it to 3 bar.

 

[Jane M]

Ok that's helpful. We're not sure whether a pressure reducing valve is the way to go as the sellers say they didn't have problems and as far as we can tell the neighbours haven't either (although they are still on tank fed system so not sure if this makes a difference). There is also not a lot of space to put the PRV if we did go down that route and one plumber mentioned maybe having to crimp pipes which I'm not sure sounds right or sensible.

We have found a shower which says it has a max operating pressure of 10 bar so wondering whether that's the way to go for now and monitor for any other issues, and repair as needed (we think part of the reason the previous fittings have failed is because they were not maintained and now are past the point of an easy fix). Not sure if this sounds like a sensible plan or not?

 

[Ben-gee]

If you choose to listen to the sellers over a plumber on this issue I can’t help you.

There is no need for 6.5 bar and it WILL cause you problems.

 

[Jane M]

If you choose to listen to the sellers over a plumber on this issue I can’t help you.

There is no need for 6.5 bar and it WILL cause you problems.

Ok, understood. Our concern is that we then won't have decent pressure in the shower upstairs. There's also very little room to put a pressure reducing valve on. When we get someone to fit the shower can ask them how that would all work.