INSIGNIA PRODUCTS
WHY DOES MY SHOWER NOT DELIVER WATER AS I EXPECTED?
The following is designed to assist as best as we can. Our Insignia product knowledge is definitive BUT many outside
influences affect your shower or your baths performance. Our experience has shown low water delivery problems to
be the root cause in over 95% of cases but, as we are neither plumbers merchants or boiler installers, our comments
are purely gained directly from others experiences, research and grateful assistance from tradesmen over years.
Let’s start with the shower itself. At this point we do not need to know which model you have because our entire
range operate only two types of water valves (taps). This could be steam versions, non steam shower cabins, baths,
no matter what your model, it will be in common with all,
Dispelling the myths.
Like all, some trades people are better than others and up to date training and techniques vary. Far more common in
the 2000s to late in the same decade, many plumbers believed poor delivery to taps, baths, basins and showers was
the problem of the end product. Basic faults, for instance, with a shower head delivery was cured by what, although
becoming more rare, was called a power shower. Simply place a pump in line from a tank and up goes the pressure.
Life is never that simple anymore! Check out the following written in everyday language:
Firstly if you just get a dribble from your shower it will be almost certainly your supply just like power showers.
Classic signs are varying outputs from various functions. How does this compare to yours?
Overhead shower poor to reasonable
Hand Shower about the same
Massage Jets hardly anything
Foot Massage weak
What should you expect in everyday none technical terms:
Overhead shower very hard to maybe the point you need to turn it down a little. Feels like you could drown or hurts
when on full.
Hand shower. Head should “kick” hard when turned on. Very strong spray pattern
Massage jets. With your shower doors open these could fire up to 2 metres
Foot massage Spa. With lid open nothing in the way this can easily reach the roof vertical.
Bath (or even basin taps!)
Taps, flow should come out strongly not dribble.
Hand shower feature should “Kick” hard when initially turned on.
Mix of water Baths or Showers
In any event you should have
Water extremes either to hot or too cold and both should be mixable to an acceptable level by the user.
Your water should never be either too hot or too cold without you being able to control it. No control means
something has a problem and we will deal with this later.
If you have any of the above items not functioning then the cause can be various, the following list will help.
Low water pressure.
With every tap, shower, bath, or shower panel sold by Insignia Products water pressure must exceed
2.5 Bars and recommended not to exceed 3.4 bars
SUSTAINABLE (DYNAMIC) PRESSURE
Water debit values vary please check your model but if not certain please call our UK distributors on 01908 317512.
In all cases they need to exceed at least 10 litres per minute.
Why you need the above specification with nearly all of our products. In the past, nearly all products had,
low pressure requirements. Taps, showers everything. These you can identify because as a rule they rely
on many turns to open fully a tap for example. Remember the old rubber washers that leaked after a
while? These are low water pressure type. New ceramic disc type valves are replacing all of these very
rapidly disappearing products. While they can still be purchased they are now becoming a minority.
Benefit of ceramic disc products:
Only a ¼ turn is required in some cases from fully closed to fully open
Allows many more new designs and styles to grace bathrooms and kitchens filling public demand.
Easier to replace broken or worn componants in many cases without removal from basin or bath.
Disadvantages.
If you have certain types of water supplied by older type boilers or systems (hot water tanks etc) these will
simply never satisfy the requirements of the newer designs. Pumps are required as usually the hot water
tank is on the same level as the appliance and you only have gravity feed from it.
NOTE
Do not be fooled if for instance, you have a shower in one room working fine but your new shower does
not work as well despite all the bells and whistles! You old shower may have only needed a ¼ or 1/2 turn to
switch on to full power also, this does not mean it is of newer design, it means behind your old shower,
controls are geared, you turn one half rotation but the shower has opened the old type valve by up to two
full turns! New designs do not need gears.
What is a “Bar”? This is related to atmospheric pressure no need for technicalities except to say it equals pounds of
pressure per square inch. 2.5 Bar = About 35.5 PSI. This is then the pressure or above, required to drive your Insignia
purchase.
What is debit? Just as important, your debit requirements are at least 10 litres per minute. This is the amount of
MIXED hot and cold water with tap full open you need to deliver at the product. Again no technical “bits” If a tap,
place a 10 litre bucket under the spout and turn on fully open then count off 60 seconds. If bucket is full or wants to
overflow then great, this is correct. The same test applies for a shower cabin, take off any rubber feed pipe to any
given item such as overhead shower head, place pipe in a 10 litre bucket and repeat test.
What is meant by sustainable? This refers to not just an initial “burst” (static pressure) but the continual pressure
(dynamic pressure) when “turned on full” . Important ! Big difference! Think of this as a marathon runner not a
sprinter. The marathon runner will be last in a sprint race but will finish the race he was supposed to, the sprinter
will not. Remember we mentioned for instance your shower head should initially, when turned on, “kick”? This is
the surge of water pressure, after this point it drops, YOU MUST HAVE 2.5 BAR after this! You need the marathon
runner.
If you have all three items as most combination boilers will already supply, you are going to have a shower, bath or
tap operating to perfection. Enjoy your product!
NOTE
Combi boilers often have a bar gauge in line on the boiler. In many cases it will read “1.5” do not be misled! This is
your central heating pressures. Check it cold it could read as mentioned check again when hot you will find this has
increased. It is not relevant to your hot water supply
If you do not have perfection the causes will be
Supply pressure not to level of requirements.
Based on past experience, approx. 95% chance your shower, tap or bath valve is not faulty.
Based on past experience 5% chance if thermostatic valve fitted.
No reported cases involving none thermostat type.
Is only a 5% chance of Insignia Product not just defending your appliance?
We can understand our owners thinking this but no, this is not the reason. Modern ceramic disc type valves simply
have almost nothing to go wrong! Water comes in you turn “on” disc revolves and water comes out!
Here are a couple of examples which show the simplicity
Why then is the other 5% left to thermostatic taps fitted to showers and baths?
Because contained in the tap or valve body is a cartridge just like this. It can fail but highly unlikely to fail in terms of
stopping water enter or exit. It is far more likely to fail preventing hot to enter. More of this later!
So, put the two items together in a hollow brass body and you have something like this. Nothing much to fail!!
Now you are looking towards supply problems and likely causes. At this point we can only inform you of
experiences reported by trades people, customers and our own findings. We at Insignia Products pride ourselves,
not only within our Customer Service and Technical departments but within our own research and development
division at “Insignia Innovate” We like to think our knowledge in product is second to none as it should be. We do
however lack knowledge regarding more complex hot water heating systems, boilers and more complex plumbing.
This is simply not our field or expertise. In everyday values, if your purchase had been a state of the art, 3D, 50” TV
and surround sound, we know it needs 240 volts electrical supply and would state this. Plugged to your mains at
home and it will not function because you only have 140 volts, we could not be expected to assist. We could make
suggestions and from your water supply problem this is all we can do from here on:
Combi boiler. Parts of this already covered. In normal circumstances these always work no problem at any time.
Only reported faults have been when the system installed is over lower values than the house demands, two or
more showers in the house being run at the same time. Dish washer, washing machine on at the same time. Or the
pipe work leading to the point of exit for the shower is over complicated, too many bends, restrictions in pipes in
place or the big killer Lime scale in pipes. Any fault save the boiler is imperfect will lay within this scope. No further
advice can be offered or given by Insignia Products and the services of a correctly registered tradesman must be
employed.
Megaflow / unvented systems.
These are great when working correctly and can be a nightmare when not. In our experience very few tradesmen are
fully equipped with the complete working knowledge of these or indeed prepared to service and overhaul. Running
as designed these are perfectly acceptable and give superb service with very high potential debit values They do
however suffer some serious disadvantages. These are prone to display required pressure and debit flow values but
in reality do not sustain them. Remember what product demands were stated as! This leads to classic shower cabin
failure signs of hardly any massage jet flow and weak other functions. Another disadvantage we have had reported
more than on one occasion, is feed pipes from megaflow type are much better in 22mm pipe work than 15mm pipe
work. In some instances this has had to be changed. Worth remembering as expensive and as more and more items
become “high” requirement pressure. Could pose an even bigger problem should this be to kitchen appliances on a
lower floor. One tip to try if you fall within this section is remove the braided hoses supplied with your Insignia
Product as either standard or an optional extra, and replace with another system to give a wider bore. Flexible hoses
although standard in most of Europe now, are very small bore and exchange to a larger system may work for you.
Check Lime scale build up also. No further advice can be offered or given by Insignia Products and the services of a
correctly registered tradesman must be employed.
Older central heating and hot water supply to water storage tank type vented etc.
This is perhaps the most common heading that fail to deliver requirements. Again some of this area has already been
mentioned. The most common and indeed almost standard failure is pressure. Although common in failure they are
easy enough to cure. Your problem lies with in many cases the hot water being stored is only gravity feed to each
household item. You may get away with this when the tank is in a townhouse on 3rd floor and shower is ground level
but how many of us have this arrangement? Not many! So you need to pump. This is easy but please remember the
output of pumps vary from position they are required to be fitted and the jobs they do. Tip here is always pressure
BOTH hot and cold. Please see here for an exceptional maker of pumps and the perfect charts in order to see your
exact requirements. http://www.salamanderpumps.co.uk/Default.aspx?PageID=3 This site has the ability to answer
your problems but be warned you cannot get around their recommendations by “buying Cheap” and if you already
have an existing pump it will probably not be man enough for its new purpose. No further advice can be offered or
given by Insignia Products and the services of a correctly registered tradesman must be employed.
After reading above should you have any doubt regards your Insignia Products Shower or bath taps. Please check the
flow rates as mentioned earlier along with pressure output. In addition our distributors BATH DEPOT UK also offer a
FREE check for you. Simply go here http://www.bathdepot.co.uk/instructions/Returns%20Form%20(2).pdf fill in the
form and request a full check of your valve explaining you need to eliminate this as a cause of low water supply
PLEASE NOTE INSIGNIA PRODUCTS RECOMMEND THE USE OF A WATER SOFTENER FITTED
TO YOUR HOUSE SUPPLY
With your supply problem now corrected what other problem alien to my shower cabin could I encounter?
Luckily the design of your shower cabin was defined with simplicity in mind. In terms of water problems all that’s left
is water too hot or too cold. We will discount this with taps to basins and showers or baths with no thermostat. If
you do have thermostat please see below.
Causes of thermo valve failure.
The main cause is unequal pressure going to this valve from both hot and cold water. The balance between both
MUST be the same. Does yours look the same as the picture below?
If you check, the centre is not correctly aligned and in nearly all cases if it looks like this the thermostat has tried to
compensate too much cold for not enough hot water until it reaches a point of no return as with the one shown
above.
VERY IMPORTANT.
PLEASE NOTE INSIGNIA PRODUCTS WILL ONLY UNDERTAKE THE COMPLETE RETURN UNDER WARRANTY ONCE
FOR THIS. ALL FURTHER REPLACEMENTS WILL BE CHARGED FOR. SHOULD ANY DISPUTE ARISE, KINDLY KEEP YOUR
PURCHASE RECEIPT OF PEV WHICH WILL BE REQUIRED AT THE TIME BY INSIGNIA PRODUCTS
You need to regulate the pressure coming from your house supply and to do this the most usual and common way is
to place a PEV (pressure Equalising Valve) inline before the connection to shower. Insignia Products do not sell these
as it is not a shower or bath part, it is a standard plumbing part found through your local plumber merchant and very
common.
Typically, Combi boiliers are prone to the requirement of this item and various other supplys types. If you have the
older type “hot water” tank feed and you pump water which is usual, this will need one BUT only if either hot or cold
is pumped. If you have the correct twin impellor pumps to pressuise both hot and cold the use of a PSV is not
required. Please ask your tradesman for further details.
Below is a typical PEV simple to fit hot and cold “In” on right of picture. “Out” on the left.
Typical shower twin impeller pump
Further reading.
http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/pressure-equalising-valve-344-20563
http://www.gasapplianceguide.co.uk/Mains_Pressure_Hot_Water_Systems.htm
http://www.showerright.co.uk/system_types.htm
http://www.mybuilder.com/ask-a-tradesman/v/1367/what-is-best-a-megaflow-system-or-a-combi-boiler
http://www.essentialwaterservices.co.uk/whatcauseslowpressure.html
http://www.anglianpumping.com/low_water_pressure.asp