shower water heater selection

[flipper2222222]

hi everyone, the shower water heater appears to be restricting flow of the water too much.

 

want to buy a new one that has the largest internal pipes so we can maintain the water throughput.

 

any helpful suggestions much appreciated? 

 

 

[MJCM]

Disclosing the Wattage of your current Water heater would be helpful to mention

[sometimewoodworker]

6 hours ago, flipper2222222 said:

hi everyone, the shower water heater appears to be restricting flow of the water too much.

 

want to buy a new one that has the largest internal pipes so we can maintain the water throughput.

 

any helpful suggestions much appreciated? 

 

 

Important information is missing, where do you live? (a water heater useful in the south will probably not be enough in the north or northeast. What temperature do you want to achieve? What power is your current heater? What is your target lpm?

 

Fast flow will not allow the water to heat enough. 
 

[Led Lolly Yellow Lolly]

8 hours ago, flipper2222222 said:

the shower water heater appears to be restricting flow of the water too much

Clean the filter.

[flipper2222222]

11 hours ago, MJCM said:

Disclosing the Wattage of your current Water heater would be helpful to mention

I don't want the water to be too hot, just to take the chill off the water, currently we have a Sharp 3500W CH-55, more concerned with trying to keep the pressure of the water up, we just put in a Gundfos Scala 2

 

am I right in thinking the higher wattage models have bigger pipes and can take more water flow?

 

thanks all.

[sometimewoodworker]

6 hours ago, flipper2222222 said:

I don't want the water to be too hot, just to take the chill off the water, currently we have a Sharp 3500W CH-55, more concerned with trying to keep the pressure of the water up, we just put in a Gundfos Scala 2

 

am I right in thinking the higher wattage models have bigger pipes and can take more water flow?

 

thanks all.

Most water heaters have restrictors that keep the flow low enough so they can heat the water. They also have variable restrictors that also can reduce the flow to increase the temperature along with filters that can get blocked or dirty which will also restrict the flow. So taking those out or cleaning the filter will help.

 

you may also have crud built up in the heater, this can sometimes be flushed by taking both hoses off the heater and running full pressure water in the reverse direction.
 

The more powerful heaters do not necessarily  have greater throughput they are designed to raise the water temperature by a greater extent than the lower powered ones.

 

You will have to do research on the litres per minute values of you current heater and the ones you are looking at to replace it.

Edited December 19, 2021 by sometimewoodworker

[flipper2222222]

3 hours ago, sometimewoodworker said:

Most water heaters have restrictors that keep the flow low enough so they can heat the water. They also have variable restrictors that also can reduce the flow to increase the temperature along with filters that can get blocked or dirty which will also restrict the flow. So taking those out or cleaning the filter will help.

 

you may also have crud built up in the heater, this can sometimes be flushed by taking both hoses off the heater and running full pressure water in the reverse direction.
 

The more powerful heaters do not necessarily  have greater throughput they are designed to raise the water temperature by a greater extent than the lower powered ones.

 

You will have to do research on the litres per minute values of you current heater and the ones you are looking at to replace it.

yes totally agree it comes down to liters per minute, the websites I have looked at are scant on this type of detail. do you know a site where they list liters per minute?

how many liters does your shower \ heater put out?

 

cheers

 

[transam]

Your electric pump supplies the water pressure/volume which can be adjusted by you. 3500w is pretty useless this time of year, 4500w does the job year round, though I reduce the flow a little this time of year as the water temp coming in is much lower.

 

The water intake filter is quite restrictive, but your pump should still supply a lot of water and pressure. Just to be sure, unscrew the filter and blow any cr_p out. It's where the water 'in' pipe connects..

 

[sometimewoodworker]

2 hours ago, transam said:

Your electric pump supplies the water pressure/volume which can be adjusted by you. 3500w is pretty useless this time of year, 4500w does the job year round, though I reduce the flow a little this time of year as the water temp coming in is much lower.

That very much depends on where you are living, neither you nor flipper222222 have bothered to put your locations in your profile. Where I live 4500W isn’t up to the job for about 3 months, down south 3500W is plenty good enough year round.

2 hours ago, flipper2222222 said:

yes totally agree it comes down to liters per minute, the websites I have looked at are scant on this type of detail. do you know a site where they list liters per minute?

how many liters does your shower \ heater put out?

IDK there is a site that lists a few This is one  another one is Häfele Thailand

 

Don’t forget that your shower fitting will probably have a limit as well.

Edited December 19, 2021 by sometimewoodworker

[Yellowtail]

Take out the rubber washers with the small holes from all the connections and see if flow improves. 

[sipi]

What Transam and Led Lollie said.

Unscrew the internal filter and clean it out.

We do ours regularly.

[NanLaew]

We have a couple of the original Panasonic water heaters, both must be around 15 years old. The first one I installed was the 3.8kw and it wasn't up to winter time in Isaan with cold water coming from shaded concrete tanks... and low mains voltage!

 

Upgraded to the 4.5kW units and with a bit of tweaking of the input flow, the winter time showers are OK.

 

Six months ago, the PEA finally upgraded the electric supply and low voltage is no longer an issue and we don't need to tweak the inlet flow.

 

The unit in the master en-suite gets used maybe 5 or 6 times a day and I clean the filter every couple of weeks. Never has any issues.

 

The identical unit in the 'general' bathroom easily gets twice as much use but nobody bothers to clean the filter and it's 'broken' every 2 or 3 months. Last week I was told that the water was cold so I checked it out. Power was OK but both the inlet filter was crudded up as well as restrictions on the cheap outlet hose and cheap shower head someone else had fitted. Cleaned the former and replaced the latter and it's all good again.

 

I am planning buying a Midea 4.5kW unit and replacing the en-suite one as after 15 years, we may be pushing our luck. I will keep the en-suite Panasonic as a 'working spare' for the other bathroom as that one will probably crater first.