Power showers with combi boilers?

Can I fit a power shower with a combination boiler?

Unfortunately not, power showers must be connected to both the hot and cold stored water supplies, if you are unsure of how to identify your plumbing system you can refer to our helpful article entitled “Water system identification guide”. All help is not lost though just because you have a combination boiler does not mean you cannot have a powerful, functional top of the range shower.

What are my choices?

Mixer Showers

What is a mixer shower? A mixer shower combines both hot and cold water supplies, which means you will need either an immersion heated plumbing supply or a combination boiler, a mixer shower traditionally offers a more powerful flow rate than its electric counterpart and can be fitted with an external pump in the event of low household water pressure.

Mixer showers are available as both standard and thermostatic valves, in our opinion a thermostatic mixer valve is the better option as it carefully regulates the water temperature and often feature a built in emergency cut out function, in the case of water supply failure the shower will automatically cut out to avoid scalding.

If you don’t like the idea of digging out your wall to fit a concealed mixer or don’t fancy installing a chunky shower valve on the wall you can always opt for a bath shower mixer, this is generally a more traditional design but is still fitted heavily today. A bath shower mixer has all the benefits of a mixer shower but the temperature is controlled using the bath taps.

Our recommendations:

Aqualisa 609 – The Aqualisa 609 offers safe and reliable thermostatic showering and comes available in a choice of a chrome or white finish. The Aqualisa 609 shower has a variant for both combi boiler and gravity fed water systems and can be used in conjunction with a pump in the event that you have poor water flow.

Bristan 1901 Thermostatic Surface Mounted Shower Valve – If you are looking for a more traditional feel the Bristan 1901 shower valve is perfect, featuring a traditional design with modern features, this luxury shower is fully thermostatic and features separate controls for both flow and temperature giving and end result that is not only stylish but simple to use.

 

Digital Showers

If you are not an avid reader of our blog, here is a quick summary of digital showers (you can find more information on digital showers here). A digital shower features a shoe box sized blending unit known as a processor, this box seamlessly mixes your hot and cold temperature to your desired temperature before sending it to the shower head. Digital showers are some of the most technologically advanced showers on today’s market and boast fantastic features such as remote control operation, maximum temperature control and temperature indicating LED lights.

Our recommendation:

Aqualisa Quartz digital – The Aqualisa Quartz digital is the original digital shower, first emerging in 2001 and constantly advancing, it now features an optional wired or wireless remote which allows you to control the sower from up to 10 meters away and a handy temperature indicator so you simple turn the shower on and step in when the lights become steady, it’s as simple as that.

Summary

We hope you found this post insightful, while you may not be able to use a power shower with a combination boiler you do have a plethora of other options, if you are still unsure or just want some help and advice why not give us a call on (01472) 242 159 or follow us on social media for our latest tips, tricks and money off deals.