Salamander pump pulsing every few hours

J

JoXXX

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Help! A few months ago I had a Salamander pump installed and am near breaking point.

Basically my previous shower pump became very sporadic - sometimes it would not work for days then everything would be fine again. The solution tended to be to run a bath then as the water was being released the shower would kick in.

This shower pump was a flowtrader which is now discontinued.

The new Salamander pump which was recommended to me though has been an absolute nightmare from day one. Firstly the noise is incredible - like switching on a food processor. Secondly it never seems to switch off.

The plumber has just had to return (free of charge) as the shower pump was connected to the whole water system and would take one minute to switch off after the toilet chain was pulled. He has disconnected the shower pump from the toilet but not from the hot water supply. Therefore everytime I turn on the taps there is a horrible noise for 10 seconds afterwards.

The main problem though is every few hours the shower pump will start pulsing for 5-10 seconds. This continues throughout the night.

Can anyone advise what a possible solution could be? Surely the shower pump can just be fitted just to the shower. Also do I have to put up with the shower switching itself on/off every few hours. I live in London and trying to find a decent plumber to do a so called small job is becoming a nightmare.

I am currently switching the pump off everytime after I have a shower but the switch is in such an awkward place in the cupboard and am knocking the hoses each time I switch it on/off.
 
It sounds like there may be a leak somewhere or you are getting air in perhaps through cavitation. I had a salamanda, first one was dead on arrival and on the recommendation of this forum I changed to a stuart turner.

How far is it from the hot water tank? Depending on the model, they aren't supposed to exceed 4M
 
It's a CT60 Bathroom Universal 1.8 Bar Twin Impellor Bathroom Pump. And is sitting just below the hot water tank.
 
There is a small leak/dripping tap/valve somewhere in the water circuit that your pump feeds. Your plumber should know that if he's installing it. Basically the pump is recharging itself. There is a small pressure vessel on the pump. It activates when there's a drop in pressure, say when a tap is opened. If your pipework has a small leak or a dripping tap or other, that slowly releases the pressure in that vessel to a point where the pump then kicks in and stops when it's re-charged.
 
Many thanks for the responses.
Although the original plumber came back free of charge somehow he didn't want to do the job of resetting the shower pump so that it just fitted to the shower and not the taps (although he disconnected the pump from the toilet). If I just use the shower and not the taps it is connected to then I don't get the pulsing sound every hour or so.
Can I ask how long it should take approx. to get another plumber round to fix the job. I assume it isn't too difficult but seem to get wildly different quotes from everyone I call. Also do I need to ask him to check if there is a small leak somewhere. Plus there has always been a weak flow of hot water from the kitchen tap (although this isn't a problem now it is connected to the shower pump). As I am going to ask for this to be disconnected from the shower pump too do I just have to accept that I go back to the weak flow of water.

Thanks

Jo
 
Its possible that the pump would have to be located elsewhere if its not feeding all the pipes, so he'd have to install locally to the shower, which you don't want. Do you have any dripping taps? the other thing is to look for inline valves on the taps and try closing them one at a time to see if the surging stops. This may help you locate the problem.

I think you have a dripping or leaky tap.
 
The pump presumably has a non return valve which holds the pressure on the outlet side.

If this was leaking it would cause the cycling every hour.

I don't see why using the shower last prevents it happening.

I am also wondering if you have a dead leg.
 
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