Deflated

Discussion in 'Yellow Pages' started by hornmeister, Apr 2, 2019.

  1. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Meister manor has a little pump in the airing cupboard which switches on and boosts pressure when someone takes a shower.

    A while ago it started switching itself on for a second or two in the middle of the resulting in a burst of noise interrupting my much needed beauty sleep. The reason was a drop in pressure in the expansion vessel and was fixed by my plumber who recharged the little expansion vessel attached.

    The random switching on has started happening again. Annoyingly a couple of weeks after the boiler has been serviced so rather than call Mr. plumber out again, I've been researching fixes. It would appear that I can just pump up the expansion vessel a bit and as such I've been researching car tyre inflators.

    Whilst the meistermobile is provided with a tyre inflator, it's cigarette lighter only and designed to work with the tyre expansion goo kit (no one seems to do a decent spare wheel anymore). It's also in it's sealed case in the boot and I don't really want to crack it open if I can help it.
    I have a foot pump but the analogue gauge on it is unreliable.

    Looking at on-line reviews most of what's available seems to be fairly crappy or unreliable so I'm wondering if the good people on here have any recommendations.

    I'm looking for a digital car tyre inflator, Preferably with mains and car cigarette lighter options although I can get a mains adapter if necessary.
     
  2. Diamond

    Diamond First Team

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  3. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Yep cheers I know that's an option bought one for my dad a while back for a similar reason, but I'll need to get an inflator as well. If I can get one that has a mains option built in it's preferable but I can use a similar adapter if necessary.

    I can only find two with mains options the Ring RAC660 which only seems to be available on ebay and ring kit has had some bad reviews recently putting me off. Or Amazon have a PI automotive one but that's analogue only. I really want digital one I can set as monitoring an analogue gauge will be difficult when it stuck behind a hot water cylinder in a dark airing cupboard.
     
  4. kVA

    kVA Reservist

    The pressure vessel is there to stop the pipes banging when you switch water on/off. It should be connected as a dead spur off of your incoming cold water. I can’t see that a loss of air at this point would cause this problem. The vessel should retain pressure unless of course the diaphragm is split.

    If the pump is only connected to your shower, only a pressure drop on outgoing pipe work would cause it to run (a drop in pressure prior to the pump should not). I reckon that you either have a leak on the shower pipe work (does the shower drip constantly?) or the pump is on its way out.
     
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  5. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Ta but this is a fairly common phenomenon to lose pressure over time, similar to combi boilers that get their pressure vessel re-charged at time of annual service. It's been a good 3 years since I needed it done last time.

    It's weird system. As I understand it:
    The pump and vessel supply a shower in one room and then a bath and a shower in the main bath room, it's connected to a dedicated supply from the hot water tank and feeds only those things. The rest of the heating and water system is vented and un-pressuried. It was an addition I had done to the house when I moved in as the hot water tank was lower than the shower heads meaning I either had a pathetic pressure or had to use the existing manky electric power showers which I hated.
    The vessel is roughly the same size as a coconut has a rubber bladder in it that is filled with air within a pressure range. The last time it was recharged the plumber set it to 0.9bar. The bladder inside the pressure vessel expands and contracts to counteract the expansion properties of hot & cold water to maintain an even pressure in the system. When a shower or the bath is turned on the pump has a pressure sensor which activates the pump automatically. When you turn the shower off the pressure builds to a range which then switches the pump off again. It's a usual occurrence I've just forgotten to get it regularly serviced. The self activation of the pump is a random event that happens maybe once a week for half a second until pressure is built up again by the pump, it just tends to happen in the mifddle of the night when the system is cold and wakes me up. It's just a natural lowering over time of the off threshold pressure to trigger the switch rather than a failure of the system as a whole.

    I've wanted a decent tyre inflator for a while so thought I'd kill two birds with one stone. Checked the vessel last night and it does indeed have a standard Schrader valve on it for recharging. The last plumber had helpfully written on the vessel 0.9 bar so If I get a gauge on it, I'll be able to confirm, if that's the problem. Any split in the rubber bladder will cause water to dribble out of the valve when I test it.
     
  6. hornmeister

    hornmeister Tired

    Went with a separate tyre inflator and mains to cigarette adapter. Mr. Amazon did his usual deliver next day trick and so far 2 footballs pumped up successful.
    I shall tackle the shower pump at the weekend.
     

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