[/caption]Welcome to the latest edition of ‘Ask the expert’, where every month Shaun Hunt – Technical Manager of Impey Showers will be addressing issues relating to level-access and specialist showering for those with disability needs.
This month we will be looking at:
Pumped drainage for showering.
When considering the provision of a wetroom or shower-tray facility the lack of a suitable gravity waste drainage system need not be a barrier to a successful installation. This is because Impey Showers can offer a range of pumped waste options which can over come almost every situation. Lack of a suitable gravity waste can be caused by a number of issues such as floor construction (re-inforced concrete) lack of access to the floor below (in an apartment) or lack of proximity of soil and waste services.
Shower waste pumps overcome these problems by utilising shallow waste trap adaptors. The pumps work by sucking the water from the waste reservoir to the inlet on the pump head and blowing it out through the outlet to a waste or soil pipe that can be some distance from the facility.
There are a number of pumps available to choose from and selecting the one most suitable for the situation at hand relies on a few considerations, the type of shower being used, (electric or mixer valve), the flow rate from that shower and budget.
Most electric showers produce a flow rate of approximately 8 litres per minute and the Impey Whale basic shower waste pump the (SWP) can be used in this instance with a Flow Switch connected to the incoming cold mains to the shower. When the water passes through the flow switch it sends a signal to the 24 volt pump transformer to switch on. Where a mixer valve is used a mixer valve conversion Kit is available including an additional Flow Switch which will raise the capability of the pump to 12 litres per minute.
These pumps are economically priced and their only drawback is that the speed the pumps operates at can not be sensitively adjusted.
As the pumps suck the water from the waste they can occasionally suck air which can result in noise.
To prevent this digitally controlled pumps are available which can adjust the speed of the pump with precision and maintain an equilibrium of water over the waste thus removing any noise. This is achieved by using a digital flow sensor on the feeds to the shower connected to a digital transformer. The Impey smoothflow pump is ideal for mixer showers (up to 12 litres/min) and the Dry Dec 20 (available from our Aqua Systems Division) can pump up to 20 litres per minute.
In addition to these a range of digital shower pumps is available designed for exclusive use with electric showers including the Instant Match Pump which can be wired directly to a suitable Electric Shower without the need of a flow sensor. Operating the Shower automatically switches on the pump and controls the speed.
Where other facilities in the bathroom are required to be pumped to the waste outlet such as a washbasin and WC, a Macerator will be required, the Impey Showers waste pump can be simply connected to it using the top entry on the Macerator.
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