My shower is cold

Taiwan Living in Taiwan
1

When I turn my shower to hot, the boiler doesn’t turn on and heat up my water.

When I do the same in the other bathroom or the kitchen, it works fine.

Any ideas?

2

Turn the shower on, let it run, then turn the hot water on in the other room and the shower should go hot too after a little bit. No idea why, but that’s how it works in my apartment. Let us know if it works

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3

I had a similar problem. In my case it was low water pressure. If the voulme of water passing through the boiler wasn’t enough, then it wouldn’t trigger. I got around it (temporarily) by turning all the taps on at the same time until the boiler was triggered, then turing everything but the shower off. Once the boiler lit up it stayed on.

EDIT: @meishijia beat me to it. Another trick (to increase the waterflow) is to remove any obstrructions in your showerhead. They can get clogged up with lime if you have hard water.

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4

MIL had the same problem, plumber sorted it.

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image

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6

Do you have a tankless heater?

What happens is these thing needs a certain amount of water pressure to work. I think it’s safety, as you really don’t want it blowing up (they can cause quite a bit of damage, like a bomb basically).

So what happens is if the water pressure it’s seeing is low for whatever reason it will not turn on. So you will need to do whatever to make it see a good amount of water flow, which can mean letting other water faucet connected to it run.

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7

This is what we did. We turned on another tap and got it started that way.

So it seems to be a water pressure problem.

Thanks

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8

Either the pipe serving your shower is partially clogged or the pressure switch in the boiler is nearing its end (which is my guess). Call a plumber and get it replaced.

Edit: everyone else beat me to it. :rofl:

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9

What kind of water heater do you have? Water pressure could be one reason like the others have said. Another reason could be the battery might need replacing, if it has a battery. (I didn’t know my water heater had a battery until I’d lived here for at least a year and the gas guy casually mentioned it needed changing. Sometimes when the battery is almost dead, this causes the symptoms you describe.)

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10

Sorted it guys. Thanks.

We have one of those shower heads with a filter inside.

When you guys mentioned that the boiler needs a certain amount of water to be flowing, I wondered whether the filter needed changing. It did.

So simple. So stupid.

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I’ve had the same problem and it’s always a flat battery or lack of water pressure.

  1. Change the battery
  2. Turn more than one outlet on at a time
  3. If 1 and 2 don’t work, call a plumber.
  4. Be prepared to be cheated out of a whole lot of cash by plumber 1, who insists on a new geyser.
  5. Call another plumber. It’s usually a simple fix.
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12

My wife has been moaning about this for over a week. 10 mins after posting here and I was sorted. :grinning:

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13

Remember this for the next 10 years, and bring it up everything she say’s you spent to much time online. :wink:

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14

I did say that.

Because she always moans about this site in particular. She has the weird idea that arguing with strangers is a waste of time.

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15

My wife finds it amusing that there are so many things that we can find to talk about.

I just read her the list of latest threads, and she was particularly amused by this one.

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16

My old place used to have a problem because it doesn’t have a water tank. So the pressure is whatever coming off the water meter, which is often too low to actuate those water heaters…

If you have that problem look into getting a water tank.

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17

This is my upstairs heater. Next winter, I’m upgrading to a plug in type. A Sakura is solid.

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18

Does anyone know if they’re mesing with the gas lines in Taoyuan or something? I know there is something up with the water. Lately both the gas and water seem to be working off and on. Idk how the lines work here or wth is going on

19

Are you on a natural gas line? You might want to consult with your gas company or something if that’s the case.

Does your stove work?

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I’ll check the stove next time the water isn’t warm. I live by where they’re doing construction for the MRT. I’m not sure if they’re turning the line off or what? I believe they’ve turned off the water multiple time for it but I’m not sure about gas.