Power shower and combi boiler

[natalie_1982]

Hiya, we are about to install a new bathroom suite and shower into our bathroom. It's our first house so we've never had to do anything like this before. We would like a power shower (there is currently an electric one) but I have read that yu cannot have a power shower if you have a combi boiler (which we have). So my questions are: a) Is there any way we can have a power shower and a combi boiler? i.e. running the shower from a seperate water supply (this might be utterly ridiculous suggestiong but a plumber I aint) b) If we can't have a power shower, is there any way we can increase the water poressure of an electric shower? Does the pressure vary between models of electric showers or is it simply down to the pressure in the individual house i.e. if we replaced the electric shower we currently have with another electric shower, is the water still going to trickle out at the same rate? Oh, and c) Is my hubby right and we have to do all the decorating (tiling, etc) AFTER the shower and suite are installed? Thanks X

[buildersmate]

The usual definition of a power shower is one that has a pump that takes both hot and cold feeds, mixes them, and produces a fast jet. You cannot generally fit these to Combi boilers because they extract so much heat out of the hot water supply system and the Combi can't keep up. However ask your plumber because your Combi may have enough ooomph to cope.
If you can't do that, you may be able to acquire more oomph from an electric shower by fitting a higher rated unit (ie, one that takes more power from the electric supply). If you have around an 8kW model, you may be able to ask a qualified electrician to fit you or 10kW model, however it may need an uprated electrical cable to supply it. This would give you a greater lashing of hot water per minute. HOWEVER you must also check that the cold water feed to it is large enough to cope.
Oh, and yes to the last question.

[gucciman]

another thing to take into account is that if you run your shower off a combi and the combi breaks then your totally without hot water for a wash, an electric shower is a godsend in that situation.
you can get an electric shower with a booster pump to give you the powershower effect.

[HomeBody]

Stupid question: is it possible to simply use mixer taps? Have you investigated this obvious option yet?