Any Plumbers/Bathroom fittings experts about?

[Mr Footlong]

Hi chaps.

Really random post but this has been doing my head in for a while as every time I ride over to the girlfriend's place, I ends up being greeted with a cold/lukewarm shower there........

Basically the shower only kicks out cold water, but, the only way to get anything resembling warm is to keep the cold tap in the bathroom sink running at quite a high rate and have a really low flow from the shower, this seems to let a small amount of hot water through....

She has rung a few plumbers but they are all useless and couldn't be bothered to come over and check the shower before ordering the right part/fixing it..... The mixer assembly is shown below:

Basically I need to know what it is that is going to need fixing on that and what the model is etc, anything I can feed a plumber to fix the flaming thing as I am sick of cold showers over there!

Thanks in advance,

Nick

 

[Easy_Rider]

You have a thermostatic shower rail there, it sounds like a problem with that, they aren't expensive to buy and you could replace the whole rail.

B&Poo sell em.

Assuming the water is hot from the other taps? Have you turned the dial past 38?

 

[Mr Footlong]

Lol, the shower is on the max temp setting on the right hand side, I have turned it in anger more than once . If I can find the cold/hot shut off valves for her flat I have no problems with replacing the assembly if I can slap any old thing the same size on there.

All the other taps in the studio flat crank out stonkingly hot water. Just wondering if she has the ability to shut off the mains where is comes in to the flat. She has a scary looking boiler system that 2/3 the size of a fridge and I have no idea how it would react to having the water shut off/being drained.

Cheers,

Nick .

 

[Easy_Rider]

It's a pretty standard rail that one. If you measure the C-C of the two pipes just to double check before you buy a new one.

If it's a combi boiler you only really need to isolate the cold for the flat, the boiler won't switch on without a flow of cold through it, there may be some initial water coming through because of residual pressure, but if it's in the shower then it doesn't really matter. But make sure you isolate the main cold before the boiler, if you only isolate the cold after the boiler then you'll get hot water coming through.

I think plumbers have been really busy the last week due to lots of burst water pipes. If you ring one and ask for the shower rail to be replaced they may be more helpful.

 

[Mr Footlong]

Thanks again. I am pretty sure that it is the standard 150mm gapping between the feeds, newish flat.

If combi boilers are the common norm in modern flats and resemble 3 ft concrete blocks then yes that's what she has. When run the hot water you hear it quietly fire up if memory serves.

1 last question, all the ads mention min water pressures. I can't guage the water pressure but it isn't low, but isn't stupidly high either so I guess I can get any rail from min 0.3 bar onwards?

I will fit it as it's easy enough as long as I kill off the mains cold, thanks for the info regarding the boiler behavior. I do know what I am doing and can turn my hand to anything, but I do plumbing very rarely so not an area of expertise!

Forgot to say, darling had been ringing the Plumbers from a few weeks back, they just flat out weren't intertested which was disappointing to put it mildly but now I know what on earth it is and with your advice, much easier to just replace the thing myself .

 

[REKIBorter]

Is it a pump or gravity fed shower? only asking as we have a pumped shower and sometimes air gets into the system and if not bled the hot water stops coming through.

To bleed the pump, turn off electric supply and fully open hot shower tap and let it run for a couple of minutes.

 

[longun]

do these not have a seperate hot water feed,the pump could be buggered if so,only dealt with these once before,electric showers are so much simpler

hope you get it sorted try the diy sites on google,theyve helped me loads over the years and im a tradesman :roll: lol

 

[Easy_Rider]

Is it a pump or gravity fed shower?

do these not have a seperate hot water feed,the pump could be buggered if so,only dealt with these once before,electric showers are so much simpler lol

From his description it's neither, its on a combi boiler.

1 last question, all the ads mention min water pressures. I can't guage the water pressure but it isn't low, but isn't stupidly high either so I guess I can get any rail from min 0.3 bar onwards?

From the set-up you've described i'm certain you must have more than 0.3bar otherwise you'd be on a water tank gravity fed system with or without a pump.

I'm not sure if those rails are serviceable though before you replace it. I know with certain new ones you need to adjust the temperature of them by removing the cap, maybe google that first before replacing the whole rail.

 

[Mr Footlong]

Looked up Combi boilers and agree that it is one. There is no large volume water tank in the loft space above the flat at all. There is only a small volume one directly above the boiler, 10-15 litres max I estimate from my last glance at it.

Certainly is more than 0.3 bar, I reckon it is above 1 bar without problem but I just can' physically guage it. Means that the range of bars available is nice and varied.

Darling has said that she would like to change the bar anyway and looking at prices online, it's no biggie to just do that. I will prob take the current one apart from sheer boredom once I change it!

Cheers guys, nice to find a like-minded bunch of helpful, knowledgeable folks

Nick.

 

[Easy_Rider]

It has a tank above it? What make n model is it?