Problem shower.

onejontwo

Help please with a mixer shower that doesn't seem to respond to water demands, we've had the boiler checked and been told the boiler is fine. In more detail what happens is that if you take a shower and it's too hot, if you turn the mixer lever slightly to the left it goes freezing and then if you push the lever back it goes red hot! There seems to be no in between ie. warm and luke warm. The shower has always delivered at the temp where the lever is at but now it seems to be either very hot or very cold. But to confuse matters even more some days it seems to work ok. The shower was already installed when we moved in so it must be 10 years old or so and there 's no indication of the make etc. Some one suggested the thermostat on the shower??? Hope you can help, thanks in anticipation.

googler

Go to the forums at www.showerdoctor.co.uk with the manufacturer and model number, and see if they can offer advice on your symptoms

keystone

Almost certainly it needs a thermo cartridge. The problem will be identifying the make and model as you say theres no obvious indictation. Can you post up a pic and see if anyone can recognise it? Once thats done its easily addressed.

Cheers

onejontwo

Thanks keystone, sorry for being a thicko but what does this do and is it a fairly common problem? Regards posting a pic. the shower "gubbins" is behind the wall and all that is visible is the operating lever. I could take the plastic surround off and take a picture of what the lever fits onto (is this the thermo cartridge?) Also is this a major job or could I possibly do it myself? 20+ years as a mechanic plus fairly competent DIYer.

keystone

The thermostatic cartridge is what controls the temperatutre of the water. Over a period of time they will fail and ten years is prolly in the ballpark but replacement is simple. If you take the cover off you should find the valve body and the catridge will be inserted into the centre. Mostly there is a large nut holding it in - thats all. To remove it wil require a suitable sized box spanner and an awful lot of ignorance I'm afraid and thats where you have to be careful not to twist and turn the valve body because that will put undue strain on the pipework connections as well as maybe tearing it off its mounting.

If you look HEREyou'll find an exploded diag for an Aqualisa model but they don't all necessarily look exactly like this but its representative. Item 10 is the cartridge.

The ballbuster is depending on make you are prolly looking at iro £100 for a replacement. The decent makes give a 10 year guarantee so if you can locate the original paperwork and its still in guarantee you may still be able to get a replacement FOC.

When replacing the cartridge its also advisable to do the O rings and the inlet filters BTW.

If you can get it out take it down to a shower specialist or plumbers merchant to get it identified. Alternatively if you can get an ID off the cartridge then please do go to showerdoc for your correct part.

Oh and do make sure that you've isolated the supplies to the shower before dismantling and turned the volts to the pump off too.

And yes I think you can do it yourself but suspect its better left until tomorrow now.

HTH

Cheers

onejontwo

Hi, anyone able to tell me the make and possibly model number of this shower unit? There is a name of "Kugler" and "New team" on the lever cover and behind the lever cover Here are the best photos I could take:-


I haven't got the hang of this inserting photos yet so below is the best I can do.Hope this is enough.

onejontwo

onejontwo

onejontwo

onejontwo

keystone

New Team is UK and part of Bristan Group and I suspect that the beastie you have may be obsolete. Kugler is Swiss!!!

Suggest you get onto Bristan - contact details HERE and talk to customer services. They should be able to help you identify what you need although you may have to email them the pics. They are usually very helpful. After they've identified if you don't like their price (or if it is obsolete and unsupported by them) then go so showerdoc or lunns for availability and price.

HTH

Cheers