Mixer tap problems

continualdiamond

My bathroom is proving to be a nightmare.

1st problem - bought a 8.5kw shower, told circuit wouldn't take it. Started looking for a 7.5kw one, then electrican discovered it didn't have its own fuse, previous time bathroom was re fitted, shower was wired to run off cooker fuse. Told that it was illegal, so fitting shower out of the question.

2nd problem - got mixer tap instead, came to fit them & they were mean't to be 3/4 inch diameter on the legs, but were only 1/2 inch. Result when it was all put together was rubbish water pressure.

Told because we have an old boiler so not a combi and therefore have a low pressure gravity fed system.

So have now had to take mixer taps off to get the water pressure back to normal.

Anything we can do in order to have a shower? Well a mixer tap basically. For now we've just got bath taps on.

Haven't got loads of £££ as bathroom is only being completely re done due to upstairs flooding our bathroom.

Will we just have to go without a shower until we get round to replacing boiler?

plumb1_2

Buy gravity feed shower.

keystone

You had poor flow rather than poor pressure. Fit a conventional mixer tap suitable for your system rather than one with ceramic disks. Its those disks which are restrictive to flow. No you don't have to wait for a new boiler - you can go and buy one tomorrow for between £50.00 and £ 100.00.

Cheers

phill99

You can get a shower pump installed. This will increase the flow rate significantly

http://www.screwfix.com/search.do;jsessionid=2GS1N7TSb1s3Lx2vtHZ2PWzly7cJ24zm61sMn6Jh2qh5BQspfvKT!-1239789456?fh_search=shower+pumps

continualdiamond

keystone wrote: »

You had poor flow rather than poor pressure. Fit a conventional mixer tap suitable for your system rather than one with ceramic disks. Its those disks which are restrictive to flow. No you don't have to wait for a new boiler - you can go and buy one tomorrow for between £50.00 and £ 100.00.

Cheers

Am I likely to find these in B/Q or something? Don't have one near me, so wouldn't wanna travel if they don't sell them.

Argos, homebase, focus??

keystone

Yes to all. Make sure you specify its for a low pressure system and don't be fobbed off with ceramic disk type that "work down to 0.2 bar" They do but they only dribble as you have found. Therefore IMHO they don't work. You must specify a conventional BSM (bath shower mixer) with conventional head gear.

Cheers

continualdiamond

Thanks. Do you happen to know if that is going to require any additional pipe work?

Plumber fitted the mixer taps obviously & due to them being 1/2 inch and not 3/4 got pipe work to fit it. Then when we discovered the problem & decided to fit the bath taps it came with (see if that solved the problem), he had to go back out and buy different pipe work.

That of course is all adding onto our material charge.

ormus

my mira mixer shower works fine off just 15mm pipework.
combi boiler too.

make sure you get the correct mixer shower for your system.

continualdiamond

ormus wrote: »

my mira mixer shower works fine off just 15mm pipework.
combi boiler too.

make sure you get the correct mixer shower for your system.

Thats the thing. We had no idea that certain mixer showes work on or for certain systems.

Our boiler is old, probably original when place was built in late 70's.

Amount of hot water that came out when mixer was fitted was rubbish. As soon as switched to taps that came with bath, back to what we were used too.

Plumber said straight away that the mixer should of had 3/4, but could fit it anyway with it being 1/2. We all didn't think the water flow would be hardly anything.

Proving to be a big headache.