Shower/Combi-Boiler Problems in Rented House :(

jamesdaly

Hello everyone.

Firstly, thank you for reading and to anyone kind enough to help me out.

Basically, this week I moved into my new flat all excited. Its been all very good except the shower and the landlord is refusing to acknowledge the problem saying he had it working fine and doesn't have time to come over and look at it (probably because it will be costly to fix I assume). The shower is directly from the taps.

In the shower basically the water is either scolding hot (I'm not exaggerating its unbelievably hot) or its freezing cold. You turn the hot tap on - hot as you would expect - you turn the cold tap on it stays the same heat except until at one specific point, it just goes cold straight away - you then turn the cold tap back until again it goes boiling hot. So it is either extremely hot or cold and is so so annoying. It is combi boiler system and I have no idea what the problem is or how this works.

Please, does anyone have any idea what this is likely to be? I am very keen to pinpoint the problem and be as precise as possible when bringing this up again.

Thank you so much and sorry for the long post!

James D

macman

Make and model of the shower? Is it not thermostatic?

jamesdaly

Hi Macman,

Thanks for the response - sorry I should have said, the shower is directly from the taps...

southcoastrgi

then unfortunately you aren't gonna make it work any better than it is now, the only way is to fit a seperate thermostatic shower valve, although the taps could be changed to a pair like yours now but with a thermostatic shower built in, although i doubt the LL is gonna pay the price for those

scottishblondie

The existing one is no good. What you need a thermostatic bath shower mixer tap. Probably about £100+ to buy the tap, plus fitting (unless the LL can do it himself).

butler_helen

jamesdaly wrote: »

Hello everyone.

Firstly, thank you for reading and to anyone kind enough to help me out.

Basically, this week I moved into my new flat all excited. Its been all very good except the shower and the landlord is refusing to acknowledge the problem saying he had it working fine and doesn't have time to come over and look at it (probably because it will be costly to fix I assume). The shower is directly from the taps.

In the shower basically the water is either scolding hot (I'm not exaggerating its unbelievably hot) or its freezing cold. You turn the hot tap on - hot as you would expect - you turn the cold tap on it stays the same heat except until at one specific point, it just goes cold straight away - you then turn the cold tap back until again it goes boiling hot. So it is either extremely hot or cold and is so so annoying. It is combi boiler system and I have no idea what the problem is or how this works.

Please, does anyone have any idea what this is likely to be? I am very keen to pinpoint the problem and be as precise as possible when bringing this up again.

Thank you so much and sorry for the long post!

James D

Ours was like this and our lodger whinged until he found the "optimum setting". Have you never ever managed to get it "just right"? There is a dark art to getting ours right!

keystone

Agree with all of the above. It just ain't going to work for you or anybody else. There is no point recommending the best thermostatic bath shower mixer on the market made by Mira as that's several hundred pounds and it ain't your property plus you have an uninterested LL. You can pick up a cheap thermo deck mounted BSM on Ebay for between £ 50 and £ 60 if you are so inclined.

Cheers

jamesdaly

Thanks everyone. Yes a bit of an issue.

Something I forgot to mention - for maybe 5 seconds you can get an inbetween temperature but then it just goes cold - is this still likely to be resolved by the suggestions above or is this something else?

Thank you!

Mrs_Boo_Boo

Had a Victorian style shower attachment including taps fitted once and it has never worked. Think it's something to do with the pressure of the cold water overtaking the hot. Not great water pressure as hot water tank next to bathroom and cold water in loft.
Sounds like landlord doesn't want to spend any more money.

keystone

jamesdaly wrote: »

Thanks everyone. Yes a bit of an issue.

Something I forgot to mention - for maybe 5 seconds you can get an inbetween temperature but then it just goes cold - is this still likely to be resolved by the suggestions above or is this something else?

Thank you!

You have high pressure cold and only slightly lower pressure hot but there is sufficient difference that, as Mrs Boo suggests, your cold is overwhelming the hot eventually its totally inevitable. Its exactly to deal with this that you would fit a thermostatic device.

Cheers

jayyar66

You say that the shower is either cold or scalding hot? Surely LL's have a legal obligation or a duty of care to their tenants to ensure that no-one gets scalded?? Just a thought.