Which shower mixer valve

whenIretire

Hi All

I'm going round in circles over this one, so am hoping someone can offer some advice.

I am replacing the whole shower (tray, enclosure, mixer valve) in my en suite.

What I have taken out is an exposed Trevi PBV (now discontinued) and need to replace with another exposed valve.

Now here are the tricky bits:

- I have an oil fired combi boiler that is rated to get the hot water to 35C above the incoming cold water temp at 10 litre/min. Now this means that during the winter my hot water is pretty much only just over 40C. Today it comes out of the basin in the en suite at 44C. Most new mixer valves that I have looked at require a min of about 53C for the hot water. The Trevi that I've just taken out needed a min of 45C and I can't find any more with the min hot water temp that low. Most require the hot water to be 10C above the required shower temp and I just can't get that without changing the boiler. In view of this am I better off getting a manual mixer rather than a thermostatic or pressure balanced one? There's only 2 of us so we can be controlled enough not to flush the loo when the other ones having a shower - not that the hot water would be hot enough to scald anyway.

- The Trevi range come supplied with filter valves that are currently fitted above floor level and jut out from the wall (I previously had a very high plinth kit under the shower tray). I couldn't even see these as they were hidden from view by the waste pipe until I removed the shower tray. I have already purchased a new shower riser tray but unfortunately as it is lower than the old one (which I always hated due to how high it was!) the tray needs to butt up to the wall just where these blooming valves stick out from the wall. So ideally I would like to replace these filter valves ( which are angled) with a straight connector so that I can fit the pre purchased shower tray. I have noticed that some of the Bristan range come with a filter in the exposed valve pipework, but unfortunately these need a 10C temp dif between hot water and shower temp as previously mentioned.

So, basically, aarggghh! What do I do? Any suggestions as to which mixer valve - and not one that's going to break the bank. I'm reasonably competent at DIY but am getting a tiler in as quite frankly, I'm useless at wall tiling.

I'm thinking of a manual mixer (like Bristan Jute maybe) but I can't find any of these with filter in the exposed valve pipework. Would not having a filter be a problem?

I guess the other option is to cut my losses on the shower tray and get a new higher one (The coram slimline tray and riser kit will clear the filter valves), but then I'm still a bit stuck as to what mixer to replace the trevi pbv with.

Hope that all the above makes sense.

Any advice greatly appreciated.