Bath shower mixer advice

neilmcl

My current bathroom setup is a standard bath with dual taps and an electric shower above, I also run a combi boiler.

The electric shower is coming to the end of it's life and this time of year the flow isn't that great anyway with the higher temp you have to set it.

Which brings me on to the bath taps. There's always been an issue with these taps as, whether by design or bodge, there's a piece of wood on the underside of the bath that the taps go through and they've never been able to be tightened up fully against this, allowing the taps to move a fair bit and overtime water has dripped through and softening the wood block and making it worse. I was thinking about putting a mixer tap in instead with the idea at least this will be more stable and not swivel like the individual taps and now as the shower isn't great I'm considering getting a shower mixer.

I don't want to spend huge amounts and this will only be a temporary solution but I'm not sure whether to get a standard shower mixer or a thermostatic type. Any advice?

Owain_Moneysaver

Is your bath cold water mains pressure or from loft tank?
Is your bath hot water mains pressure from an unvented cylinder, mains pressure from a combi boiler, or from loft tank?

Both hot and cold need to be at the same pressure for a mixer tap to work, and some types of thermostatic mixer don't play nicely with some models of combi boiler.

If you may want to get a proper shower fitted later, you can get adapter legs to convert a wall mounting thermostatic bar shower to bath mounting, eg
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bathroom-Chrome-Mixer-Adapter-Pillar/dp/B003ZI47OE

sevenhills

neilmcl wrote: »

I was thinking about putting a mixer tap in instead with the idea at least this will be more stable and not swivel like the individual taps and now as the shower isn't great I'm considering getting a shower mixer.

I did this and it works ok.


I have a combi boiler with shower mixer taps.
As Owain says, the temperature adjustment is delicate because the cold water being a higher pressure can overwhelm the hot.
Not sure what he means by, 'thermostatic mixer' mine are just shower mixer taps.

neilmcl

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

Is your bath cold water mains pressure or from loft tank?
Is your bath hot water mains pressure from an unvented cylinder, mains pressure from a combi boiler, or from loft tank?

Both hot and cold need to be at the same pressure for a mixer tap to work, and some types of thermostatic mixer don't play nicely with some models of combi boiler.

If you may want to get a proper shower fitted later, you can get adapter legs to convert a wall mounting thermostatic bar shower to bath mounting, eg
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bathroom-Chrome-Mixer-Adapter-Pillar/dp/B003ZI47OE

It's mains pressure from combi boiler.

neilmcl

sevenhills wrote: »

Not sure what he means by, 'thermostatic mixer' mine are just shower mixer taps.

Thermostatic shower mixers are designed to maintain and automatically adjust to a preset temperature.

https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/taps/thermostatic-taps

Not the prettiest things in the world but does stop all that fiddling as your try to get and keep the correct water temp whilst showering.

sevenhills

neilmcl wrote: »

Not the prettiest things in the world but does stop all that fiddling as your try to get and keep the correct water temp whilst showering.

I wouldn't say it was fiddling, it works well and would have the same setup again.


I had an older boiler with this setup, the boiler was replaced with a new one, it still work very well.

Raxiel

When I did our bathroom I put in a thermostatic mixer with a switch between shower and bath fill.


Generally happy with this but if I were doing it again I'd leave the damn flow restrictors out. Flow's fine for a shower but takes an age to fill the tub.

Norman_Castle

I'm not sure whether to get a standard shower mixer or a thermostatic type.

I fitted a thermostatic mixer tap about 3 years ago and would not change it for a non thermostatic one. Simply turn it on and the temperature is right and it maintains the temperature with a drop in pressure such as when the washing machine is being used.

sevenhills

Norman_Castle wrote: »

I fitted a thermostatic mixer tap about 3 years ago and would not change it for a non thermostatic one. Simply turn it on and the temperature is right and it maintains the temperature with a drop in pressure such as when the washing machine is being used.

Before I fitted my mixer taps I could find very little to say the set-up was ok, its 10 x better than my old electric shower, just for the price of some shower mixer taps.

jk0

Personally I would keep an electric shower. With a combi, you have no way of making hot water at all if the boiler packs up.

neilmcl

jk0 wrote: »

Personally I would keep an electric shower. With a combi, you have no way of making hot water at all if the boiler packs up.

At this stage I've no intention of removing the electric shower, the bathroom's in a way that any larger job like that would escalate into a full bathroom refit, which I'm not planning to do at the moment.