Replacing Bristan shower tap

Daisy_84

Finally replaced tap. The one from Amazon was a perfect fit. 

Glad this nightmare is over. What’s even better is that I saved myself having to pay for a plumber.

GDB2222

Daisy_84 said:

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Daisy_84 said:

I noticed that the leak is actually happening because there's a lot of water pressure building at the back. It made and that's because the tap can't fully close off the water. It made me wonder, where is the water going when the shower is turned off and water has no outlet? 

Hopefully nowhere, since the control is off.

I'm not sure I understand your concern - the shower control shuts off the water flow completely, but I suspect that in your case some water was seeping past the rubber seals around the spindle shaft. This is simply wear and tear, and a new control should sort it.

Do you have any reason to suspect that your water pressure is excessively high?

I only ask because when I remove the bolts of the shower, loads of water starts gushing out if I haven't turned off the mains. Is that normal? I thought turning off the shower should effectively cut the water supply meaning I'd be able to screw and unscrew bolts without a gush of water.

Excuse my ignorance, I know where to turn off my mains but I just want to understand the mechanisms and I want to make sure there's no water pressure building up

That’s the expected behaviour. The water in the pipes is under pressure, unless you turn it off, and it gushes out of the pipes if there’s nothing holding it in. Normally the shower mixer holds it in.

Very pleased that the replacement job went smoothly. Shower mixers are prone to going wrong, especially in hard water areas, and these bar mixers with exposed connections are very easy to replace.

Daisy_84

GDB2222 said:

Daisy_84 said:

Jeepers_Creepers said:

Daisy_84 said:

I noticed that the leak is actually happening because there's a lot of water pressure building at the back. It made and that's because the tap can't fully close off the water. It made me wonder, where is the water going when the shower is turned off and water has no outlet? 

Hopefully nowhere, since the control is off.

I'm not sure I understand your concern - the shower control shuts off the water flow completely, but I suspect that in your case some water was seeping past the rubber seals around the spindle shaft. This is simply wear and tear, and a new control should sort it.

Do you have any reason to suspect that your water pressure is excessively high?

I only ask because when I remove the bolts of the shower, loads of water starts gushing out if I haven't turned off the mains. Is that normal? I thought turning off the shower should effectively cut the water supply meaning I'd be able to screw and unscrew bolts without a gush of water.

Excuse my ignorance, I know where to turn off my mains but I just want to understand the mechanisms and I want to make sure there's no water pressure building up

That’s the expected behaviour. The water in the pipes is under pressure, unless you turn it off, and it gushes out of the pipes if there’s nothing holding it in. Normally the shower mixer holds it in.

Very pleased that the replacement job went smoothly. Shower mixers are prone to going wrong, especially in hard water areas, and these bar mixers with exposed connections are very easy to replace.

Thank you very much, that’s very helpful of you to explain. It actually began to make sense to me that water will always be running through the pipes which is why it’s said mains must be turned off before any plumbing job. I learnt a lot from this exercise. 

Thank you for explaining.

Jeepers_Creepers

Thanks for the update, Daisy - and great result!

Really sorry - for some reason I hadn't seen your recent questions about shutting off the flow :-(