Unable to turn bath tap

donutandbeer

Not exactly the tap. It’s actually the thing that switch the water between the shower head and the bath tap that fills the bath. 
 

 
We moved in two months ago. When we first moved in there was a lot of lime scale built up on the tap and everything was difficult to turn.
 
I did actually manage to turn this thing I circled in orange once, that’s how I know that’s the thing to turn to switch the water between bath tap and shower head. It was very difficult to turn it back to shower head, so once I managed to turn it to the right (shower head) I decided to not touch it for now. 

Now I can still turn it to the middle (pointing upwards), it’s not smooth but not too difficult, and the water still comes out of the shower head. I can’t turn it anyway further to the left with my hand. I’m a bit wary about forcing it too much in case I can’t turn it back to shower afterwards. We only have one bathroom.
 
It still have some lime scale & grime on it so I’ve sprayed a bit more citric acid mix and hope it will clean off a bit better. But visually I can’t see any of the lime scale outside really stopping it from turning. The side of the bath has been tiled close so I can’t easily access the bottom of the tap to change the whole tap, if I’m even capable of doing that. 
 
Sorry for the long post. Guess my questions are:
 
1. Possible cause of this? Maybe there’s lime scale built up inside?
 
2. Anything (easy) I can try? 
 
3. How difficult is it to change the whole tap with the side of the bath being tiled close? If it’s going to be too messy I guess I’ll just try to fill the bath with the shower head for now, and wait until we are able to renovate the whole bathroom…

ThisIsWeird

Search the tap for a laser-engraved make - higher quality taps will tend to have this. And/or take a good photo showing the whole tap and do a Google Image search for it. Once found, hopefully a means of dismantling it will also be available. Some (like yours, and mine is similar) can be confusing

Yes, almost certainly it's down to scale build-up, but a spray on the outside ain't going to shift it.

One possibility; the tap spout swivels at that joint just above the diverter lever? If so, look round the back and see if there's a grub screw in the lower part. If there is, then slackening/undoing this (put plug in waste in case you drop it) should allow the tap spout to be pulled upwards and removed (smear it with silicone grease before reassembly). This should allow you to pour scale stuff right in to the body of the tap. First, tho', lower the hose right down to drain the body of water - wiggle the lever side to side but don't force it (likely plastic parts inside). Then raise the hose so as to make its bend as it comes out the bottom as tight as possible (but don't stress it), and tie/fix it up there. Now pour scale remover down the tap spout and fill it to t'top. Leave it for 5 minutes and wiggle the lever. Repeat and nauseam.

If the tap spout does not remove, then you may be able to do this by squirting the scaly stuff up the nozzle - see if the tip unscrews first, but be careful where you squirt. Drain the hose first, and raise. Or, drain via hose, remove showerhead, raise it up, and pour down hose end until it drops out tap.

(All assuming the lever is in a mid position that allows the flow to seep from shower to tap - keep wiggling the diverter.

donutandbeer

@ThisIsWeird Thank you so much for the detailed advice!! I will try this soon when I have the time to try properly. English is not my first language and I really struggle to even figure out what is called what, so your detailed response is very helpful ☺️

Apodemus

I'm perhaps a bit confused on whether you have three positions to your tap arrangement or only two.  Is the flexible hose leading to your shower head, or the vertical metal pipe?   

Can you not simply removed the knurled portion immediately below the circled bit in your pic, remove the flexible hose, and gain access to the portion that is jamming?  You would then be able to clean it directly.

Otherwise, taking the shower head off (or whatever is on the end of that flexible hose), emptying the flexible hose, back-filling it with your anti-scale solution and leaving it to soak, might achieve the same thing.

donutandbeer

Apodemus said:

I'm perhaps a bit confused on whether you have three positions to your tap arrangement or only two.  Is the flexible hose leading to your shower head, or the vertical metal pipe?   

Can you not simply removed the knurled portion immediately below the circled bit in your pic, remove the flexible hose, and gain access to the portion that is jamming?  You would then be able to clean it directly.

Otherwise, taking the shower head off (or whatever is on the end of that flexible hose), emptying the flexible hose, back-filling it with your anti-scale solution and leaving it to soak, might achieve the same thing.

Hi thank you for the reply. Yes after reading ThisIsWeird’s reply I figured I can probably take off the flexi hose (connected to the shower head) and spray citric acid mix up from there to start with. Not sure how easy it is to keep the solution in there for long enough though, so perhaps it makes more sense to take off the shower head and pour the solution into the hose and keep the hose upright. 

donutandbeer

Happy to report that after pouring some citric acid mix down the flexi hose and let it sit for a bit, I’m now able to turn the lever to the left a bit, and water will come out of the bath tap. Still not able to turn it completely to the left (not as much as I can turn it to the right), so I reckon I will make a bit more solution and let it soak for a bit longer.

ThisIsWeird

Good result

Yes, remove showerhead, drain hose FULLY by leaving the end down in the bath whilst you operate the diverter lever back and forth - you want the tap chamber to be empty - and then pour more scale remover down the hose. If you support the hose end upwards above the tap, and keep moving the lever back and forth as you trickle the scale remover down the hose, it should get to the point where some of it trickles out the bath spout - you will then know that the tap body is FULL of scale remover!

Then leave it for as long as is recommended, and every now and then move the lever back and forth to clear away loosened scale.

donutandbeer

ThisIsWeird said:

Good result

Yes, remove showerhead, drain hose FULLY by leaving the end down in the bath whilst you operate the diverter lever back and forth - you want the tap chamber to be empty - and then pour more scale remover down the hose. If you support the hose end upwards above the tap, and keep moving the lever back and forth as you trickle the scale remover down the hose, it should get to the point where some of it trickles out the bath spout - you will then know that the tap body is FULL of scale remover!

Then leave it for as long as is recommended, and every now and then move the lever back and forth to clear away loosened scale.

Yes this is exactly what I ended up doing. Although a small amount is dripping out of the place where one unscrews the hose, which I guess suggested maybe I should put some ptfe tape around it? I was lazy and didn’t use the tape when the old flexi pipe bursted and I had to change it. There was no tape around it before though. 

ThisIsWeird

Usually there's a flat fibre or rubber O ring where the hose is screwed on. None there? Easy to pick up at a hardware store.

TELLIT01

Great to see you are making progress, and thanks for coming back to update those who have made suggestions.  Plenty of people who do have English as a first language don't bother.

donutandbeer

ThisIsWeird said:

Usually there's a flat fibre or rubber O ring where the hose is screwed on. None there? Easy to pick up at a hardware store.

None that I can see. Will pick it up from the shop. Thanks so much 😊