Has anyone had any experience of these thermostatic bath shower taps?
Mixer tap
I'm guessing that it'll be a typical "you get what you pay for" job, but the big-brand-name equivalents are £250 and upwards...
You will find that most new builds are fitted with thermostatic shower taps and a set of quality taps ain't cheap.
Yes, I've got one of those almost identical (in function), slightly different design and the shower output is at the bottom. It is very good.
Edit: In fact - here's the one I got, a bit more but with all the shower attachments.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00593WPN8
What type of hot and cold supply do you have to your bath - and what water heating method?
[Edited on 6/1/14 by geoff shep]
Thanks Geoff,
We've got cold water straight off the mains, hot water via a gas combi boiler (also at mains pressure - though regulated by the boiler - but with
no header tank of any sort).
We have a bloke coming to give us a quote for replacing the combi boiler on Wednesday, so I can talk to him about capabilities.
Everything's falling apart at once at the moment - the boiler's reached the end of its life, and the electric shower won't stay on.
I've looked inside the shower (nothing obvious), an equivalent replacement unit is £200+, and I'm fed up of having a miserably weak shower
when the incoming water is very cold (as it is just now). It's a case of getting a qualified person to change over to a new electrical shower,
or I go to a conventional mixer like the one I showed and fit it myself.
[Edited on 6/1/14 by David Jenkins]
That's exactly what we've got. The mixer is a straight replacement for the existing taps and the shower is great. The temperature safety
setting can be adjusted too. It also makes filling the bath at the right temperature a doodle.
I had to get a longer shower hose though as the one supplied was a tad too short - not so much of a snag with the outlet on top I guess.
Worth thinking about fitting a pressure equalising valve- they're cheap and work well. A thermo valve reacts quite slowly so if someone flushes the toilet and the pressure drops you can get a bit burnt. I know with a combi the hot and cold should both be at same pressures already but the hot temperature does depend on flow so I've seen set-ups where when the pressure drops the hot gets quite considerably hotter. Worth thinking about anyway.
Maybe, but I've not had problem with that. The flow falls a bit if another tap gets turned on but the temp stays as it was.
David,
Same system as you, Gas combi fed by mains pressure and cold taps are direct off the mains as well.
The shower is a hose fed directly from the bath mixer and you can shower as hot as you want for as long as you like any time day or night. I
can't stand under the shower at full pressure, it's painful and it blows the shower curtain everywhere.
I didn't fit a thermostatic mixer tap as SWMBO and I are quite happy setting the taps to our preference. However with hindsight, I should have
fitted one for two reasons...
1. If someone turns a tap on elsewhere in the house it does affect the shower temperature
2. We have younger children who find it harder to set the taps and get the right temperature
quote:
Originally posted by geoff shep
I had to get a longer shower hose though as the one supplied was a tad too short - not so much of a snag with the outlet on top I guess.
Only thing Ive found is that the ceramic type taps need a higher pressure to operate.
When I fitted our new bathroom the water head was about 10 foot and none of the taps would work at all so ended up fitting a pump, in saying that the
shower is great now although the pump can be heard all through the house when its running.
The other thing was with the cheaper taps after a couple of years they all started dripping so had to change the cartridges but still reckon I was
quids in as they were 25% of the price of B&Q etc and whose to say the B&Q ones wouldnt have done the same they are probably the same taps but
with B&Q's name on.
Cheers,
Bob
[Edited on 6/1/14 by splitrivet]