Shower Bar Mixer.

[Onoff]

With the thermostatic bar type mixers beliefs it always the case that hot feeds the inlet nearest the little red button?

 

 

Just wondering if ours has been plumbed in the wrong way round since day one. I changed the bar mixer like for like.

[ProDave]

What's the full story?

 

If your hot and cold are the wrong way round, then for it to work, your hose will have to come out of the top.

[Adam E]

Hi on mixer showers the hot water goes on the left hand side, if you are looking at the shower from the front    

[Nickfromwales]

5 minutes ago, Adam E said:

Hi on mixer showers the hot water goes on the left hand side, if you are looking at the shower from the front    

Yup. 

 

23 minutes ago, Onoff said:

 

With the thermostatic bar type mixers beliefs it always the case that hot feeds the inlet nearest the little red button?

Nope. It's normally denoted by a little red dot ( removable sticker ) on the rear of the valve body. 

Back to the xmas ale you go ?

[Nickfromwales]

[Onoff]

6 hours ago, ProDave said:

What's the full story?

 

If your hot and cold are the wrong way round, then for it to work, your hose will have to come out of the top.

 

Full story...always been a pain. To get the pump to kick in invariably you have to put the handset in the shower tray. 

 

Hose comes out the bottom.

 

Same pic below (as the one above) is typical of my (Bristan) mixer:

 

 

This is the rear:

 

 

So in my case cold is going to the inlet nearest the temp dial with the "override" button on.

 

No original instructions and no red dot sticker. 

 

Easy enough to swap over if it's wrong as on push fits. But is it wrong as is?

 

 

Edited December 26, 2018 by Onoff

[dpmiller]

tried blowing through it?

[Onoff]

58 minutes ago, dpmiller said:

tried blowing through it?

 

How's that done then?

 

Thinking to isolate and take the bar off and de-limescale it.

[bassanclan]

Does the pump kick in on full cold?

If so then then you know it's a hot water flow problem.

It's probably worth taking the mixer bar off and looking at the little mesh filters at the point where the mixer screws onto the wall.

 

It might be that the person who fitted it didn't flush the pipework through before fitting the mixer bar and the filter is full of rubbish

[PeterW]

Isn’t the hot on gravity ..?? If so, the tank pressure drop won’t be enough to trigger the pump as they need to see a bigger drop hence why when you put the shower head 6ft lower the pump triggers. 

 

Some pumps are adjustable but you may need to lift the header tank to increase the pressure drop. 

[Onoff]

25 minutes ago, bassanclan said:

Does the pump kick in on full cold?

If so then then you know it's a hot water flow problem.

It's probably worth taking the mixer bar off and looking at the little mesh filters at the point where the mixer screws onto the wall.

 

It might be that the person who fitted it didn't flush the pipework through before fitting the mixer bar and the filter is full of rubbish

 

No mesh filters that I recall when I took this off a little while back...

 

...no I didn't flush everything out... 

 

The hot pipe coming in is real hot as is the rear of the mixer...that side.

 

At each end, screws under little removeable caps. I could only undo the assembly (cartridge) where the hot comes in. Couldn't budge the cold side.

 

Trying to take the mixer off and the cold side would unscrew OK but the right would turn along with the threaded bit behind in this generic shot.

 

 

 

[Nickfromwales]

Can you get mole grips / other on the rear whilst you undo the front nut?

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, bassanclan said:

Does the pump kick in on full cold?

 

Sometimes...very rarely. That's when you have to drop the handset to tray level.

 

1 hour ago, PeterW said:

Isn’t the hot on gravity ..?? If so, the tank pressure drop won’t be enough to trigger the pump as they need to see a bigger drop hence why when you put the shower head 6ft lower the pump triggers. 

 

Yes, gravity. Done the quick sketch below. No chance of raising the CWS tank as it's right against the rafters. Could likely lower the mixer. 

 

 

56 minutes ago, Nickfromwales said:

Can you get mole grips / other on the rear whilst you undo the front nut?

 

Only got 3mm, don't think even long nose moles would get in to grip the thread that's turning.

 

 

[PeterW]

That’s your issue - pump is seeing about 2ft drop which is not enough to get the pressure switch to cut in. 

[Onoff]

4 minutes ago, PeterW said:

That’s your issue - pump is seeing about 2ft drop which is not enough to get the pressure switch to cut in. 

 

I make it 820mm drop? Still I guess not enough? 

 

I should add the pipes go up from the pump, across the top of the dormer and down to the mixer.

Edited December 26, 2018 by Onoff

[PeterW]

Doesn’t matter. Pressure is measured from the hose outlet to the bottom of the cold water tank. Whatever route it takes is irrelevant. 

[bassanclan]

Is it a positive or negative head pump?

[Nickfromwales]

Sounds like a negative.

[dpmiller]

how restrictive is the showerhead?

[Onoff]

1 hour ago, dpmiller said:

how restrictive is the showerhead?

 

A little I guess. My "trick" sometimes when it doesn't get hot is to take the shower head off and let it run into the tray, that sometimes works. On occasion I'll then have to have it running full pelt and stick my thumb over the hose end. Hold it there for a few seconds and release, hold it & release.

 

I'll find out the pump make later - (access is through the eldest's bedroom). I remember there was a NewTeam shower pump there originally and I replaced it with this one as it said it was OK for a 25gal cws tank.

[dpmiller]

I'm wondering whether you can furtle with the flow switch on the pump- move the reedswitch down a bit/ sleeve the chamber for a closer fit to the float/ put a light spring under the float.

[PeterW]

You may find the flow switch has the same size mag pellet as some of the others on the market or it can just be cut down and the cut down piece replaced with silicon rubber or plastic. 

[Onoff]

Just went for it with the adjustables!

 

Undid the mixer:

 

 

First oddity is it seems hot is going to the cold inlet and vice versa. Is it possible these are the wrong way around?

 

 

The cold inlet has a small for the cartridge:

 

 

And the hot cartridge inlet is larger:

 

 

All the parts:

 

 

If it comes to it I can move the mixer down:

 

 

(This is all eventually going..."my" eventually! )

[Onoff]

Did I make a mistake a little while ago?

 

As original:

 

 

Now. Same as. Pipe on the left at the top goes to hot. Pipe on the right goes to the cold.

 

 

[Onoff]

I could just swap the flexis over?