Fitting a shower bar mixer

[John Miller]

Further to the bathroom renovation, I need to fit a shower mixer (Triton Aire bar type). The instructions call for it to be connected to a half inch BSP female fitting where the face of the fitting is flush with the finished (tiled) surface. It's going onto a dry lined wall and I intend to run the supply pipes up the wall from the floor. My problem is that a standard BSP elbow fitting is too short to reach through the plasterboard and tiles and a standard soldered elbow plus straight BSP connector will be far too long. Approximate distance from solid wall to tiled surface will be 40mm. Anybody got any experience of this or could offer any suggestions - it must be a common problem. Only solution I can see is to cut the plasterboard and tile over the gap, but I'm not very happy about doing this.

I note that Screwfix have a special fitting for bar mixers - somebody else asked about these recently, but I can't recall seeing any replies. Does anybody know whether these fittings would help?

John Miller

[Gordon Henderson]

Might have been me (asking about bar shower fittings)... I didn't find anything in screwfix but had something in BES pointed out to me - I am unable to run the pipes up to the bar behind any panel - they have to be on the surface, so I have a right angled widget which has 15mm compression into the 1/2" female BSP. It will make it stand a bit further out, but that won't really be a problem for me.

Gordon

[Adrian Berry]

How about your (AKA with the compression nut removed and then screwed into

15mm compression fittings have a 1/2" BSP thread, so how about removing the nut from a FI coupler (Screwfix 12341 or what I think you are calling a straight BSP connector ) and screwing it into a wall plate elbow (screwfix 17416) fixed to the solid wall. Haven't got the bits to hand right now to check but I think the distance is approximately correct and the wall plate could always be packed out from or chased into the solid wall to tweak the level. If you use enormous quantities of PTFE tape between the two bits, you can make a watertight seal by screwing the fitting only partially into the wall plate, just as you would with a bib tap in order to get it vertically aligned - this would give a further adjustment.

HTH Adrian

[Adrian Berry]

Sorry, bit of an untidy post - correction below......

15mm compression fittings have a 1/2" BSP thread, so how about removing the nut from a FI coupler (Screwfix 12341 or what I think you are calling a straight BSP connector ) and screwing it into a wall plate elbow (screwfix 17416) fixed to the solid wall. Haven't got the bits to hand right now to check but I think the distance is approximately correct and the wall plate could always be packed out from or chased into the solid wall to tweak the level. If you use enormous quantities of PTFE tape between the two bits, you can make a watertight seal by screwing the fitting only partially into the wall plate, just as you would with a bib tap in order to get it vertically aligned - this would give a further adjustment.

HTH Adrian

[John Miller]

message

mixer

going onto

fitting is

standard

long.

suggestions -

cut the

about

removing the

calling a

right now to

partially into

Thanks Adrian

I did wonder whether the fittings might work as you suggest, but didn't have any to experiment with. I'll get a wall plate and give it a go. Incidentally, I emailed Screwfix about their fitting kit, but they were unable to provide details and have referred me to their supplier. I'm a bit surprised by that, but may give it a go. Thanks again.

John Miller

[Pete C]

Would one of these do?

If not then annealling the copper pipe and using a pipe bending spring might get a tighter turn than a soldered elbow would give.

Also give the manufacturer a call, they might have some good ideas.

cheers, Pete.

[Alan James]

I've fitted a couple of Screwfix bar mixers which look similar though the shower fitting is 3/4 BSP female. There was a 3/4 to 1/2inch cranked adapter which was best discarded. Check out if a 22mm street elbow (BES

6851) plus solder to BSP male (BES 6836) is compact enough. Don't think you can get less. A problem which you don't mention is that the bar fitting relies on the pipe fixings for strength. You need to fix the pipes firmly to the wall behing before plasterboarding in which case you can chase out sufficient depth.

If the Triton shower really requires to be connected to a half inch BSP female fitting as you say then I'm stumped how it can ever be tightened.

Alan

[Lobster]

I'm guessing you mean Screwfix item 56419, right? Two components, one for each 15mm pipe. I bought this a while ago to fix the wonky mixer valve a builder left me with, and it does seem quite good although I have yet to actually get round to fix it (on investigation I found further problems which need sorting, ie seemingly the builder left me with such massive access holes in the plasterboard below the tiles that I've nothing to attach the fitting to!)

The chrome 'drums' in the picture unscrew to reveal a steel fitting beneath with screw holes etc; and be warned that you need a massive spanner, of about 2" across the flats, to fit these things; something Screwfix don't mention when you buy it!

David

[John Miller]

mixers -

recall

would

though the

cranked

elbow (BES

pipes firmly

chase out

inch BSP

tightened.

Alan Thanks for the suggestion. I didn't explain the fitting very well - the Triton bar mixer has two of the cranked 3/4 to 1/2 connectors and the 1/2 end screws into the FI fitting. I had thought about discarding these, but wasn't sure whether the connecting 3/4 nuts would go onto a 22mm fitting.

John Miller

[John Miller]

seeing

help?

problems

massive

fitting beneath

spanner, of

David

Thanks for the info, but I'm still not clear how these work. How do they connect to the pipework - is that what the big spanner is for? It also sounds as though they fix to the surface via the screwholes - this would be OK as I can insert supporting woodwork when I build attach the plasterboard, but it's not clear what is behind the fitting and where the pipes attach. Perhaps you could email me with further details?

John Miller

[Gordon Henderson]

So I too have just bought a Triton Bar Shower - the Tyme model I think. (bought it off Plumbworld)

I'd posted earlier about fitting it to the wall and running the pipes externally as I am unable to chase the wall out (OK, I can, but last time I did this in my house, for some electrickery cabling, I ended up with dust everywhere and it took me all day to hack the channels out of the f'ing hard granite they make houses out of on Dartmoor!)

First thing I was surprised about was just how heavy the unit is! It must be almsot solid brass inside the chrome!

According the the instructions, it can be fitted to plasterboard and the pipes run to it without any extra support for the pipes... Are you sure you got all the bits? There is an extension pipe 3/4" BSP to 1/2" BSP which screws into the bar (3/4" female on the bar with a round nut with flats on it to tighten it)

The order of assembly is shower bar, conical collar thing, (gren washer), long connector (3/4" to 1/2"), locking nut, metal flange, rubbery sealing washer, (tiles), plasterboard, rubbery sealing washer, metal flange locking nut. then you are left with a stub of 1/2" BSP threaded on the outside, which you can connect an elbow to. I think you might be thinking that Fig. 9 in the booklet shows the outlet of the 1/2" elbow flush with the surface of the plasterboard, but read over the page to fig. 10 and it will make it a lot clearer!

It also has these bent angled things, 3/4" one end, 1/2" the other to let you adjust the width. (You shouldn't need them if you are drilling new holes)

The manual I have for fitting it seems to indicate that all 3 bars in this range have the same fitting - so I'm wondering if you are missing this extension bar. It's shown in Fig. 7 on page 6 (where it shows you how the filter and flow limiter fits into it) and figs. 10 and 11 on pages 7 & 8.

My problems is different and I thought I'd solved it with BES part No. 7630 as suggested by another poster in another thread. Alas, I didn't realise that the bar has female 3/4" BSP couplings. I could fit the extension rods into the bar and them into this fitting, but that would then leave it too far from the wall for my liking. (It's heavy!)

Now this irritates me, as I was originally going to buy the bar shower from Screwfix and I had an exchange of emails with a screfix person about this very problem and he was unable to suggest a solution... However, more searching on the Screwfix site reveals part No. 51437.

is exactly what I need! I can fix that to the wall with suitable screws and plugs, then run my nice chrome pipes up to it and mount the bar directly onto them. (I hope!!!)

Gordon

[Lobster]

Ok... sorry, I know I wasn't too clear in my previous post but I was going on memory since at the time the bits were actually upstairs in the bedroom where SWMBO had gone to bed; I can just imagine the reaction if I'd woken her up "cos some bloke on the internet wants details of some plumbing bits I've got..."

I agree it's totally unclear from Screwfix's site how these things work; I'm sure if they made it a bit clearer they'd sell a lot more of the things. Having said that, you could always buy a set and return them as 'unsuitable' if they are no good for you. Anyway, I've made a quick, rather crappy, picture of the instructions which I've uploaded at

another, of the actual bits themselves (one pipe's worth) at Hopefully these will explain adequately how it works but if not get back to me (if need be I'll scan the instructions in properly rather than using the camera).

Good luck! David

[John Miller]

'unsuitable'

and another, of the actual bits themselves (one pipe's worth) at

David

Sorry to be a pain but I can't quite read the instructions. Tried zooming in but words too distorted to read properly. It rather looks as though these fittings may be the answer to my problem so I'd be really grateful if you could clarify things a bit more.

John Miller PS Sorry for the delay in replying, but my PC has just decided to to write off the hard disk and I've had to borrow my son's PC to get back on-line temporarily!

[Lobster]

OK, I've scanned it properly now and replaced the jpeg with a hi-res one at the same URL

you right-click on the link and save the jpg rather than view it in your browser (it doesn't seem to want to work with mine).

HTH David

[John Miller]

in

David

Many thanks for your trouble. It didn't work too well in my browser either but the jpeg is clear enough and these fittings look as though they'll do the job I want. It's quite a clever idea and it seems a pity that Screwfix sell it but don't have a clue how it works. Not sure where I'll get a 47mm spanner, though!

Thanks again

John Miller

[Lobster]

Mm, Screwfix don't sell them, that's for sure! But if you search the site on "wrench" (as opposed to spanner) you'll find a number of adjustable items which should work OK.

Good luck with it David

[Kalico]

Does anyone actually know why these adapters are cranked?

Why not straight? I spent ages trying to get mine to line up so that the bar mixer was level. Usually, one connector would tighten to, say

12 o'clock and the other to 6 o'clock, meaning a very wonky bar indeed.

When I asked the manufacturer about this, they sent me some striaght adapters, making it much easier to get level.

Rob

Replace 'spam' with 'org' to reply

[Kalico]

And if you need a similar part that can be sunk into a chased out wall, as I did, use a pair of (much cheaper) brass outside tap connectors, like these:

a treat for me, connecting into the parts supplied.

Rob

Replace 'spam' with 'org' to reply

[Tony Bryer]

I think it's so that you can get the mixer bar level even if the wall connections aren't - and if a different plumber did the first fix they may not have worried too much about 1/8" discrepancy which it's impossible to correct once the wall has been plastered and tiled.

To digress slightly, one housebuilder I came across in my BCO days made carpenters put their initials on door linings - and he who fixed the lining had to hang the door. Somehow the linings were always fixed straight and true first time

[Kalico]

Taking responsibility for your own work? Surely not!

What use will the manual of '1001 excuses and who to blame' be then?

Only kidding - I think that's a great idea.

Rob

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