Hi,
If I buy bathroom taps in France, presumably 3/4inch and 1/2 inch tap connectors won't fit? I assume I'll have to buy metric connectors - but will these be compatible with British 22mm/15mm piping - I guess so?
Are there any other compatibility issues, water regs for mixers, showers etc?
All the bath mixer taps I've seen so far seem to be wall mounted as opposed to fitting the bath - is this the norm over there?
Anybody got any good links to French DIY stores?
Cheers,
Andy.
My experience is that the threads on tap fittings are the same size but the pipe fittings are different. You should be able to connect French taps straight onto English connectors. I bought a shower panel in Leroy Merlin in Calais a couple of years back and had no problem connecting into my existing pipework with UK flexible pipe. Because I was not quite sure how I was going to fit it when I bought it I also bought some French tap to copper solder fittings. The threads were the same but the copper was a different size. I have since learned that copper pipe in France is a different diameter, I think it is 16mm rather than 15mm and with thicker walls.
Here are a few links to French diy stores:
Are there any other compatibility issues, water regs for mixers, showers
Yes , French appliances often mix inside the tap or shower head. A no- no over here.
Yes, although they can be obtained. My bath has a normal 2 hole fixing.
Try
The threaded fittings are normally BSP. The thing to do is to take a couple of connectors with you and check.
Pipe sizes are not the same. 12,14 and 16mm are common and then 22mm the same as here.
It does seem to be.
All french plumbing I have come across uses mains pressure for hot and cold. I you use French taps on a older style gravity fed hot water system, you might have flow rate problems.
HTH
Bob
Thanks guys!
A few more questions:
Do French baths have the holes set the same distance apart?
Do all French mixer taps mix within the tap as Robert suggests - how can you tell those that are ok for use over here?
Is this the same situation over Europe?
Thanks,
Andy.
I think *all* continental mixers mix within the spout as most water is mains-pressure. They laugh at our dual-flow "mixers" - if they've ever heard of them.
Spout mixing is no longer a no-no here if you prevent backflow by using a check valve; many mixers available here are now single-flow (mixing within the spout) rather than dual-flow, which IME deliver two unmixed side-by-side streams of hot and cold water or a core of hot surrounded by cold - or vice-versa.
With a single-flow, you can actually adjust the temperature satisfactorily. Howver, they don't always work that well if the H and C pressures aren't balanced.
Tom.
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