Mixer taps - no water

[Rob]

Hi,

I have an intermittant problem which is getting worse - that is our bath has a shower attached to the mixer taps, with a metal "cuff" which slides down for the shower and up for the bath. It defaults to the bath setting.

Occasionally it turns on to the shower on its own - no big problem - just turn taps off and hold cuff up and turn on again. More recently sometimes no water comes out at all whichever tap is turned on. After some messing around with the cuff it starts again. Just tonight it wouldn't come on at all despite 5 minutes faffing around. After a google where I didn't find much, I went and tried again and it was working. When it works - it's full flow.

As it's getting worse is there anything I can easily DIY? - the tap itself is very awkward to get to.

cheers

-Rob

[Ed Sirett]

The cuff widget can be serviced without access to below the bath. The widget unscrews from the mixer (after you have removed the hose). Likely it has become stiff due to scale. IIRC there is a tight pushfit pin which hold the cuff in place.

HTH

[Adrian Brentnall]

On our shower/bath mixer, the 'cuff' unscrews - and in doing so reveals the 'flats' on the diverter device that you can get a spanner onto. Unscrew the diverter and you can see what's going on.

I had problems earlier this month - turned out to be the flexi-hose from the tap to the shower head - the internals had got kinked - this was causing very low flow or no flow to the shower head. Replaced the hose with the posh German one from Screwfix - all fine now.

Here's the part

seems that our setup is still sensitive to the 'rotary' position of the diverter - haven't quite sussed the reason for this - but it's something that we've learned to live with

Regards Adrian - Suffolk UK

======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[Rob]

Thanks both - will take some tools to it - prob next weekend now. Being a novice in such matters - do I need to shut down the stop c*ck and drain hot & cold tanks before venturing into the diverter?

cheers

-Rob

[Adrian Brentnall]

Shouldn't need to - it comes 'after' the two taps, so there shouldn't be any water escaping when you dismantle it.

To find out if it's the hose that's causing the problem.... try unscrewing the hose from the diverter. If you get a good flow of water from the top of the diverter then it's the hose that's kinked, and you need look no further for the problem.... It would seem that cheap hoses are a waste of money - which is why I bought the 'de-luxe' one from Screwfix....

Good luck Adrian ======return email munged================= take out the papers and the trash to reply

[John Stumbles]

No, but be aware that if it's fairly old the various rubber washers and/or O rings may need replacing to make it work properly. Sadly these are unlikely to be any standard sizes, but you may find a big B&Q (or a proper plumbers' merchants, if you do the job before 12 on Saturday) have the bits you need.

[Rob]

Well it's "only" 8 years old....but I'm sure these house builders go out of their way to use non-standard parts, judging by the rest of the house.....

thanks

-Rob