Screwfix thermostatic bar mixer valve and alternatives?

[Ewan MacIntyre]

Hi folks,

A friend's ancient manual shower is about to conk out, and is embedded in the wall which makes repair difficult. I'm helping him find a low cost, thermostatic alternative. To minimise disruption, I'm suggesting one which does not require power, as my experience of these has been good.

Screwfix do one which is quite cheap, but there's no picture:

anyone bought this one recently? Does it come with fittings which assume pipes come out the wall at 90 degrees? How is it actually fastenened to the wall? (Target household has two young boys, so it could easily be inappropriately used as a handle if one of them slips - upstairs fountain effect anyone?)

Does anyone know an alternative source of a sub 100 quid thermostatic shower? It can be a bar or a dial.

A few years ago I picked up a Grohe thermostatic for about 150 quid through Exchange and Mart - a fantastic bargain and a great shower. Sadly not a regularly available deal.

Thanks for any tips,

Ewan

[Roger Wareham]

I haven't seen the Screwfix model, but it sounds like a type commonly used on the continent - horizontal bar, temperature control at one end, flow control at the other, shower hose attachment underneath in the centre.

All the ones I have seen come complete with 1/2" BSP adaptors. You bury two 1/2" elbows in the wall 150 mm apart and tile around them. Then you fit the adapters which are offset slightly so that you can adjust for separation and level. Screw a circular trim piece (also supplied) over each adapter to hide the hole in the tiles, then fit the main unit onto the adapters using two captive nuts on the main unit.

The closer you get the two embedded elbows to being level and the correct distance apart, the easier they are to fit!

Strength when used as a handle depends on how well the elbows are attached to the wall. Use all three screw holes in each and you shouldn't have any problems.

Roger.

[Lobster]

The description of this sounds like the one I bought from Screwfix 2-3 years ago, but without the pic it's hard to be sure.

If so, yes, mine is a chrome bar job which assumes H&C feeds emerge from the wall at 90 deg. Each has a threaded conical arrangement which conceals the connection and bears against the tiled surface as you screw it on.

Bizzarely it doesn't actually fasten to the wall at all in fact, and is a big problem because the plumber who did ny first-fit left me with two plastic pipes emerging from the shower cubicle wall, and they are all which provides any support. At least copper pipes would have been a bit more rigid. I posted here about it at the time, and IIRC the general consensus was that it was a common problem and I needed to fit some sort of plate behind the tiled wall, with two holes in for the pipes, to give the two conical bits something to bear down against in order to make the arrangement firm.

(Consequently although the shower works, this job is still waiting to be done as I'll need to destroy either the tiled wall of the cubicle, or the recently-decorated bedroom wall behind it, in order to get a bracket within the stud partition!)

The shower works a treat otherwise, just that it's like the manufacturers don't seem to have actually provided for it to be installed.

hth David

[Ben Schofield]

I bought a very similar one from Wickes quite recently, and (as others have said) it just held on by the pipes. It looked almost impossible to mount to me, so I took it back and bought a 100 quid B&Q-branded Mira electric shower. This is adequate, but the flow rate isn't too impressive and I wouldn't fit another if I could help it.

If your friend's budget stretches to it (and he has a combi boiler), I can vouch that the Mira 415 is really excellent.

Ben.

[Steve]

I have *ahem* jsut discovered that I can take a picture of this assembly if you want one.

I should apparently have put a proper screwed on cover on it according to SWMBO.

Steve

[John Stumbles]

If it's the same as their £79.99-with-riser-&-head mixer then it's OK

Or my way is to fix the cranked 1/2" x 3/4" BSP threaded widgets into wall plate elbows with hemp and Boss White (or Araldite if that's your taste ... suppose you could even solder them in :-) and attach the crank+elbow assemblies to the valve and fix to the wall with screws and render (for a solid wall, or screw into a recessed nogging or plate for a stud wall) so you get the valve level and the right distance out for the conical trims to fit back to th etiles neatly. Bloody fiddly to do, though :-(

rendering in helps here

For a surface mount you can use surface mounted cromed wall plate elbows like

(these look as if they'd be good for recessed mounting too, but you'd need a combination of 3/4" BSP threaded barrel and nipple to extend them far enough for the valve to stand clear of the surface.)

-- John Stumbles

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-+ Many hands make light work Too many cooks spoil the broth

[Pete C]

[Ewan MacIntyre]

mounting with pipes coming out at 90 degrees:

tried this particular kit? I wonder if it fits their 60 quid shower - you'd expect it to, but who knows?

cheers

Ewan

[Lobster]

Interesting, I'd like to hear, too! (see my other post in this thread)

- this definitely wasn't available when I fitted (using the term loosely) my shower. Might just buy this... although it's not very clear how exactly it works. Looks like it might make the valve project a long way from the wall, that's the only thing.

I'm sure it will fit Screwfix's offering; it does say in the blurb it will. And the two pipes seem to be treated separately; ie the separation of the pipe holes is not an issue.

David

[Jim]

Has anyone used these chrome elbows from Screwfix, or similar?

I'm currently looking into fitting a mixer shower myself, but I need t run the pipework outside of the wall if at all possible. After a lot o to-ing and fro-ing I realised that when the shower manufacturers refe to surface mount they can be refering to either the mixer shower valv unit itself, or the pipework.

Looking at the picture on screwfix, they would appear to convert thei standard bar mixer shower into one that can have its pipe feeds runnin surface mounted - if this is the case, it would be ideal for me.

Also, I'd be interested to know whether anyone has experience o installing bar-type mixer showers in different orientations (i.e vertically as opposed to the standard horizntal) - if it's acceptable may be tempted to do this to enable neater pipe runs.

Thanks, Ji

-- Jim

[Paul Barker]

No those adapters don't allow for exposed pipework. They are no elbows.

The first reply to the original question was the right answer. There i no other proper solution to bar showers than to fix back plate elbow below the surface. If you want exposed pipework buy a different shower

-- Paul Barker

[Ed Sirett]

You could use a chromed version of the wall mounted 15x1/2"F elbow. And chromed 15mm pipe. These should be in the BES catalogue but I've not checked.