Andy (and everyone else of course)
saw your post about replacing 'O' rings on an Aqualisa shower.
Just wondered what the symptoms were.
My (about 10 year old) Aqualisa shower is leaking cold water around the thermostatic mixer control.
We have a shower pump so there is quite a bit of pressure.
I have seen on the NG that the cartridge needs replacing after a time but this seems more like a 'seals' thing.
TIA Dave R
There are not very many user replaceable seals, David.
On my unit, which is a built in type, maybe a little less than ten years old, but not much, there are the following, starting from the front:
- O-ring on the shaft of the cartridge used to hold the on/off control knob in place. They send these for free.
- With control knob removed and thermostatic lever (4 bolts) removed you get to the cartridge which can be removed with 4 more bolts. There is a seal of complex shape between that and the valve body. This seal comes with the spare cartridge, although may be separately available.
- O ring seal at the back which seals the centre stainless steel tube of the cartridge to the back of the valve body. These also come with a replacement cartridge, and silicone grease is useful to fit them. If this one fails, it does not mean a leak since it is internal.
Apart from the places where the pipes connect, the only places that leaks can happen are where the cartridge meets the body - new seal needed, or around the spindle of the cartridge. The latter means a new cartridge.
.andy
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I was working on one of these last week - and that rubber seal is embedded into the plastic surround, making it nigh on impossible to remove to replace with a new one.
Has anyone come up with an inventive way of getting this seal out of one of these shower units? Tried the crochet hook approach, no good.
PoP
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I've used a strong sharp needle before to extract stuff like that. Ram needle into rubber, then prise out (taking care not to break the needle, they seem to shatter rather than bend sometimes).
Velvet
No that doesn't work.
A darning needle is one approach - jab it into the rubber and hook away from the groove. Typically it will split which is fine anyway. A scalpel or craft knife with long blade is another way and you can easily jab the Oring but take care with this way.
.andy
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You should be able to get a new cartridge for under 100 incl VAT. The frequent problem with these is that the bimetal spiral corrodes and/or furs up. Otherwise you generally get the better part of 109 years or more from them.
Thanks for that!
I replaced the cartridge (the customer had ordered the cartridge anyway, and the O ring came with it). Didn't replace the O ring.
The problem we were trying to resolve was fixed without the O ring, this being a shower that continued to drip long after the shower had been turned off.
I guess I was surprised - I thought it might have been the 10p O ring rather than the 100 quid cartridge.
PoP
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That's the other symptom I forgot to mention yesterday.....
I had one cartridge (the original) fail after about two years. The current one has lasted over five.
.andy
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Just spend hours trying to remove an Aqualisa "o" ring.
Finally, after trying everything suggested above, I used a medium siz nail (any nail with a biggish but thin head will do). I simply use the head of the nail to pull the ring out of its seat.
Hope this may be useful to someone else.
Ian
-- hop
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