help fitting thermostatic mixer tap

[Riz1]

Hiya

I bought a Hansgrohe ecostat thermostatic bath/shower mixer tap. It has been plumbed in and the "ecostat" works fine but it is not regulating the temp at all - it is either very hot or very cold. Is there anything i need to adjust or "fix" or sort this? i has assumed it was all supposed to work "out of the box" after being plumbed to the hot/cold supply as normal?

Thanks

[John Borman]

Think iseem to remember it has something to do with how the hot and cold is supplied i.e headrer tank or direct mains but tahts as much detail as i can give try googling

[riz1]

it is supplied via tanks in the loft that have been boosted by a shower pump fitted under the bath at the same time as having the taps fitted

[Christian McArdle]

Two questions.

1. Did you plumb the hot and cold supplies to the correct inlet? They can't be swapped.

1. Are the hot and cold supplies from the same pressure source? I.e. are they both mains pressure, pumped pressure or both gravity pressure?

It may be possible to mix pressures if you have a pressure balancing valve (either internal to the mixer, or external). However, this will reduce the pressure to the lowest common denominator, which in the case of unpumped gravity supplied water will be appalling. If your supplies are gravity based, you should seriously consider a pump.

Christian.

[riz1]

thanks

yes both the hot and cold are from the same source ie the loft tanks via the 2-valve stuart turner 1.8 bar shower pump which has been fitted under the bath.

i couldnt say if they have been plumbed in the right way round but the tap does respond to temp in the correct way ie it goes "full hot" when you turn in the increase temp direction and "coimpletely cold" when you turn in the decrease temp direction.

i can hear the noise of the pump change as well when the tap output changes from hot to cold

[riz1]

I have just noticed that infact the hot and cold are plumbed in the wrong way round. could this be the reason the thermostatic doobary is not working and is giving me just hot or just cold?

the plumber will swap them over in the morning and we'll see.

mind you as far as i can tell the "safety stop button" is working the wrong way round. my understanding is that you can only turn the heat up so far, and then you have to press the "38C" button to turn it more hot. Infact you can turn it up with no problem but you have to press the button to be able to turn it any lower?!

2 bloody problems in one fancy tap [for the uninitiated like me!

[James Hart]

That sounds like the same problem to me, swap the hot and cold over and all should be OK.

[riz1]

thanks yes - agreed the safety stop button is the same problem but it was compounded by poor labelling by Hansgrohe IMO: they just have "+" and "-" on it with the + being on top and the - on the bottom. when it is correctly plumbed increasing temp will be by turning the tap "down" ie in the direction of the minus [the 38C button will make sense now too!] and to decrease temp you have to turn up ie in the direction of the +!!!

i only sussed this as i sent to B&Q to try to solve the safety button dilemma and i noted all other makes of thermo taps all turned in this orientation hence the penny dropped