Shower Thermostat Query

[Adrian Boliston]

I have just purchased a "new build" flat with an ensuite Trevi CTV shower

and it seems to have a problem with the thermostat.

If I turn it on it will allow me to adjust the temperature of the water up and down, but if I turn the heat up to max it seems to "stick" on max heat so that I cannot then turn it down to cold again. Once the shower has been turned off for an hour or so so that it all cools down again it seems to allow the temperature to be controlled up and down unless I turn the temp right up which makes it "stick" again. I need to report this to the developer first thing monday, but is this likely a problem just with the valve, as I was worried it could be something to do with the hot & cold water supply and for them to say that they have to start lifting the floorboards or something, especially as I'm having the all the floors (hardwood & linoleum tile) laid in the next couple of weeks! The other identical shower in the main bathroom works fine, so I'm hoping it could just be a valve rather than supply problem.

[Bob Minchin]

I'd just report the fault just as you have described. The only faint possibility of a supply problem I can think of could be swapped hot & cold input. Otherwise it is almost certainly a valve or blockage problem.

Bob

[Adrian Boliston]

Actually, now you mention this, I'm sure that I had to turn the heat control in the opposite direction to the blue & red arrows on the valve!

If they have connected the cold pipe to the hot valve input and vice versa is this a very complicated thing to put right? I'm mainly worried about having to rip up floors to re-lay pipes rather than just perhaps having to retile the shower enclosure wall, as the developer did all the wall tiling themselves wheras the flooring is all being done by my own contractors.

[John Rumm]

That would suggest the pipework is back to front. The thermostat will then try to correct a high temp by adding hot / reducing cold and vice versa.

Unless the valve can be fiddled to allow for the problem, then they will need to cross over the pipework somewhere. It is is burried in the wall of the shower then it might be less destructive to find somewhere else to make the switch.

[Adrian Boliston]

They seem to have fixed it, and the site foreman was saying that all piping comes down from the loft space rather than from under the floor, so no lifting of floorboards required fortunately.