Hello,
I have something that looks like this:
A bar mixer shower valve. I don't know the make or age as it was in the house when I moved in.
Lately to get hot water I have had to turn the temperature dial to its maximum, 48 C, to get a hot shower.
I used to have it set around 38-40C but now that setting is lukewarm at best.
Do these valves wear out? Can they be repaired? Or do I have to replace the whole thing?
Thanks, Stephen.
They are designed to be fail safe. If the temperature capsule leaks, the hot water flow is cut. So maybe you need a new capsul. If you can get hold of one.
I assume that the problem is in the mixer itself, and that there's not a restriction of some sort in the hot supply to the shower?
If it's a thermostatic shower, it will have some sort of wax or bellows element in it which expands and contracts with changes in temperature to regulate the hot/cold mix. That may have failed or may be gummed up. I've never had one apart, but mine looks as if the innards unscrew from the ends once you have removed the knobs. You could try taking it apart and cleaning it out.
If you *do* need to replace it, the beauty of bar mixers is that they all have the same pipe centres and threads - so you can use a different make and model and it will fit without any plumbing modifications.
Has something happend to reduce your DHW temperature or flow rate?
If it's a ceramic cartridge-based one, they do indeed wear out and pretty q uickly, in my experience. I bought a fairly expensive shower valve from Bat hstore, about five years ago. Admittedly, this is not a bar type, but a cen tre control type. So far, I have had to replace the ceramic cartridge twice (~£80 a pop from Crosswater) and the current one feels as though it is o n the way out.
I experienced similar with taps in the kitchen of my old house, where the c eramic cartridge for the hot tap needed replacing every two years.
I'm in Sheffield, which is a soft water area, so it's not chalk that is kil ling them.
Jim.
What do you do with them?
The shower valves and the taps in the old house must have done 5 years happily before we moved out.
The taps her in the old bathroom had done 10 years just with us here and no problems whilst we have lived here - and probably 20 years old
I've looked around for a non thermostatic capsule as a replacement and failed.
Non-thermostatic mixer valves don't have/need a capsule.
Not that I'm aware of. The HW is supplied by a combi boiler and I imagine the temperature of the incoming mains water has dropped during the cold spell, but not enough to cause the effects I am seeing.
I did wonder whether something had scaled up. The shower doesn't seem to have been fitted with any isolating valves, so I guess I will have to switch the water off and have a look.
Not relevant, try reading the comment.
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