Mira showers UK refusal to help with spares.

roverp4

I fitted a Mira Elite electric shower in my house about 6 or 7 years ago, it has cost me a lot of money on repairs over the years. I now need to re-tile the cubicle and need a rear casing for my shower unit. The agents in Dublin cant help. Despite 3 emails to Mira UK they refuse to help, the last reply today was most unfriendly. "The rear casing for our showers is not available, "Period" The matter is now closed" What nice people they are! Has anybody got a broken Mira Elite Electric shower for spares. Alan

antoinolachtnai

Is there an EU directive on maintaining a stock of spares? I think there might be, but I don't really know. Ask the European Consumer Centre.

To be honest, I would buy a new shower ... they aren't that expensive compared to the cost and hassle of fitting, and various bits of the units tend to fail after around 10 years anyway. Each repair will cost you around 120 euros.

a.

Sponge Bob

and a new Mira is €200 and a doddle to fit .

gerryo

Sponge Bob wrote:

and a new Mira is €200 and a doddle to fit .

Am fitting a new shower ATM, not the elite, I did look at it, the unit I removed was a Mira elite (old type).

First off, the pipwork + electrical entry points are different for the old & new elites, fitting a new one in place of an older model is not "a doddle".

Secondly, the old elite has been discontinued for several years now, the pumps, heating elements & mixers are available as spares, cases don't seem to be stocked. Guess they figured they'd not wear out like the rest of the internals.

I've replaced the pump, mixer & heater in the elite, parts cost me approx half the cost of a new unit, but since they were no longer available, would have meant a complete redo of the shower cubicle if I went for a new model.

Luckily, the failures did not happen one after another in rapid succession.

I did not like the new elite, I went for a Triton this time, I hunted around for a near fit for the old elite. Found nothing, so had to redo the wiring + pipe.

We were planning a complete room refit, so it's not as bad as being left with a broken shower & no chance of a replacement without spending extra €€ to redo the room.

The old elite I have also has slight damage to the back case, near the hose exit. Maybe they all break in this spot.

Anyway, I sympathise with roverp4, because all the manufacturers seem to have made a collective decision to change their models in the past few years such that it is almost impossible to fit a new shower without a complete redo.

So it's equally bad they don't fully stock spares, but at least from now on it should be easier to swap out for a different type/manufacturer.

I would say if you redo the wiring + pipe, you'll have an easier time finding a unit to fit when you next have to replace it. If you don't want to (very understandable) there should be a few available in good used condition, try buy & sell.

TempestSabre

A plumber told me thats its getting harder and harder to get spares for showers even recent models. these days. Seems like they don't want people to repair showers but buy a new one every couple of years.

Gillo

antoinolachtnai wrote:

Is there an EU directive on maintaining a stock of spares? I think there might be, but I don't really know. Ask the European Consumer Centre.

I may be wrong but as far as I know they have to carry spares for 5 years, after that they don't have to. There's definetly a time limit though.

Red Alert

Try Modern Plant, they're based in west dublin somewhere and have most of the spares. I got a pump and motor assembly and a mixing valve in the past couple of months to fix an old Event (with the square case).

cc

roverp4 wrote:

I fitted a Mira Elite electric shower in my house about 6 or 7 years ago, it has cost me a lot of money on repairs over the years. I now need to re-tile the cubicle and need a rear casing for my shower unit. The agents in Dublin cant help. Despite 3 emails to Mira UK they refuse to help, the last reply today was most unfriendly. "The rear casing for our showers is not available, "Period" The matter is now closed" What nice people they are! Has anybody got a broken Mira Elite Electric shower for spares. Alan

Hows it going, i work in the cork office of modern plant.The problem is that Mira don't make back casings for any electric showers available as spares, basically, they don't want anyone taking out every part and putting it back together themselves. if this happened in warrenty they would replace the shower rather than get an engineer to replace the back casing. I know its frustrating i get asked why all the time, hope it makes sense!

cc

gillo wrote:

I may be wrong but as far as I know they have to carry spares for 5 years, after that they don't have to. There's definetly a time limit though.

Mira state 10yrs as the min time they will stock spares after a shower is discontinued, but you can still get spares for most of they're old mixers going back 30 yrs, and old electrics going back 20 yrs

gerryo

cc wrote:

..The problem is that Mira don't make back casings for any electric showers available as spares, basically, they don't want anyone taking out every part and putting it back together themselves. if this happened in warrenty they would replace the shower rather than get an engineer to replace the back casing.

That makes sense, there's a lot of electrics in shower units & if something is not re-assembled correctly, electrcution or fire might be the unfortunate consequences. Mira's policy might save lives.

Bummer for folks whose units are busted, replacing a shower because there is a hole in the case is a lot of €€ wasted.

Red Alert

yes, actually a quick word of warning to anyone messing around with electric and/or power showers:

• always if you've been messing around with any of the pump, heater or mixing systems run the water with no power first if the shower will let you - check for leaks!
• one item in your arsenal should be a hairdryer and a cloth. make sure everything in the case is dry before you put it back together!
• don't run the shower with the case off
• make sure the motor connections are in correctly and are dry! clean up any carbon deposits around the place to avoid fire risk (as motors get old, the carbon on the brushes goes everywhere)
• make sure that the pump changes speeds (if it's supposed to do that) correctly. pump damage could result otherwise.
• be careful with Power Showers. electric showers have stricter electrical codes (such as requiring a pull-cord and RCD), many power showers are on ordinary spurs

antoinolachtnai

I would also say that you should never work on an electric shower alone in the house, there should always be someone close by.

Really, this person should be with you and making sure that you take the right precautions, in particular making sure that you isolate the unit from the electricity before opening it.

Never ever work on a unit that doesn't have a properly-functioning isolator switch close by. Fix the isolator switch first.

To my embarassment, I have to say that I have learned some of this by shocking experience. Suffice to say, I was very lucky and I would not like the same to happen to anyone else.

I am usually pretty handy and safe with electricity. The problem is that with all the running around up ladders to turn water on, turn supplies on, replace covers and so on it is easy to forget something. It is also too easy to forget how dangerous the combination of water and electricity can be.

If in doubt, consider calling the mira or triton guy, cost me 70 euros call-out last time, was well worth it.

Hobbes

We had the same problem before a couple of years back. Rang up Mira to get a new shower head and they said they couldn't give us one. So we asked for it to be repaired and said they wouldn't do that either, offered that we buy a new shower. Told them to feck off.

Ended up taking the shower head apart fixing it ourselves.