Replacement Shower Mixer Tap Recommendation Please

54and56

Hi all,

I have a shower tap with separate hot and cold feeds (blue and red) which regulates water volume via the left dial/knob and mixes hot & cold via the right dial/knob, see below.

When being installed the plumber warned me that although the tap was a solid reliable unit the one design flaw was that in order to alter the hot/cold mix you needed to depress the button behind the dial/knob and then move the dial.

Although family members are told of this and guests are told over the years some people have just jumped in and turned the dial/knob thinking it was the water volume to start the shower and now the dial/knob is stuck at max hot water and I can't move it so it's time for a change of mixer tap I think.

Given the separate hot and cold feed locations I guess I'll have to stick with a unit that is a similar design but I'd really appreciate it if someone could recommend a unit which has a simpler mechanism for regulating both the volume of water and the hot/cold mix that is intuitive to use and doesn't require any special actions.

Thanks for reading.

Alun

On my shower mixer, and I think practically all of them currently on the market, the button is only there to allow you to increase the temperature above 38 degrees. Not sure if it's a safety feature or an energy conservation one.

Anyway, It looks like it may be possible to access the inside of the knob by prising off the cover and then you might be able to either then remove the knob and free up the push button, or even remove it altogether.

54and56

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119458612#Comment_119458612

Thanks Alun,

I prised off the mixer cap and the valve was not far off being seized so I sprayed some WD40 and started rocking it with a vice grip and eventually got it back to a point on the mixing range where the water is in the normal zone for a shower but it seems to be in a one way lock if that makes sense i.e. with the cap back on I can move the dial to increase the amount of hot water but I can't move it back again. The silver dial is too slippy to apply enough pressure to turn it back towards cold and can only be done with a vice grips.

I guess I'll need a new mixer tap after all as I doubt I'll be able to just get the part I need to repair this one.

Alun

I think you can get replacement thermostatic cartridges for them if you know what make it is. Is there any kind of manufacturer's mark anywhere? If not, it's not a big job to replace the whole thing yourself.

When we had our en suite done up recently we got our brassware, taps and shower hardware from a company up north called Aqualla. Very heavy and well made.

54and56

Hi @Alun,

You were kind enough to give me a steer on this so I thought I'd provide an update which someone else in my situation may find useful.

This finally got to the top of my to-do list so having googled around I landed on and ordered this replacement shower tap from IKEA for €70 delivered. Given it's only a third of the cost of similar offerings from other manufacturers it's a very nice design, great tap action and looks to be high quality.

I followed the instructions on this video and it took less than 10 minutes from opening the IKEA box to being ready to use the new shower tap, happy days indeed. Thanks for your input, you gave me the confidence to have a go at DIY'ing it and I'm so glad I did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qbn_SJi5Sas