Bath Taps

[jase the space]

I am about to fit a new (compact) bath in what is currently just a shower room (cubicle is going in favour of over-bath shower). I have recently installed a DPS GXV Heat Bank that gives me lashings of lovely mains pressure hot water.

Vitra Rialto: 1700 x 750(head)/500(foot)

The fat end is the head and shower end and the thin end is the foot end. To avoid smacking my head on the bath taps when enjoying a nice soak I want to mount them at the foot end but as you can see there isn't a huge amount of space to do this. My preferred option would be to use a monobloc filler but I can't find any 3/4" versions in a traditional style (only modern). Anyone?

Does anyone know how much slower a 1/2" "basin" mixer would be at filling the bath over a 3/4" mixer?

Would separate H/C bath taps be quicker than an equivalent sized mixer anyway (two outlets instead of combined)?

My other option is to just fit independent bath taps but this would probably mean one in each corner at the foot end - or do those of you with experience think from the picture and dimensions given that I could get 2 taps in one corner? What about a pillar mixer tap in 1 corner (I like the look of these!)? I guess I can only really tell when I have the bath and have looked at some taps but I just wanted some heads-up if possible.

Cheers all

 

[slippyr4]

If you've already got a similar basin mixer you could test how fast that flows (measure litres of a period of time), and compare that to a bath.

if you consider that a lot of baths are plumbed in with 22mm -> 3/4" flex hoses, and that the hole in the hose is about 10mm dia, i don't think you therefore need full bore 3/4" for decent flow.

However, most monoblock basin mixers have really really tiny connections. I doubt they flow well at all.

what style tap are you looking for (post a picture of a similar style) (maybe someone has seen similar somewhere).

 

[moosehead]

Try Sottini - Alchemy - monobloc for Baths/basins with matching shower
http://sottini.co.uk/index2.asp
Great opening sequences to their website as well.

 

[jase the space]

moosehead: I agree, very nice site. Nearly choked on my early morning coffee. Thanks for the link but these are way too modern for me.

I am looking for something traditional like (from Deva):

or

Supposedly the centres for the pillar mixers are 180mm and 105-255mm respectively. I have no idea whether these will fit at the foot end proper or in one corner at the foot end. How close can separate bath taps be fitted together (in terms of physical installation) - obviously you need room to tighten up the nuts?

slippyr4: I can measure my 1/2" basin taps at home to get an idea of the fill rate from these. I don't have any 3/4" taps or 3/4" mixer to compare against though. I do have a 1/2" kitchen monobloc mixer though.

What would be a good fill rate for a bath? I believe my bath is 165l and it would be nice to fill it in 10 minutes, so that's ~16lpm - is this too much to ask?

Currently I only have 15mm HW pipework into the bathroom anyway so maybe I should just accept this. I could replumb this with 22mm however.

Presumably if I only have 15mm pipes I might as well go for basin (1/2") taps (if I go for separate taps)? Otherwise I need a 15mm to 3/4" tap connector. I guess if I go for 3/4" at least it gives me the option of 15/22mm plumbing. Oh decisions!


I also want to fit a thermostatic mixer shower at the head end. Should I go for 1/2" (15mm) or 3/4" (22mm) plumbing/connections to this? Will 15mm be sufficient for a really good powerful shower?

Cheers

 

[slippyr4]

if you've got mains-pressure HW, you'll probably flow plenty out of 15mm.

you could get taps pretty close together if you use flexible hoses- you can then tighted the tap connector nuts before you put the bath in and thus before it gets difficult. If the hoses are push fit on the pipe end, it's even easier.

 

[moosehead]

Jase - maybe try Bristanhttp://www.bristan.com/indexbristan.html

 

[moosehead]

Jase,

Is there any way you can put the taps in the wall and have a filling spout?

 

[jase the space]

Cheers guys

moosehead: I had thought of fitting to the wall but that opens up a whole new set of questions like:

- how far do I have to channel into the wall to embed the pipes and how far do the tap/spout connectors go into the wall?

- how are the taps/spout fixed to the wall or are they just connected to the pipes which in turn are fixed to the wall?


I'd have to fit it to an outside cavity wall - would I need to leave room to insulate the pipes etc?


I guess the same questions apply for fitting the shower - I will need to embed the pipes to the mixer valve in the wall. I plan to have an exposed pipe from there to the rose/handset.

I have looked at Bristan but they don't solve the issues I have - nice taps though!

slippyr4:

I agree using flex hoses and push fit will make installation easier but you still need to fix the taps to the bath via nuts - so I guess this will be the limiting factor in how close you can fit them.

Anyone know the minimum "keep-out" space around a tap thread to enable the back nut to be tightened?

 

[Softus]

Does anyone know how much slower a 1/2" "basin" mixer would be at filling the bath over a 3/4" mixer?

The manufacturers all know - you could call one and ask them for the flow rates of their taps, then you would know too!

I did this recently with a new kitchen mixer that was gaving the customer very poor flow - the manufacturer quoted figures that weren't being achieved, so I sent it back and got a tap that wasn't so restrictive.

 

[moosehead]

Sorry Jase - can't help you with the plumbing technicals - I'm just a punter who went through a whole heap of design and catalogue roaming when we had a couple of new bathrooms fitted. The pro-plumber did the rest. In our installtion the pipes were 'buried' behind plasterboard with the fittings anchored to the back wall. The fittings are all solid - no movements or leaks. If I could re-do now I would have the water spout.