Puzzled By Shower Wall Elbow

[muzzmackay]

I have been fitting a concealed mixer shower with no problem until now. I can't work out how to fit the wall elbow. The supplier has provided various parts but no intructions for this part of the job. Here are the bits in question.

Fitting 1

Fitting 2

Fitting 3

Washers

Fitting 1 was screwed into the bottom of the shower, the tricky bit is the next two items. If I screw the brass of fitting 2 into where I have removed fitting 1 there's never going to be enough thread on the silver bit to go through the plasterboard and tiles and accept the hose.
If I screw fitting two [silver thread] into where fitting 1 came out theres enough thread on the brass to go trough, but I cannot screw on fitting 3 as it hits the mixer. Then there's the question of the washers, just unsure where they will go as I haven't worked out where the fittings go !
Is there an easy answer ?

 

[Alanka]

I'm assuming that your shower mixer is flush with the (tiled) wall, with all pipes totally concealed.

Fitting 1 is screwed into the bottom of the mixer (lubed 'O'-ring in the mixer socket) where the mixed water exits on its way to the shower sprinkler.

Fitting 2 is fixed to the tiled wall with the long brass 'tail' passing through the wall and clamped on the other side of the plasterboard (etc.) using the black plastic backnut. The short threaded spigot should point downwards on the wall. You screw the shower hose to this spigot, using the supplied washers -- if some did not come with the shower hose.

You connect the output of Fitting 1 to the tail of Fitting 2 with piping concealed within the wall using appropriate fittings (female compression type).

Fitting 3 looks like it could be used instead of Fitting 2, if you have a male threaded pipe passing through the wall from the output of the mixer. In this case you connect the male output pipe to the socket in Fitting 3, tightening it up to make the black rubber ring seal nicely against the wall. The chrome spigot should again point downwards. The shower hose is screwed to the spigot, and hangs downwards to avoid kinking.

Cheers, Big Al

 

[muzzmackay]

Cheers, that will work if there's such a thing as a flexible connector to go from fitting 1 to fitting 2. The mixer is a concealed one so I would not be able to tighten fittings behind plasterboard and tiles.

 

[muzzmackay]

Ah, something like this or a spare shower hose would work.

 

[croydoncorgi]

By the look of it, you have 2 outlet fittings. One can only be used if you can get to the back of the panel or whatever covering the plumbing AFTER the tiling, etc, is complete. (You need to tighten the backnut) Otherwise, you'd have to mount the chrome outlet before tiling and then stop it getting messed up!

With concealed valves behind (some sort of) panel (marine ply, Hardibacker, Aquapanel, etc), one useful trick to allow matching to the final wall thickness is to use a 'Hole in the Wall' fitting designed to plumb a bib-tap on an outside wall. Consists of a length of 15mm copper tube brazed onto a circular flange with mounting holes and a half-inch BSP female thread (intended to take the tap). What I do is cut off most of the copper tube and screw the fitting back-to-front onto the BACK of the panel with the BSP/F socket sticking through the panel and set to be level with the finished surface. Then partly mount the panel and reach behind it and use a pushfit coupling and an elbow to connect the tube between valve and outlet. Then put a half-inch plug in the outlet and pressure-test the whole system end-to-end BEFORE finally securing the panel. Then tile, etc, and finally remove the plug and fit the chrome outlet elbow or whatever part is required.

Doing it this way mostly eliminates the risk of leaks that can't be reached without tearing down a wall!

Note that some shower valves react badly to having pressure applied with the outlet plugged - they go stiff! Relieve pressure after testing by lossening the plug.

 

[muzzmackay]

The trouble I am having now is a leak where that brass connector goes into fitting 2 or even fitting 3. It doesn't screw in very tight and the water flows out readily. Even with thread tape it's dripping out !