Astracast pillar tap

[Howardws]

I have an Asratacast TP0441 pillar tap. The cold water runs through a central pipe in the spout and the hot runs round this pipe. When originally fitted the flow was all over the place and it turned out that the rose supporting the central pipe was off centre and Astracast replaced the spout without problem. The new spout produces a clean cold flow, however, although the hot flow is initially clean once hot water flows it is all over the place, to the extent that it is impossible to fill a bowl in the sink without some of the water going down the sink.

Astracast claim the tap is 'fit for purpose' and say that other factors such as water pressure, spout height, sink depth etc. can affect the flow. They won't, or can't, tell me what the design parameters are so I can't tell if my water pressure is ok (header tank in a two storey house). I can't alter the spout height as Astracast set that and my sink is the usual sort of depth!

I'm considering taking Astracast to a Small Claims Court because in my opinion the tap is not 'fit for purpose'. I wonder if anyone out there has had a similar experience or has any advice please.

 

[Anybody]

I have an Asratacast TP0441 pillar tap. The cold water runs through a central pipe in the spout and the hot runs round this pipe.

I would call that a mixer tap rather than a pillar tap

It could be that theres a 'spout end' missing. A lot of new taps have aerators on them and perhaps yours has fell off or something?

Has your tap been fitted in accordance with the instructions?

Click this
Personally I would just buy another tap if I couldn't figure it out.

 

[Howardws]

Yes you are right, it's a mixer tap. Nothing is missing & it's fitted to the instructions. Thanks for the link. I'd rather have it replaced than buy a new one - it cost £300!!

 

[ChrisR]

Take a picture of the spray, perhaps with a black background so it's visible, put the picture here (easy) there and everywhere and send it to Astracast telling them what we all think of them when you get a few replies!

 

[Howardws]

I sent Astracast about six photos but they weren't even mentioned in their reply. I'll put a couple on here tomorrow.

 

[doblo7]

Hi, I believe on these mixers that the hot should run through the centre part and cold on outer part of spout, the reason being that the tap spout doesn't get hot to touch and that you don't get warm water initially when running the cold. Try it you have nothing to lose, (switch hot and cold connection around).

 

[Howardws]

That would probably work, unfortunately the tap is designed to have the cold through the centre - there are two cold flows - filtered and unfiltered, they go through one T ported cock which is connected to the centre pipe. I've discovered that I'm not bright enough to post the promised photographs!

 

[ChrisR]

I've discovered that I'm not bright enough to post the promised photographs!

You can email them to admin (slow) or one of the regulars (I can do it, email in Profile) and we can put them up for you.

 

[Howardws]

I've discovered that I'm not bright enough to post the promised photographs!

You can email them to admin (slow) or one of the regulars (I can do it, email in Profile) and we can put them up for you.

Thanks for the offer ChrisR. I've sent them direct to admin. I obviously misunderstood the instructions for sending photos which I thought indicated I had to make them available somewhere other than my computer. Being not very computer literate that threw me!

 

[DIYnot]

You can see Howardws's photos here.

 

[ChrisR]

Well it isn't obviously criminal from the pics!
You could ask for another spout - and offer to send the wonky one back? I'm not sure what could actually be wrong to make the flow DO that!
It may be thatthe length of the internal smaller pipe is critical. I'd try shoving a short plastic tube onto it to see what happens.

 

[Howardws]

Thanks for the suggestion - seemed a good one but unfortunately didn't make any difference! I've asked for a replacement spout but they have refused, probably because they have already replaced one that had the centre pipe support rose off centre - this gave fairly similar flow characteristics but also caused water hitting the bottom of the sink to splash out. The off centre rose is obviously a frequent problem because when I described the symptoms I had an immediate reply of 'Must be the rose off centre' and a new spout was supplied without question.