Evening all,
I was away on holiday for a week and the shower was unused. On return, the mixer now gets hot way lower down the scale, and is quite hard to get cool water although you can by keeping it on very low, but once its at number 2 it is quite hot. It didn't used to be like this. I am assuming some debris / limescale has stopped the thermostatic mechanism inside the cartridge from doing its job. It looks easy enough to replace, simply isolate the water and then remove the end cap, and pull out the cartridge. However i was wondering if perhaps it could be an issue with a filter that sits behind the unit where it exits the wall which isn't allowing enough cold water in. I hope this makes sense. I assume other than removing the cartridge there is no other way of being able to dislodge what might be causing this issue? I have tried turning it on / off a lot of times, quickly, slowly etc, but once it gets to number 3 / 4 on the dial its almost too hot to stand in the shower and needs turning off and then slowly back on in order to get cooler water.
Last question - if i have a go myself - i can easily isolate the water although worried the 90 degree lever valves may leak after being used (they are in the airing cupboard - and its a new ish house, 7 years old). There is also a stopcock under the kitchen sink but my concern is by having a go at replacing the cartridge, if for some reason i cant get it out or cant get the new one back in or it leaks water, i am stuck without being able to turn the water back on permanently as there are no in line isolators for the shower (unlike a sink for example).
thoughts welcomed
There is a replacement Mira Minimal which the direct replacement shower mixer for the agile which is now discontinued (although you can buy the cartridge separately thankfully), as the pipes at the back are offset 50mm which means i have to stick with Mira or get the pipes re-sized which is obviously a bigger job. All i would need to do with the newer unit would be to drill a hole or 2 to enable the new back plate to be installed.
I was away on holiday for a week and the shower was unused. On return, the mixer now gets hot way lower down the scale, and is quite hard to get cool water although you can by keeping it on very low, but once its at number 2 it is quite hot. It didn't used to be like this. I am assuming some debris / limescale has stopped the thermostatic mechanism inside the cartridge from doing its job. It looks easy enough to replace, simply isolate the water and then remove the end cap, and pull out the cartridge. However i was wondering if perhaps it could be an issue with a filter that sits behind the unit where it exits the wall which isn't allowing enough cold water in. I hope this makes sense. I assume other than removing the cartridge there is no other way of being able to dislodge what might be causing this issue? I have tried turning it on / off a lot of times, quickly, slowly etc, but once it gets to number 3 / 4 on the dial its almost too hot to stand in the shower and needs turning off and then slowly back on in order to get cooler water.
Last question - if i have a go myself - i can easily isolate the water although worried the 90 degree lever valves may leak after being used (they are in the airing cupboard - and its a new ish house, 7 years old). There is also a stopcock under the kitchen sink but my concern is by having a go at replacing the cartridge, if for some reason i cant get it out or cant get the new one back in or it leaks water, i am stuck without being able to turn the water back on permanently as there are no in line isolators for the shower (unlike a sink for example).
thoughts welcomed
There is a replacement Mira Minimal which the direct replacement shower mixer for the agile which is now discontinued (although you can buy the cartridge separately thankfully), as the pipes at the back are offset 50mm which means i have to stick with Mira or get the pipes re-sized which is obviously a bigger job. All i would need to do with the newer unit would be to drill a hole or 2 to enable the new back plate to be installed.
