Need a new shower tower

[xyz321]

Hi all

Our thermostatic shower is not working (water is too hot). Tried to contact shower doc but they have been unable to identify the make. Have also looked to see if there are any blockages in cold pipe water stainer but no luck. So it looks like we need a new shower.

Current one is a shower type with two jets and a removable shower head! It is fed from 2 bar pump and someone told me its “gravity fed”, though not sure how both can be in one system!

Questions are

1) What are the advantages of thermostatic showers over normal mixer shower? Considering the pain I have just had trying to source a replacement thermostatic cartridge I am just thinking if its safer to go down the route of normal mixer shower
2) Any good online places to get shower. I have so far looked at plumbworld and shower doc.
3) Are triton a good make? I am looking to spend around £200. Any other makes out there in this range?
4) How long do thermostatic cartridges last in general. Our current one was installed by previous owner about 4 years ago. If I have to spend £200 every four years on shower, that would be a bit expensive for us!
Thanks a lot
J

 

[xyz321]

Can anyone share their expertise? ta

 

[oldbuffer]

1. You won't get scalded so easily. Probably not important to those who can react quickly, but important for the old and the young.
2. The best way is to decide what you want then google "Buy xxx" and look for the best price. Showerstoyou seem to be fairly keenly priced.
3. Triton are good, as are Bristan and a fair number of others. Try and avoid "own brand showers", spares are often difficult / impossible to source. I recently installed a Bristan "Carre" for a customer. Nice shower and pretty straight forward to install. Note its an exposed bar mixer - easy to get to for service / parts replacement. If you want a concealed shower be prepared for a good bit more excavation / re-tiling work.
4. Varies enormously, and depends on quality of manufacture, hardness of water etc. I'd be disappointed but not totally surprised at a life of 4 years in a hard water area.

You might want to consider removing the cartridge from you existing shower and dunking it in lime scale remover (Killrock or Ataka are my favourites) dissolved in hot water. Sometime they go because the movement gets clogged with lime scale.

 

[Galoka]

I wouldn't consider anything other than a thermostatic shower. And looking around the market now (as we are refurbing a bathroom) most shower mixers are thermostatic now compared to when we last bought in about 2000.

As well as not scalding mentioned above, the temp of the shower is pretty much stable. If someone causes another draw on the system, it will compensate, rather then you haveing to adjust the controls , and you don't have to adjust fiddle to get the temp right.

I think you've been unlucky, it sound like a cheap no name shower was installed, and you are suffering the consequences. I would look to install a known reliable brand, that will give good support in the future.

Personally I like Mira, I had some good tech support from them with my last shower (Mira Excel, had no problems with it over the 6 years we lived there), and I know someone who has had an old (15+ yrs? can't remember) Mira shower valve serviced with spares still available. But I'm sure other companies like Aquastream, Triton, Grohe, Bristan etc. are equally good.

You shouldn't need to be replacing a thermsotatic cartridge all the time, so I think you have just been unlucky.

They don't have to be expensive now, so you should have no problem getting something suitable in your budget. and note that the innards are pretty much the same I think across the range of a manufacturers showers. What you pay more for are the finsih, materials, style, type of head(s) etc.. Eg. a quick search shows you can get a Mira Agile for about £100 but there are lots around.

As to suppliers, well as Oldbuffer says, just shop around, prices vary so much, and a site good for one thing can be expensive for another. Showerdoc looked expensive to me when I looked on their site. Places I recently dealt with and were fine are Trading Depot, Plumbworld, QS Supplies