Recommendations for concealed shower mixer valve only?

[mike42]

Hi

I'm in the middle of refreshing the bathroom and was wondering if anyone knows of anything suitable? I was hoping to get something by Acualiser but their website seems to show beautiful pictures of showers but not many details.

Our system is a gravity system with a shower pump (H and C) and we already have the fixed shower head and separate hand shower. So I'm looking for something that can switch mixed output from one to the other.

I thought it would be interesting to get a digital one and I saw this but it says combi or unvented only. Is it no good for us - why wouldn't it work with a shower pump?
http://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/m...al---high-pressure---valve---controller-only/

I'm looking for something that is good quality - a pleasure to install and use. Digital might be a plus but not essential.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

 

[ALCPlumbing]

No unfortunately this model is unsuitable for gravity fed pumped systems. They require static pressure where as a pumped system only has pressure once the outlet is open. Don't ask me why.

I'll have a look and see if I can find something that will work for you.

 

[ALCPlumbing]

This is the same model but for pumped systems.

http://www.mirashowers-mobile.co.uk/products/mira-platinum-dual-valve-controller-only-pumped.aspx

Mira are quite good quality as well and spares are easily obtainable. I've always seen as quite good value for money. You could pay a lot more for something a bit better or pay less for something rubbish so they're quite middle of the road but should see you right.

 

[ALCPlumbing]

Don't pay any notice to the price on the Mira website. You'll probably be able to get it at nearly half that price if you look around. I think the part number is 1.1796.006.

 

[mike42]

Hi Many thanks for that but my existing shower pump is over 2 bar and the instructions to the pumped one say maximum 1 bar pressure. So perhaps both these showers are unsuitable after all?

 

[mike42]

Ah, maybe I didn't understand. Is it right that the pumped version has an integrated 1bar pump?

I'm wondering that 1 bar might not be enough given we previously had 2.1 I think and the flow was about right (HW and CW much bigger than is usual).

I wonder if there are any other options or perhaps none of them like working with an external pump? And perhaps all others can't be bought as a valve only (i.e. without shower head etc) ?

Sorry for all the questions and very grateful for replies.

Thanks again.

 

[mike42]

Ok just in case anyone else reads this far, as far as I can see the deal with digital showers is that:

a/ They only output typically 1 bar which may not be enough (my shower head says the range is will operate at is 1-6 bar).
b/ Some manufacturers only sell therm bundled with the shower head (e.g. Aqualiser) maybe that is because they know their shower heads will work well with the 1 bar stated pressure
c/ It looks like they don't work with shower pumps. (Why not? Surely its just a remote control signal to the mixer telling it t open or close a valve at which point the shower pump should kick in.) But apparently and as above it can't be done although Vado state theirs can be used with a negative head pump. (Sod's law mine is positive)

ALso, to use the existing 22mm pipes from the airing cupboard to mixer for the outlets, I'd need to take the 15mm output from the digital mixer, upsize it to 22mm and then downsize it at the shower head and I'm not sure if that is a good idea?

So, unless anyone tells me in the next hour or two that I'm wrong about most of the above (quite likely!) I'm going to try and buy me a manual concealed mixer....