Replace electric shower with mixer....

[spoony77]

Hi people
I've been looking at replacing an old electric shower with a thermostatic mixer shower and my question is....
Do you have to have a plumber run pipes in your walls and thus remove tiles or can you just have exposed pipes coming down from the loft attached to the wall and into the bar mixer valve?
I like the look of the Mira coda pro's but they all seem to be fed from behind the wall?
Cheers

 

[JimCrow]

you can convert the bar shower to exposed with these,
https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk...VzrXtCh0_QgulEAQYAiABEgKDLfD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[spoony77]

Yes they look ideal and I can see how they would work.
Is there any downside to them other than exposed pipes and your bar sitting a bit further out?

 

[Hot&Cold]

The water pipes in the loft,are they mains water pressure Or pumped ?

Plenty of purpose designed shower mixer valves for exposed installation,prefer the Bristan sequential items for good flow

 

[spoony77]

It's a combination boiler (not a particularly good one)... I'm thinking of getting a plumber to tee off from under the bath up into the loft and back down or possibly under the bath and up through the head of the bath....
Can you show me an example of one of these purpose built designs as when I Google exposed mixed shower they always seem to be rear fed still?

 

[Hot&Cold]

Advertising photos dont always show all the mixer fitting options,just need to find a mixer that can have the inlet elbows angled upwards or downwards.

if your getting a plumber to install it,ask them about the flow you can expect from the shower

 

[spoony77]

Ok brill thanks.
I have asked the plumber already and he said it won't be a great flow but it cant be worse than the trickle I get from the electric shower now....my hot tap will fill the bath as long as I reduce the flow and that flow is twice the flow from the shower hose when i remove the head, I assume these showers have a flow control?

 

[Hot&Cold]

http://www.free-instruction-manuals.com/pdf/pa_1042391.pdf

Page 16 paragraph 1

To improve the flow the flow restrictors need to be removed from the mixer,your installer will know about them

 

[Elkato531]

I'd be thinking about a digital shower such as the Aqualisa Quartz or Visage. Standard, non pumped version if you have a combi. The processor sits in the loft and the riser rail carries the blended water to the shower hose and head. Going to be a lot neater than all those exposed pipes.