Shower Mixer Tap - Struggling to turn off

[johnagall]

WE live in a hard water area which causes all kinds of problems.

Recently its been a real struggle to fully turn off the shower mixer tap. It seems stiffer than it previously was and I continually find myself having to turn it off tightly in the night when the drip drip keeps me awake.

I've opened up the head cover (picture below) and took out the central screw expecting the head to come off and to be covered in scale. I was planning to descale and WD40 the area.

However when I took out the small screw with an allan key I couldn't remove the knob. I expected it to just fall away but I didn't want to force it.

The picture below is the tap with the central screw removed

Any suggestions?


pic hosting

 

[PetePlumb]

Looks to me as if that should just come off, give a a bit welly. Or try to lever it off in different places with a flat head screwdriver between the body of the tap, and the head. Is it a thermostatic Aqualisa bath shower mixer? Looks like it to me from that picture, I could be wrong.

 

[johnagall]

It seems that the hard water has finished this off. The design of a twist on/off doesn't really help matters because twisting stuff on/off with wet hands is a pain.

Can anybody recommend somewhere to get a replacement for a reasonable cost?

Will it be expensive to have someone fit it?

Here's a better picture of it