Thermostaticaly controlled mixer shower + angry wife!

[Last Triumph]

Right then, stripped the valve down and fortunately, I only needed to chip a little grout off rather than dig out tiles (phew) - all the seals and o-rings were perfect, although a little 'dry'.

I gave everyhing a liberal coating of grease and re-assembled it all.

Good news - before the fianl assembly, I tested and calibrated it and it works perfectly - red hot to ice cold in nice predictble and repeatable increments on the temp dial. Most pleased. Must just have been a sticking valve due to lack of grease? Anyway, works a treat.

Bad news - I can't get it to go back together properly. I know this sounds stupid, but I just dosen't feel right. My father is an engineer and my brother in law is also in engineering. They both helped me pull it appart again, inspect it all, check all the parts are as per the exploded diagram, all the seals and springs are seated, circlips in the right grooves, the washers in the right place, coponents in the correct orientation, etc, etc. Went though it with a fine tooth comb on several occasisions, but the temp control seems eccentric as if the shaft is bent, it feels tight and rough, rther than smooth and precise. It wobbles a bit and the final temp control knob won't seat correctly.

We checked and double checked everything using logic and process.

So it now works, but feels like a cheap B&Q value valve, as when it didn't work, it felt like the volume control knob on a very expensive hi-fi amp if that makes sense.

So, after 6 hours of messing and much frustration with the 'closed on weekends no help line', I've left it semi assembled in disgust and will phone them tommorrow and tell them my woes.

Not sure what they'll say, but it comes with a 10 year guarentee and although in a semi stripped state will mix the water well, it won't now fully assemble. I tried their strip and rebuild kit, but it hasn't worked (properly) so as said before, they'll have to send out an engineer to have a look.
I'm certainly not going to dig out the rest of the housing and un-do all the compression joints etc just to send it back. If needed, they can send me a new inner asssey instead.

I'll let you know how I get on.

CH is still good as gols by the way, although I still need to replace the honeywell.

 

[Balenza]

Can you provide a link to the shower manufacturers website ?.

 

[Last Triumph]

Can you provide a link to the shower manufacturers website ?.

http://usa.hudsonreed.com/

Supplied via Taps4less.

 

[ChrisR]

I don't know this particular valve but if things don't fit it's usually something in a groove it shouldn't be,or a ring backwards or the wrong side of something, etc. Sometimes the diagrams are misleading.
No diagram online is there?

 

[Last Triumph]

No, nothing on - line.
Thing is, I was verey careful to lay things out on the floor in the exact order they were removed to aid reassembly.

Most circlips are a bespoke size for their groove. Nothing was left out, and nothig ambiguous on rebuild.

It's more that there is slack in part of the housing.

Honestly, if you saw it and had seem what we'd done, you'd say, yep, fair enough, nothing else to alter or change there...

Just very frustrating. I call them at lunch time.

 

[Last Triumph]

Just spoken to Taps4less who supplied it and they are sending a replacement out to me. I can leave the body in the wall and just use the innards etc.

Can't complain about that.

Excellent service.

 

[Richard C]

Just spoken to Taps4less who supplied it and they are sending a replacement out to me. I can leave the body in the wall and just use the innards etc.

Can't complain about that.

Excellent service.

I’ve used them ‘on line’ a few times & although I haven’t had any problems, have often wondered how they would be in the event of a fault; nice to know they came up trumps when it matters.

 

[Last Triumph]

From what the guy said on the phone, I get the feeling that it's the good will and customer support from Hudson Reed that allows them to be so 'easy going' about it.

Having said that, they were curteous and helpful before I even mentioned what brand it was, so yeah, great service anyway.

 

[Last Triumph]

Valve arrived as promissed and guess what, they had modified some elements of the design which would prevent the problems I had from occuring again.

Swithed it all over into the original housing that was still burried in the wall, put it all back together, calibrated and tested it.

Perfect first time.

The amazing thing is how repeatable the temp is. No matter what time of day I switch it on, and no matter how hot the hot water is, r how cold the cold water is depending on the ambient etc, it produces temps within half a degree C, every time.

Most impressed.

Thanks to all who contibuted and advised.

Big thumbs up to Taps4less cust services too.