Water leaking through shower control panel when basin tap turned on?!

[Manyprojects]

Hi all,

So here’s an odd one- we’ve just purchased a house (picked up the keys on Friday!) and the bathroom has this strange issue- hope the video shows it.

No doubt this will be relatively easily resolved with a new seal somewhere, but I’m intrigued by the water route- the panel doesn’t leak water until the basin tap is turned on, then it leaks?

That suggests the two are linked in a way I wasn’t expecting. I was expecting the shower and basin to have separate connections to the water supply and if the shower unit was leaking, for it to leak all the time and not be somehow linked to the basin.

Anyone seen this before?

Cheers

 

[UpgradeME]

Maybe a shower pump which is also connected to the basin? Turning on the tap, switches on the pump and increases pressure to the shower, which then leaks? Does it leak when the shower is on too?

 

[Manyprojects]

Pretty sure there isn’t a pump- but that’s a sensible question/suggestion of why it might leak.

I’m not at the house now, but will be back at the weekend and will check.

 

[UpgradeME]

I’m not at the house now, but will be back at the weekend and will check.

Quickest way to check is turn off all the power at fuse box and retest tap.

 

[Manyprojects]

Ok, some progress- I took the front panel off, and have retested. The water is leaking through the seal on the shaft for the diverter valve (turning it one way is the bath and the shower if you turn it the other way)

Another fault, the shower doesn’t actually get very hot, despite hot water to elsewhere in the house- including the basin next to the shower.

So I’ll wait for a suitable time, turn the water off and take it to pieces. I suspect the lack of hot water can be solved by cleaning the screens in the mixer cartridge, I’ve done this before on other showers.

The leak through the seal on the shaft for the divertor valve may or may be solved by tightening the nut on the shaft, but I’d like to take the cartridge out and clean it etc, since I’ll have the water off anyway.

The annoying part is the shower valve is half covered in plaster or tile adhesive, so taking the cartridges out is going to be fun. The flats on the sides of the lower cartridge are barely accessible, although I might be able to dig them out a bit.

The upper cartridge… I’ll dig around a bit and see if there are flats hiding in there I can access.

Does anyone recognise the shower unit?

This bathroom will be renovated fairly soon so I don’t want to spend money on it if I can help it, but a new seal might be needed to make it usable in the interim.

Cheers