As will become apparent, I’m a bit of a doofus at plumbing.
Our shower gave up the ghost recently. We have a very simple mixer shower, with the hot and cold pipes running into it. Our water system used to be a low pressure gravity system, which we replaced with a combi system.
Recently, the valve inside the mixer shower failed, meaning we couldn’t turn it off - the shower was permanently on. Clearly, this is not acceptable, so we called an emergency plumber who capped off the pipework, isolating the shower.
Because we have such a simple little shower, the hot and cold pipes run vertically down the wall into it (even though the new combi boiler is on the ground floor and the bathroom is upstairs, the heating installers used the existing pipework, so the water comes up from the combi, through the loft where the cylinder used to be, and back down to connect to the shower).
This may all be made easier to understand by a couple of photos:
I need to replace the shower, but googling online only seems to find models which expect the pipes to come into the shower from behind, rather than dropping in vertically as mine do.
The pipes aren’t broken (just disconnected and the supplies capped) the valve, the white part in the middle, with the dial, is the part that needs to be replaced. The plumber capped the supply lines because the mixing valve in the picture is broken/leaking. The OP is trying to get a new one, but most mixing valves are designed to be buried behind the wall, this one is surface mounted.
Actually, OP, I think the term you need to search for is “surface mount”. Here’s one I got using “surface mounted mixing valve”. Being in another country, I don’t think it’s worth trying to find a specific store it can be found at. You just need to find one that can be mounted on the wall and has three connections on the surface, then it’s just a matter of plumbing everything back together.
The connections don’t have to line up exactly, but since you use a hose and if you want to keep things similar, look for one where the supply to the ‘faucet’ is point down.
Thanks everyone. Joey P has it right - it’s the shower valve itself which needs to be replaced. The “break” in the pipes is because the plumber capped them off to isolate the busted shower valve.
Thanks Joey P - now I know what to look for, it’s going to be a lot easier.
Two things
1)I’m surprised the plumber didn’t have one on him to replace it with (or the parts to rebuild it with), it may be fixable.
2)If you find a new one and don’t know what you’re doing, call a plumber or handyman to install it. Plumbing is notoriously…annoying. If you don’t have good luck you’ll end up throwing your wrench through the tile after about 5 hours of frustration, then you’ll have that project too.
Plumbing is not only making everything leak tight (all those connections as well as that gaping hole I see around the current valve), but also, nearly always a bit of a puzzle on how to make the new part connect to the current connections. Sometimes you can try to work it out for an hour, but someone that does it for a living can take a look, walk out to his truck/the store and just come back with the right parts and do it in 10 minutes. (Years of) Experience counts for a lot in that industry.
I guess that was the plumbers problem, it was a UK brand mixer…
Although the parent company Kohler is in the USA, perhaps they have the spare parts for old Mira brand mixers.
You don’t have a shut-off valve somewhere on the feed lines for the shower? that wouldn’t meet current plumbing code here in the USA. While the plumber’s there replacing the mixing valve, ask him to add shut-offs.
Plumbers already struggle to carry all the necessary fittings, elbows, couplers and such. They often have to put something off or stop and go to the supplier because they just used their last particular sized, 22 degree elbow for one of the multiple kinds of pipe they deal with daily. They dont carry a wide selecti on of valve cartridges around with them. Its the nature of the business.
