I'm looking for a new shower.

I've seen a Pegler Mimo (£99.99, page 460, Screwfix catalogue)
A Hansgrohe (£219 - including rail, handset, etc. - page 457, Screwfix)
An un-named bar mixer valve (£59.99, page 457, Screwfix)
A Triton Aire (various places including Argos and PlumbWorld where it's
currently discounted by £19.80 to £69.97)

Anyone got any views on the relative merits of these? Or a better
option? The prices vary hugely.

I also need a shower pump. Screwfix have a Salamander on page 458 at
£79.99. Anyone got any experience of these?

TIA.

--
F
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"F" wrote in message
...
I'm looking for a new shower.

I've seen a Pegler Mimo (£99.99, page 460, Screwfix catalogue)
A Hansgrohe (£219 - including rail, handset, etc. - page 457, Screwfix)
An un-named bar mixer valve (£59.99, page 457, Screwfix)
A Triton Aire (various places including Argos and PlumbWorld where it's
currently discounted by £19.80 to £69.97)

Anyone got any views on the relative merits of these? Or a better option?
The prices vary hugely.

I also need a shower pump. Screwfix have a Salamander on page 458 at
£79.99. Anyone got any experience of these?

TIA.

--
F
(Beware of spam trap - remove the negative)

I recently installed a new shower when I re did my bathroom. A plumber mate
of mine said go for an Aqualisa Quartz.
I followed his advice and must say its a fantastic bit of kit and dead easy
to fit.
The pump is part of the system.in my case a cold and hot feed go to a
briefcase sized box in the loft. This is a combined pump mixer and a single
pipe then feeds the shower.
Simple to use , dead simple to install I bought mine on ebay new and treated
myself to a remote on /off also from ebay. This is a low voltage controller
that sits outside the shower.....push it and it flashes till the temp is
reached in the shower.... you then enter the shower and the water is just
right !!!!!!!!
I love my shower.its quite amazing .. more expensive than some...... but for
me worth every penny!

good luck

Barry

Anyone got any views on the relative merits of these? Or a better
option? The prices vary hugely.

Do you have soft or hard water? The more expensive ones tend to be made of
brass, which resists scaling more effectively. Cheaper ones will scale up
within a year on hard water. Ensure that you fit a type that is both
pressure balanced AND thermostatic.

Personally, I've had as good service from cheap ones as expensive ones. We
are very pleased with my mum's Gainsborough Ambassador, whilst the much more
expensive Mira 415 is not as popular. This is largely because the former one
has separate flow and temperature controls. The Mira requires you to fiddle
about every time you use it as it only has a combined control. It is also
non-thermostatic.

Concealed valves look much better than surface mounted ones and give you
more room in the cubicle, especially on a 760x760, where space is at a
premium.

I also need a shower pump. Screwfix have a Salamander on page 458 at
£79.99. Anyone got any experience of these?

The main recommended pump is a Stuart Turner, such as a ShowerMate or a
Monsoon if you are feeling flush. If I had a middle ranking budget, I'd get
a good Stuart Turner pump and a cheap shower mixer, provided it was brass
bodied if hard water is involved.

Christian.

On 17/01/2006 11:55 Christian McArdle wrote:

Do you have soft or hard water?

Soft

Personally, I've had as good service from cheap ones as expensive ones.

Had to move on this and ended up getting the Triton Aire at £74 inc
carriage from Plumbworld.

We'll see if it's any good.

Concealed valves look much better than surface mounted ones and give you
more room in the cubicle, especially on a 760x760, where space is at a
premium.

I'm installing a 1200 x 760 tray in a shower room so the depth of the
bar shouldn't be an issue.

Screwfix have a Salamander on page 458 at
£79.99.

The main recommended pump is a Stuart Turner, such as a ShowerMate or a
Monsoon if you are feeling flush.

Not feeling flush at all! I went for the Salamander. I hadn't realised
that Showermate was a decent brand as I had seen it in Focus!

A little concerned that the Salamander's fitting instructions say not to
use more than 2M of 15mm pipe before the pump and there's more like 3.5M
which I can't replace.

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F
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Had to move on this and ended up getting the Triton Aire at £74 inc
carriage from Plumbworld.

We'll see if it's any good.

Bar types seem to be the first to go in hard water areas, but if you have
soft, this isn't an issue. The main problem is that it is not pressure
balancing. This means that it will be quite sensitive to taps being turned
on/off elsewhere in the house. This is because the thermostatic control is
usually quite slow. The pressure balancing control responds instantly to
other taps being open/closed (in much less than a second). This problem can
be considerably reduced by having separate pipe runs from the tank for the
cold and from a separate flange in the hot water cylinder.

A little concerned that the Salamander's fitting instructions say not to
use more than 2M of 15mm pipe before the pump and there's more like 3.5M
which I can't replace.

Don't worry about it, especially if you can place the pump near to the hot
water cylinder.

Christian.

On 17/01/2006 14:33 Christian McArdle wrote:

The main problem is that it is not pressure
balancing. This means that it will be quite sensitive to taps being turned
on/off elsewhere in the house. This is because the thermostatic control is
usually quite slow. The pressure balancing control responds instantly to
other taps being open/closed (in much less than a second). This problem can
be considerably reduced by having separate pipe runs from the tank for the
cold and from a separate flange in the hot water cylinder.

The blurb says 'Automatic shutdown shuts off if either the hot or cold
supplies fail'. Does this achieve the same as 'pressure balancing'?

The cold pipe run is a separate one from the cold water tank, the hot
tees off from the supply to the kitchen. Does this help?

Would the pump not compensate for other taps being turned on/off?

A little concerned that the Salamander's fitting instructions say not to
use more than 2M of 15mm pipe before the pump and there's more like 3.5M
which I can't replace.

Don't worry about it, especially if you can place the pump near to the hot
water cylinder.

It's ~3.5M from the cylinder - just under the shower room floor with
access from below.

And I thought this was going to be simple!

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F
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The blurb says 'Automatic shutdown shuts off if either the hot or cold
supplies fail'. Does this achieve the same as 'pressure balancing'?

No, although in a pressure balancing type, the two functions might be
combined.

The cold pipe run is a separate one from the cold water tank, the hot
tees off from the supply to the kitchen. Does this help?

OK, your main potential problem is kitchen hot taps.

Would the pump not compensate for other taps being turned on/off?

Possibly. Possibly not. It may just be a case of trying it out. You may find
no problem.

It's ~3.5M from the cylinder - just under the shower room floor with
access from below.

OK, but you may have trouble. Pumps prefer to blow, not suck.

Christian.

On 17/01/2006 16:01 Christian McArdle wrote:

The cold pipe run is a separate one from the cold water tank, the hot
tees off from the supply to the kitchen. Does this help?

OK, your main potential problem is kitchen hot taps.

Problem solved! Pump will be wired so that when it goes live, so does
the kitchen tap!!

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F
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OK, your main potential problem is kitchen hot taps.

Problem solved! Pump will be wired so that when it goes live, so does
the kitchen tap!!

Not heard of Part P, then? ;-)

Christian.