Having some problems with my son's shower valve - marked "Force 10
Thermostatic".

Not sure if this is the manufacturer's name or the model name. There
are no other markings on the shower. Have googled it without success.

Has anybody ever heard of this name?

Pete

On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 03:09:40 -0700, petek wrote:

Having some problems with my son's shower valve - marked "Force 10
Thermostatic".

Not sure if this is the manufacturer's name or the model name. There
are no other markings on the shower. Have googled it without success.

Has anybody ever heard of this name?

Pete

nope.

Pictures might reveal possibility of it being a badge-engineered version
of an more familiar make & model.

Is it concealed (embedded in wall) or exposed?

--
John Stumbles

Fundamentalist agnostic

On 31 Jul, 22:41, John Stumbles wrote:
On Tue, 31 Jul 2007 03:09:40 -0700, petek wrote:
Having some problems with my son's shower valve - marked "Force 10
Thermostatic".

Not sure if this is the manufacturer's name or the model name. There
are no other markings on the shower. Have googled it without success.

Has anybody ever heard of this name?

Pete

nope.

Pictures might reveal possibility of it being a badge-engineered version
of an more familiar make & model.

Is it concealed (embedded in wall) or exposed?

--
John Stumbles

Fundamentalist agnostic

I'm also coming to the conclusion that it is a badge-engineering job.
Unfortunately I will not have time to post any photo's as my son & d-
in-law live in Sheffield, I'm in Chorley in Lancashire and my next
visit is not until Fri this week. I'm going to have another go at
dismantling, lubricating and re-assembling but as a contingency I've
just bought a replacement from B&Q which is the same style (Gold/
porcelain) and appears to have similar fitting dimensions for hot &
cold inlets (it's a surface mount by the way). If I can't get the
existing one working on Fri, then I'll give up and fit the new one in
it's place as they are getting rather desperate to have a shower!

I'll take some photo's in any case, you never know when someone else
will have a similar problem.

Thanks for your interest.

Pete

On Aug 1, 9:50 pm, petek wrote:
I'm also coming to the conclusion that it is a badge-engineering job.
Unfortunately I will not have time to post any photo's as my son & d-
in-law live in Sheffield, I'm in Chorley in Lancashire and my next
visit is not until Fri this week. I'm going to have another go at
dismantling, lubricating and re-assembling but as a contingency I've
just bought a replacement from B&Q which is the same style (Gold/
porcelain) and appears to have similar fitting dimensions for hot &
cold inlets (it's a surface mount by the way). If I can't get the
existing one working on Fri, then I'll give up and fit the new one in
it's place as they are getting rather desperate to have a shower!

I'll take some photo's in any case, you never know when someone else
will have a similar problem.

Hi,

Theres a small chance the mixer isn't plumbed correctly and/or the
cold feed isn't good enough.

This would cause the mixer to throttle the hot supply which would make
the boiler switch on and off causing the temperature to go all over
the place.

This could be caused by a restriction in the cold supply or if the
cold supply is taken from a loft tank.

One way to test if the mixer is OK is rig it to bath taps that are not
fed from a combi, eg fed from a cylinder/loft tank instead.

This looks like the contact details for the shower maker, maybe they
could confirm the shower is alright for a combi and maybe diagnose the
problem:

http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/directory/Company.asp?
Action=View&ID=EA65480E1D5A4C8B80C582A9F27A5713

cheers,
Pete.

On 1 Aug, 22:42, Pete C wrote:
On Aug 1, 9:50 pm, petek wrote: I'm also coming to the conclusion that it is a badge-engineering job.
Unfortunately I will not have time to post any photo's as my son & d-
in-law live in Sheffield, I'm in Chorley in Lancashire and my next
visit is not until Fri this week. I'm going to have another go at
dismantling, lubricating and re-assembling but as a contingency I've
just bought a replacement from B&Q which is the same style (Gold/
porcelain) and appears to have similar fitting dimensions for hot &
cold inlets (it's a surface mount by the way). If I can't get the
existing one working on Fri, then I'll give up and fit the new one in
it's place as they are getting rather desperate to have a shower!

I'll take some photo's in any case, you never know when someone else
will have a similar problem.

Hi,

Theres a small chance the mixer isn't plumbed correctly and/or the
cold feed isn't good enough.

This would cause the mixer to throttle the hot supply which would make
the boiler switch on and off causing the temperature to go all over
the place.

This could be caused by a restriction in the cold supply or if the
cold supply is taken from a loft tank.

One way to test if the mixer is OK is rig it to bath taps that are not
fed from a combi, eg fed from a cylinder/loft tank instead.

This looks like the contact details for the shower maker, maybe they
could confirm the shower is alright for a combi and maybe diagnose the
problem:

http://www.homebuilding.co.uk/directory/Company.asp?
Action=View&ID=EA65480E1D5A4C8B80C582A9F27A5713

cheers,
Pete.

After many hours of my searching t'internet for "Force 10" without
success you appear to have come up with the goods! Many, many thanks!

Will give them a call tomorrow morning for advice before I resort to
fitting the B&Q job.

I understand what you mean by a dodgy cold supply, but to the best of
my knowledge it is mains fed and the hot supply is from the combi
boiler. Unfortunately as there is no other supply in the house I can't
connect it up any other way to test the valve as you suggest. The
symptoms could however point to the cold supply, as you say, so I will
try to find some method of checking it (there's plenty of cold flow to
the washbasin next to the shower, but this doesn't necesssarily mean
the shower cold is OK).

Thanks again
Pete

On Aug 2, 6:31 pm, petek wrote:

After many hours of my searching t'internet for "Force 10" without
success you appear to have come up with the goods! Many, many thanks!

Will give them a call tomorrow morning for advice before I resort to
fitting the B&Q job.

I understand what you mean by a dodgy cold supply, but to the best of
my knowledge it is mains fed and the hot supply is from the combi
boiler. Unfortunately as there is no other supply in the house I can't
connect it up any other way to test the valve as you suggest. The
symptoms could however point to the cold supply, as you say, so I will
try to find some method of checking it (there's plenty of cold flow to
the washbasin next to the shower, but this doesn't necesssarily mean
the shower cold is OK).

One cause though quite unlikely, the mains supply to the property
isn't enough to supply the both the cold water and the combi at the
pressure it needs at the same time.

If you turn on a hot tap connected to the combi and then turn on a
mains cold tap, there shouldn't be any drop off in the flow from the
hot tap.

cheers,
Pete.

On 2 Aug, 19:02, Pete C wrote:
On Aug 2, 6:31 pm, petek wrote:



After many hours of my searching t'internet for "Force 10" without
success you appear to have come up with the goods! Many, many thanks!

Will give them a call tomorrow morning for advice before I resort to
fitting the B&Q job.

I understand what you mean by a dodgy cold supply, but to the best of
my knowledge it is mains fed and the hot supply is from the combi
boiler. Unfortunately as there is no other supply in the house I can't
connect it up any other way to test the valve as you suggest. The
symptoms could however point to the cold supply, as you say, so I will
try to find some method of checking it (there's plenty of cold flow to
the washbasin next to the shower, but this doesn't necesssarily mean
the shower cold is OK).

One cause though quite unlikely, the mains supply to the property
isn't enough to supply the both the cold water and the combi at the
pressure it needs at the same time.

If you turn on a hot tap connected to the combi and then turn on a
mains cold tap, there shouldn't be any drop off in the flow from the
hot tap.

cheers,
Pete.

Thanks Pete, I'll try this as well just to make sure. Will let you
know how I get on.

Cheers
Pete (K)

On 2 Aug, 19:20, petek wrote:
On 2 Aug, 19:02, Pete C wrote:





On Aug 2, 6:31 pm, petek wrote:

After many hours of my searching t'internet for "Force10" without
success you appear to have come up with the goods! Many, many thanks!

Will give them a call tomorrow morning for advice before I resort to
fitting the B&Q job.

I understand what you mean by a dodgy cold supply, but to the best of
my knowledge it is mains fed and the hot supply is from the combi
boiler. Unfortunately as there is no other supply in the house I can't
connect it up any other way to test the valve as you suggest. The
symptoms could however point to the cold supply, as you say, so I will
try to find some method of checking it (there's plenty of cold flow to
the washbasin next to theshower, but this doesn't necesssarily mean
theshowercold is OK).

One cause though quite unlikely, the mains supply to the property
isn't enough to supply the both the cold water and the combi at the
pressure it needs at the same time.

If you turn on a hot tap connected to the combi and then turn on a
mains cold tap, there shouldn't be any drop off in the flow from the
hot tap.

cheers,
Pete.

Thanks Pete, I'll try this as well just to make sure. Will let you
know how I get on.

Cheers
Pete (K)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Quite an eventful visit to my son & d-in-law's house last Fri re this
shower problem. Started by going to the address given for "Force 10"
in Leeds in person only to find that they went out of business in
2004!

Anyway carried on to their house where I dismantled the shower yet
again, and checked that there was what seemed to be an adequate flow
of cold water from the exposed stub end of pipe - there was, so that
was OK. Incidently there was no flow restictor or filter fitted in the
hot or cold inlets - don't know if there should have been or not. I
took some pictures of the valve and dismantled parts which can be seen
here if anyone is interested.

http://www.virginmediaphotos.co.uk/album/6209736

I thoroughly cleaned all the bits and greased them with silicon(e?)
grease before re-assembling. Probably minor improvement in temperature
control but still not very good.

Co-incidentally, my d-in-law had arranged for the B Gas fitter to call
on Fri to service the boiler under their maintenance contract which
they were transferring from their old house. When he had finished he
said that the boiler had a problem with the modulator control on the
hot water which was not functioning correctly, so this may have
something to do with the temperature control problem with the shower.
He also dropped a bombshell by stating that the flue terminal was
situated in a dangerous position and therefore slapped a "Do Not Use"
notice on the boiler! Because of this he could not fix the modulator
problem which needed spare parts. I shall be posting a separate
message about this for advice.

So...... temperature control is still "iffy", and will have to remain
so until we get the boiler sorted out, as this could be a significant
factor.

Hope this rambling post may help others in a similar situation, and
thanks again for your interest.

Pete