Any plumbers in da house.

[Andyg]

My wife has instructed me to change the taps in one of the bathrooms and to fit Thermostatic Valves to the rads.

Therefore can anyone recommend quality tap (other than HansGrohe or Grohe) and TRV manufacturer.

Many thanks Andy

[Glamdring]

Taps are priced according to quality. Choose the style you like - ceramic disc mechanism - and buy them.
Thermostatic valves are inaccurate and will take years before you recoup the outlay. Try Peglers, they used to make good quality ones. It's the tech itself that's old and not much good. The DIY guy in the Daily Telegraph was always disparaging about these valves.

[Andyg]

Taps are priced according to quality. Choose the style you like - ceramic disc mechanism - and buy them.
Thermostatic valves are inaccurate and will take years before you recoup the outlay. Try Peglers, they used to make good quality ones. It's the tech itself that's old and not much good. The DIY guy in the Daily Telegraph was always disparaging about these valves.

I agree, however we are having a new boiler/unvented tank, etc so the system has to be drainned - also we have a few rooms which are not used that much so I can have them a bit cooler than others - currently my wife keeps running round adjusting the system and its doing my head in :D

Thanks Andy

[rincewind]

Isn't it compulsory to fit thermostatic valves these days? Screwfix do some decent taps and TRV's at nice prices.

[Glamdring]

Saves an apparent £10 a year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/radiatorvalves.shtml
Maybe.
Not compulsory though. I do believe that there are plans to limit heat output from hot taps to 60degC.
My system, not counting the boiler, is over 30 years old, has imperial piping and all the valves are broken in the open position, except the box room which is shut off. I'd have to replace the whole system to fix it. £5k minimum, six radiators?

[Purple Fox]

As above, you get what you pay for but do shop around, especially for the taps.

For the rad valves, I would try Screwfix and go with a make like Peglar, Drayton, Siemens etc.

Also, if you choose a ceramic disc tap make sure you have enough pressure in your hot water. If you have a combi boiler then you will be fine. If you have a standard HW tank then you may not have enough pressure and the flow could be poor. Just a thought worth considering.

Victoria Plumb and Bath Store have sales on at the mo. We just bought a kitchen tap from http://www.concepttaps.co.uk price was good, so was service and the tap is good quality.

EDIT, Just seen your post about unvented HW so you will be fine with ceramic disk. By the way, unvented HW systems are fantastic, well worth it. :lol:

[hogthrob]

Saves an apparent £10 a year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/radiatorvalves.shtml
Maybe.
Not compulsory though. I do believe that there are plans to limit heat output from hot taps to 60degC.
My system, not counting the boiler, is over 30 years old, has imperial piping and all the valves are broken in the open position, except the box room which is shut off. I'd have to replace the whole system to fix it. £5k minimum, six radiators?

Won't 15mm TRVs fit your pipes?

[Glamdring]

You'd have to see the cocked-up mess the pipes are in to understand why I say 'no'. I think it's an ancient DIY project that I daren't touch without bringing the whole thing down. It works if I leave it alone!

[Andyg]

Saves an apparent £10 a year. http://www.bbc.co.uk/bloom/actions/radiatorvalves.shtml
Maybe.
Not compulsory though. I do believe that there are plans to limit heat output from hot taps to 60degC.
My system, not counting the boiler, is over 30 years old, has imperial piping and all the valves are broken in the open position, except the box room which is shut off. I'd have to replace the whole system to fix it. £5k minimum, six radiators?

As my plumber said to me - I can keep £5K in the bank and earn about £50 a year interest or spend the £5K on a new heating system and save yourself about £400 quid a year in oil - He reckons our old boiler (1990) is about 65% efficent - the new one will be 95%. This plus the ability to remove the header tank from the loft, replace the old hot water tank (again 1990), remove the shower pumps, help save the planet :D makes it a bit of a no brainer for me. Please note this is to drive 17 rads, 3 bathrooms and a wife who seems to need to shower at least 2 time a day - dirty girl :D

Thanks for the help on this - as for the TRV - now looking a Danfoss RAS-C2 from ScrewFix - however as I need 17 of them I need to make sure!!

Andy

[Chabsy]

The DIY guy in the Daily Telegraph was always disparaging about these valves.

Do Telegraph readers do DIY? I thought that a little man came in.

[seikopath]

afaik thermostatic valves are only compulsory on new installations.

[tekkno]

other than HansGrohe or Grohe

why not Grohe? They make great taps?

[Andyg]

other than HansGrohe or Grohe

why not Grohe? They make great taps?

Cannot find what I am looking for - deck mounted bath/shower thermostatic mixer tap :(

Andy

[BRGRSP]

Checkout the Aqualisa range, great product backed up by a superb after sales service, and most of their products carry a 5 year warranty.

As for TRV's, go Drayton.

B.

[tekkno]

other than HansGrohe or Grohe

why not Grohe? They make great taps?

Cannot find what I am looking for - deck mounted bath/shower thermostatic mixer tap :(

Andy

Ahhh! Okay. I would second the Aqualisa range also, great warranty.

[BRGRSP]

As an after thought, don't just rely on the likes of Screwfix, try your local plumbers merchant, give them a chance at quoting you for the whole package, you might be pleasantly surprised :wink:

[Stanford]

As an after thought, don't just rely on the likes of Screwfix, try your local plumbers merchant, give them a chance at quoting you for the whole package, you might be pleasantly surprised :wink:

...and possibly not pleasantly - my local merchant is at least 40% more expensive on everything :shock:
Another vote for Aqualisa, though :)

[Purple Fox]

other than HansGrohe or Grohe

why not Grohe? They make great taps?

Cannot find what I am looking for - deck mounted bath/shower thermostatic mixer tap :(


Andy

Do you want something like this:



with these unions for deck / bath mounting:



Its Hansgrohe which you said you didn't want but they do make good stuff. I bought all of the above for £50 from B&Q a few months back. I think someone had incorrectly marked it down as it was an unopened box which should have been over £350!!

[BRGRSP]

As an after thought, don't just rely on the likes of Screwfix, try your local plumbers merchant, give them a chance at quoting you for the whole package, you might be pleasantly surprised :wink:

...and possibly not pleasantly - my local merchant is at least 40% more expensive on everything :shock:
Another vote for Aqualisa, though :)

That being the case I'm very suprised he's still trading then, there again if you don't ask you don't get :wink:

[BRGRSP]

I fit quite a few from these guy's http://www.tremercati.co.uk/

TBH,good value for money but not the quality of Aqualisa, but neither the price 8)

[Andyg]

These were all top tips - many thanks to everyone.

I finished up getting Grohtherm 1000, with the Piller Unions and a Europlus Monobloc for £320 delivered :D - previously I was unaware of the Union option for convering wall mounted taps to deck mounted - the Grohe also came with a 5 year warrenty and parts seemed easier to get.

As for the TRV I went for Danfoss RAS-C2 as these seemed to have the liquid rather than wax caps installed and were more sensitive (so I was informed :? ) from Srewfix.

Any recommendation on a 200-300 litre Unvented Wanter tank????

Once again thanks for all your help.

Andy

[Purple Fox]

Glad you got it sorted, the unions are indeed a nice option for deck mounting but I found depending on the type of mixer you have it sticks out quite a bit into the bath, it just means you have to be careful not to bash your shins on it and also it needs cleaning a lot if you live in a hard water area and have OCD. :D

When I was looking for tanks I think the leader seemed to be megaflow by Heatrae Sadia but they were quite dear, I was on a budget as I was renovating the whole house. I ended up getting a 210 litre Ariston tank which has been brilliant. I bought it off eBay actually, it was new and in the box but the guy had ordered the wrong size and the merchant wouldnt take it back.

We have a 32kw boiler and it heats the tank in about 25 mins which is just excellent. If you take a shower before the tank has heated up fully, you can feel the water getting warmer as you use it which is just brilliant. I found the Ariston a piece of cake to fit and it came with all the fittings, motorised valve, expansion chamber etc. We have a 5 bed house with 1 bathroom and 3 showers. You can easily run all the showers at the same time and there is no drop in pressure if someone flushes a toilet or the dishwasher starts etc.

If I were to do the installation again, I would have left the cold water tank in the loft and used this for feeding the cold on the bath only. The reason is, if you open up both taps on the bath, both being 22mm the pressure drop is noticeable (bath still fills in under 3 mins but you would notice if you were in the shower) If the cold was being fed from a tank in loft, it would allow the mains water to keep the tank fully pressurised if you know what I mean.

[Andyg]

Glad you got it sorted, the unions are indeed a nice option for deck mounting but I found depending on the type of mixer you have it sticks out quite a bit into the bath, it just means you have to be careful not to bash your shins on it and also it needs cleaning a lot if you live in a hard water area and have OCD. :D

When I was looking for tanks I think the leader seemed to be megaflow by Heatrae Sadia but they were quite dear, I was on a budget as I was renovating the whole house. I ended up getting a 210 litre Ariston tank which has been brilliant. I bought it off eBay actually, it was new and in the box but the guy had ordered the wrong size and the merchant wouldnt take it back.

We have a 32kw boiler and it heats the tank in about 25 mins which is just excellent. If you take a shower before the tank has heated up fully, you can feel the water getting warmer as you use it which is just brilliant. I found the Ariston a piece of cake to fit and it came with all the fittings, motorised valve, expansion chamber etc. We have a 5 bed house with 1 bathroom and 3 showers. You can easily run all the showers at the same time and there is no drop in pressure if someone flushes a toilet or the dishwasher starts etc.

If I were to do the installation again, I would have left the cold water tank in the loft and used this for feeding the cold on the bath only. The reason is, if you open up both taps on the bath, both being 22mm the pressure drop is noticeable (bath still fills in under 3 mins but you would notice if you were in the shower) If the cold was being fed from a tank in loft, it would allow the mains water to keep the tank fully pressurised if you know what I mean.

The wife has OCD so I got a water softener some years back :wink: . As for having it stick out - I actually wanted this because a) its for a Japanese Style "sitting bath" and plug hole is miles away from the tap, b) because I can loop the exposed shower hose under the taps - make it "tidy" - hopefully :D c) I never will use it anyway - I have my own "on-suite" complete with high pressure turbo nutter bastard shower.

Thanks for the recommendations on the tank - I shall investigate further.


Best regards Andy

[Glamdring]

Fill a bath in three minutes? My little combi boiler takes 15 minutes. I use a shower. :wink: