Help requested with Bath Shower Attachment Valve Failure

RobB · Oct 26, 2010

Hi all - I am new to this but I hope you can help me a little. I put this on the valves & taps forum but have had no answers yet but fewer peole seem to look at that so here goes again... with pictures!

We have an old cast iron bath with the mixer tap with a valve to divert the water to the shower head. A traditional style one - two taps connecting in the centre to the shower diverter valve & then to one central spout.

Yesterday my girlfriend said this valve felt funny, made a cracking sound 😡 & now hardly any water comes out of the shower when switched to shower, but mainly from the tap.

I took off the valve handle & front of the valve & can see a plastic [?nylon] valve part that moves up & down freely & does not appear broken. Does the main plastic valve come out by taking off the tap spout or is it not replacable? 😕

I also took the shower hose connection off & can see another small plastic part that fits into the bottom of the shower pipe with a spring loaded plunger in it. Is it this part that has failed maybe? Nothing looks wrong... Is it a filter? 😕

Any good ideas please? 😉

kay-jay · Oct 26, 2010

sounds like the spring has come away from the diverter. does the diverter now feel like there is no resistance when you try to operate it?
that probably is a filter tho

KJ

RobB · Oct 26, 2010

Thanks kay-jay - well it feels the same actually - is there a spring below the plastic valve part that may have broken? It certainly moves up & down with no resistance.

[There is a small spring loaded plunger in the small 'filter' but that seesm to work normally.]
Rob

kay-jay · Oct 27, 2010

well i haven't seen one like yours and from your post it sounded like something had gone preventing the diverter from moving inside when you hand operate the knob.
normally its the water pressure that keeps it in the open position for the shower. have you had any plumbing work done elsewhere in the house that could have resulted in the flow to the taps being restricted by debris etc??
i would try removing pipework from the taps, and do a pressure test on both hot and cold then refer to the manufacturers instructions regarding required pressures for operation. however if it worked previously and has just stopped it is likely that its some kind of debris or the mechanism has broken somehow. again look at manufacturers instructions (should be available online) to find out how it should all be assembled and how it should operate. armed with this info the fault may become obvious

KJ

RobB · Oct 27, 2010

No changes to plumbing, just the cracking sound. Maybe it has broken but where it cannot be seen until completely taken apart.

OK thanks will try to find details the manufacturers name on the tap labels is Barber Wilsons.

As you say its a bit unusual in that the pipe centres are 254mm / 10" apart rather than the standard 180mm / 7"... Any ideas who makes them now? I did not find any on the web yesterday...