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thermostatic shower advice please - Mira or not?

The Mira Excel is excellent, just about the best mixer shower out there. Tried and tested. You shouldn’t have any trouble with a concealed version if you get a good plumber to fit it. The thermostatic cartridge should give you at least ten years life then you fit another one and the thing’s as good as new again.
 
I've had a Mira concealed thermostatic in place since 1987 on a gravity feed hot water system and it still functions fine. I believe its a Mira 729 probably long since discontinued but a kit of service O rings is still available from Mira in Yate as very reasonable price

My Plumber did not fit isolating valves on the concealed pipework so whole house water system is down when shower is out for maintenance so to minimise downtime during descaling and fitting new O rings
I did buy a second body sometime back in the mid 90's and now I have one fully descaled and serviced body as a spare ready to install when I take the other body out for descaling /servicing

I do this every few years as the water here in Bath is quite hard. The 729 is a basic bimetallic coil thermostat acting on a perforated rotating circular sleeve for temp control

In hard water areas ensuring that you operate the temp control from full cold to full hot during every use and allowing the mechanism to fully modulate keeps the sleeve movement free

If like my wife and daughters you leave the temp on constant setting you will need to service every few years to get the free movement back to control the temp

I believe more modern thermostats use different capsule type temp control

eddie
 
Thanks all…Based on some of the responses here and some research, I have just ordered a Mira Excel recessed.
Thanks again for all the advice
 
It never ceases to amaze me when I’m in the UK to see your incredibly complicated showers!
Here we have simple thermostatic taps that automatically mix hot and cold to the desired temperature, with no box, no electricity.
I never quite understood how British bathrooms work!
Come to France and behold the sheer simplicity of our plumbing!
 
It never ceases to amaze me when I’m in the UK to see your incredibly complicated showers!
Here we have simple thermostatic taps that automatically mix hot and cold to the desired temperature, with no box, no electricity.
I never quite understood how British bathrooms work!
Come to France and behold the sheer simplicity of our plumbing!
Is that an invite? Can I bring the wife and kids
 
It never ceases to amaze me when I’m in the UK to see your incredibly complicated showers!
Here we have simple thermostatic taps that automatically mix hot and cold to the desired temperature, with no box, no electricity.
I never quite understood how British bathrooms work!
Come to France and behold the sheer simplicity of our plumbing!
When taking apart a Mira shower valve that started to leak after 15 years i agree with you there is very little inside the valve and the recent excel shower unit i replaced after 26 years cost about £360. On the other hand cheapo combi shower units can be purchased for less than £100. The only problem is no cheapo spares when it fails in a few years and hole centres of pipes coming through those expensive tiles are in the wrong place.
 
If you mean are they the same thing, then not quite (although they both need an electric feed).

Electric is a shower that heats the water. It just has a (mains pressure) cold water feed.
Power shower just has a pump, and requires a hot and cold water (low pressure) feed.

Both types can be thermostatic or manual.

But as you say, neither are what you are after.

I agree with the surface mount comments, burying pipes in walls is fine unless something goes wrong. The Aqualisa Quartz uses the raiser rail as the water feed (with the pump/control in the attic), so looks uncluttered, despite being surface mount.
Similar here, an Aqualisa Visage power shower with pump in loft. My plumber mate who installed it comments it’s a hotel quality shower whenever he stays, a combi version is available too if I recall. He also says he installed easily accessible isolation valves saying many miss this when they’re installing but can save a world of grief for problems or replacement in future years.

Question for the smart folk, does the pipe work make a difference for those reworking their bathrooms ie. 15mm or 22mm, I can’t remember this aspect.

Mil46 you didn’t actually say how much you were looking at, I paid £300 for the pump version of the Visage at the time!
 
Similar here, an Aqualisa Visage power shower with pump in loft. My plumber mate who installed it comments it’s a hotel quality shower whenever he stays, a combi version is available too if I recall. He also says he installed easily accessible isolation valves saying many miss this when they’re installing but can save a world of grief for problems or replacement in future years.

Question for the smart folk, does the pipe work make a difference for those reworking their bathrooms ie. 15mm or 22mm, I can’t remember this aspect.

Mil46 you didn’t actually say how much you were looking at, I paid £300 for the pump version of the Visage at the time!
Around £400. The reason Ive ordered the Mira is the claimed performance on low pressure systems. Apparently the Mira Excel is one of the best performing valves for low pressure (without going to a pumped system). I cant confirm or deny that, just what I have researched.
 
I have a Mira Excel on a low pressure shower system. It has performed faultlessly for over twenty years. I recently replaced the temperature control indicator ring simply because the numbers had worn off the old one after two decades of daily use. I was pleased to find that all spare parts are still available. I'd not buy anything else. Most of the stuff sold in places like B&Q is complete rubbish.
 
But you don’t need a box to do that. Why you Brits keep on using those contraptions is beyond my understanding. I’ve never seen them anywhere else.
 
The shower systems. The pumps. The Mira thingy. It serves no purpose I can understand in my own context.
 
The shower systems. The pumps. The Mira thingy. It serves no purpose I can understand in my own context.
You must have a Mira thingy (as you call it) otherwise how do you control the flow and/or temperature when you have a shower? In its simplest form it’s a valve to control those two elements… you must need them in France?
 


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