Do-it-yourself shower mixer repair: typical faults and their

What most often breaks in faucets, operated with a shower? Our article is devoted to typical malfunctions of these plumbing fixtures and their elimination. It does not claim to be complete: our task is to acquaint the reader only with the most characteristic problems of common constructions.

Mixer Types

Let's start with a small lyrical digression.

The device of the mixer for a shower cabin is defined first of all by the fact that it is for the cabin:

• Closed boxes are equipped with pre-installed plumbing fixtures, which are mounted, as a rule, on the cab's rear panel.

An important point: in this case, replacing the mixer in the shower requires free access to its rear wall. Accordingly, the connection to the sewage system must be movable (for example, a corrugated hose) or easily demountable.

• Open wall-mounted booths allow the use of conventional widely used wall mounted mixers. Accordingly, the list of typical problems in this case will be the same as that of any other device with a shower.

Integrated instruments

Their device is as unified as possible: an ordinary cartridge with ceramic plates is the same for adjusting the water pressure - the same as in any other single-lever mixer. The second ceramic cartridge is responsible for switching the shower mode.

Cartridges

Eliminating force majeure such as mechanical damage to the mixer housing, malfunctions of these products are reduced to the failure of one of the cartridges.

Seven woes - one answer: in all these cases, repair of a shower cabin - a mixer or a shower mode switch quite predictably comes down to replacing the cartridge.

How to disassemble the shower mixer for this operation:

1. We shut off the valve at the entrance to the apartment or house.
2. Remove the plastic cap on the handle of the mixer or switch.
3. Remove the handle.

1. Turn away the decorative nut (only with your own hands, without using tools, so as not to deform it and not damage the chrome finish).
2. Turn away the nut fixing the cartridge.
3. We change it to a new one and assemble the structure in the reverse order.

There is a small subtlety here: if you don’t know for sure which cartridges are installed in your stall, it’s better to go to the store for a replacement, taking the defective sample with you.

What is the reason for the instruction?

• Mixer cartridges can have different diameters (35 or 40 millimeters).
• Products for switching mode can have from 2 to 5 positions and vary in stem length.

Prevention

Agree, it will be inconsistent to describe ways to repair the product and not mention the reasons for its failure.

And the reasons, in fact, are only two:

1. Water quality. Dross or sand caught in the groove of the plates when trying to close them, do not allow it. The use of force leads to the fact that the ceramic plates are cleaved; as an option, plastic clamps are broken, holding them in the working position.

Note! The problem is completely solved by installation at the entrance to the apartment, immediately after the valves of a pair of coarse filters. The price of one filter is 120 - 200 rubles.

1. Application to the handle of considerable effort. Not only in those cases when water does not overlap or the shower mode does not switch: the habit of users to close the water with a sharp blow to the handle sent thousands and thousands of cartridges to Valhalla. As a rule, the notorious plastic retainers or rods under the handle break in them.

Mixer replacement

How to remove the mixer from a shower cabin for its full replacement?

Usually it is fixed on the back panel with wide decorative plates, which are pressed by the same nuts that fix the cartridges. Accordingly, the disassembly algorithm is the same as in the previous case; the disassembled faucet is removed from the holes on the back of the booth.

Less often, the lining has its own thread; in this case, they simply unscrew.

Important: it is also better to select a new mixer, having a defective sample on hand. These products, among other things, differ in the distance between the handles for adjusting the pressure and switching modes.

Wall faucets

Here are the most typical problems of these products.

Specify: of course, the problems of ceramic cartridges are relevant for these products. In order not to repeat, we omitted the list of relevant faults.

Conclusion

We sincerely hope that our short excursion into the theory and practice of plumbing repair will help the reader in solving simple everyday problems. The video in this article, as always, will make it more visual.

Successes!