Plumbing: Bath water & Thermostatic Mixing Valves

  • Thread starter Thread starter rjk
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rjk

rjk

rjk

Caporegime
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Hi

So I moved into a brand new house in November, the bath has always been luke warm despite the sink, right next to it being able to scald you after only a few moments of running the water.

So, Barratt send a plumbing/heating specialist to inspect it.

He mentions that the bath may have been plumbed in wrong and agrees with me that the water is simply not hot enough.

Defect inspection this morning as the house is approaching the end of its 1 year defect period and the inspectors mention that the Bath water will be on a valve and probably just needs adjusting. The whole bathroom is a total disaster and was clearly a Friday afternoon job. They are sending people to sort all the other bits but I want to fix this issue with the bath myself, or at least have an understanding of what to do to fix it.

Being impatient and keen to do things myself, I looked into this further:
- new building regs in 2009 mean that all baths must have a TMV.
- temperature of the water leaving the tap will not exceed 48'C

now, not exceeding 48'C and being nowhere close to 48'C are two very different things.

presumably this is to stop stupid people from boiling babies in hot baths, given that my house has zero babies to boil and is occupied by two competent grown ups, I think that myself and Mrs rjk are qualified enough to run a bath to a desired temperature without RoSPA's Hot Bath Water Safety Campaign interfering with our bath time agenda.

If I want to come out of the bath looking like a hairy lobster, then I bloody well will do.


My questions are as follows:

1. Is it just a case of turning the valve to adjust?
2. can you turn it so that it doesnt mix cold water at all?
3. If the answer to question 2 is 'no', can I have the TMV removed entirely?


Cheers
 
Most you can adjust but some are factory fixed at 46°C
If it is fixed then I would remove it
If you can adjust it then just set it to max (normally 60°C)
 
It'll just be a badly adjusted bath mixer valve. The thermostatic valves need to be adjusted correctly, normally by removing something and rotating a spindle one way or the other.

If you want to make sure it's the valve, you could test the hot pipe to the bath before the mixer, but they'll probably check that anyway.
 
Whilst 48 might not sound hot but you'll be surprised.

If the valve can be adjusted to that then i'd be happy enough with it, wouldn't mess about taking it out.

Anything over around 40 to 45 (IIRC) will feel incredibly uncomfortable to bath in.
 
Cheers for the help. Turns out it was easy as turning a tap.

Moved it to the hottest position and it works just like the sink tap now. Bloody health and safety.
 
the dial on the TMV was covered by a plastic cover

i had to pry that off, then once that was off, unscrew the counterlocking nut.

allen key in the center of the TMV and rotated fully to the hot position. reinstall and tighten counterlock.

Im not surprised the water was luke warm there was 180' of rotation on the valve.
with 0' being cold and 180' being hottest, the dial was set to around 25'
 
I had to get my TMV replaced, it was 4 years old, but still under the 5 year Barrat warranty, so no issue, but the guy who replaced it said to expect to do it again in about another 4 years, and that he was expecting loads more call outs for the same problem in the rest of the development. Still, a free repair is a free repair :D
 
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