Mira Discovery concealed shower unit need some help to fix the problems please!

[notasausage]

We have 2 of these in various states of disrepair in a house we bought. One doesn't switch off or on reliably needing a few twists of the lever back and forward. It also makes a horrible shreeking noise when it's on that changes if you push againsts the controls.

The other one doesn't mix and is either scalding hot or cold. I've found that you can get spares for these showers but am not sure which bit or bits we need.

www.shower-spares.co.uk/mira/discovery_thermostatic.htm

Can anyone help?

[CarpeJugulum]

Sounds like they're on their way out - sorry!

Ours did this, and plumber advised it was more economical to replace than for him to fix.

We moved house instead (not because of shower, but it helped!)

[PigletJohn]

Mira are a much better quality shower than you find in DIY sheds. I expect yours just has wear of replacable parts, and limescale. You can buy a service kit, but if you are not good at dismantling and mending things, and have to pay someone else to do it, there might be an hour oir two's work in it. I like to dismantle and dop all the parts in descaler as I go, and re-assemble using plenty of silicone grease, with all new seals and PTFE tape on threaded joints.

If yours were fitted when the house had a water tank, and kept when a Combi or other high-pressure system was fitted, then they might have the wrong cartridge. If you have tank-fed hot and main-pressure cold, that will always cause problems mith any mixer.

You can buy quite a good shower mixer for a few hundred pounds, or quite a bad one for much less. I would always recommend getting a surface mounted one because it is vastly easier and cheaper to swap or remove for repair.

[fossil97]

Try a plumber first - or even ring Mira's technical department? You can get a lot of spares for a Mira, they are meant to be a reliable brand, I hope so because I have just put two of that exact same shower in. Maybe the thermostatic cartridges have packed up?

Did they used to work or could they have been badly installed?

[jen127]

Check the filter inside the both of the showers for blockages
From showerdoc page -
At certain flows/pressures and temperatures the valve makes a high pitch noise. Mira suggest turning the incoming pressures down and making sure hot and cold are balanced. The Mira discovery has a max static pressure of 10 bar and a maintained pressure of 5 bar max. My static pressure is 5 bar (measured from an adjacent supply to a sink) Havent mesured maintained pressure but should be less then 5 bar. Anyway, I've turned down the isolation ball valves on the supply to the shower and it has improved the situation but still get a high pitch noise but now for 5 seconds maximum.

Yes the noise is caused by uneven pressures usually fitting a pressure reducing valve (normally on the cold) will solve this problem.

www.shower-warehouse.co.uk/erol.html#55x1087

I would go on to the shower doc page and post a question on the mira discovery forum.

www.showerdoc.co.uk/forum/phpBB3/search.php?fid[]=7

[notasausage]

Thanks Jen. It did get worse when we upped the pressure ( it had been turned down following a leak before we bought it). Will try your suggestions and see how we get on.