Single Lever bath tap

[venys]

We need to replace our avocado bath as it now has a hole in it :( We have young children who love turning on the two lever taps, so I was thinking that we have a single lever tap instead to minimise the risk of them turning on either just cold or just hot. But it seems there are very few options like this. All the bath taps are double levered and all the baths have two tap holes (I have found one option but it does not seem common). The shower is up the other end of the bath, so won't be getting a single lever tap that goes with combining it with the shower head. Any thoughts of whether I am asking for something out of the question? How do you plumb a single lever tap anyway? Do you just need one hole in the bath or does hot and cold come through a hole eaxh and then it's mixed afterwards?

have you got a hot water cylinder? What colour?

A single lever (joystick) tap will have a ceramic mechanism, and be less reliable than two. Depending on your plumbing system, it may wear and allow cold water to leak into the hot pipes.

www.tapwarehouse.com/product/16 this one maybe?

I have something similar to this, and it works really well. It's one hole drilled into the corner of the bath, not 100% sure how it was plumbed though!

Oh yes Shadow - that was already on my Pinterest page. :) Piglet, we have a combi boiler with reasonable pressure. (Don't ask me numbers thorough). Do you think it will cause problems with this set up ??

ok, a combi boiler will give nearly equal pressures on hot and cold, so you are unlikely to get leakage between the two.

And the combi will limit the amount of hot water available, so reduction in flow by a single mixer probably won't matter.

Awesome piglet. So do you know if I order a bath with one tap hole still? (Just don't know the mechanics underneath the tap - but slowly learning. I had to replace the gubbins in the toilet a couple of years ago. Was very pleased with myself).

I looked on the Bristan site, they have some one-hole taps though the one I looked at was out of stock (and about £600)

There should be installation instructions online.

I'd expect to find copper tails (pipes) sticking out of the bottom of the tap, possibly screwed in, and you connect onto the tails. They might not need a tap connector, which is screw fit.

Try to avoid 15mm flexible braided connectors, because they are smaller inside and will restrict flow. They do also sometimes leak, though I have not found agreement on a good brand. Your pipes will be at high pressure.

Hep2O is a very expensive brand, which might mean something.
www.screwfix.com/p/hep2o-hd225b-22w-flexible-tap-connectors-silver-22mm-x-2-pack/5530r

Old plumbers can bend copper pipe neatly, but they moan that nobody under pension age can do it.

Old plumbers moan a lot.

Your last comment made me laugh. I think if I spent my entire career under baths, sinks, toilets and drains ,I would moan a lot too. Thanks for the advice and no won't be spending £600 on a tap - that's more than the bath!! You are probably right about the braided pipe. An old friend just posted on FB about a giant flood at theirs late one evening caused by one of those corroding!!

We have one a bit like this: www.grohe.com/ie/21226/product-search/#!/browse,5/G161,1/33591001,1//s%281%29:1%28G161%29

They're really common where I live (Belgium), but tend to be wall-mounted (like the one in the link), rather than mounted on the bath. The hot and cold comes through the wall in separate pipes, and is mixed in the tap. They do seem to also do ones to mount on a bath: www.grohe.com/ie/21226/product-search/#!/browse,5/G287,2/33612002,1//s%281%29:1%28G287%29

Not sure it will solve your problem though. Mixer tap levers are pretty easy for small children to move - my youngest (under 2) easily pushed it to scalding hot last night as I was rinsing DS's hair!

Yeah I saw that one but I think it has a but on the front for the shower hose? Alas not having wall mounted taps - just doing a patch job on the existing bathroom so sticking with the existing pipe work in the floor. You are right , I could be making an issue out of nothing and Ultimately we rely on the boiler temperature limit to stop scalding. I think I am just not a fan of the two taps!!