Started watching without noticing it was 47 minutes (was looking for a quick tutorial) but I was soon hooked. This was drama with real tension and emotional highs and lows and I found myself willing Vince on to succeed in adversity. When that shower finally ran hot there was a little tear in my eye!
Same here. I was watching at night looking for a quick video but stayed hooked on till the end. I don't know how you managed to keep your head cool through so many obstacles esp during the flooding. I would have been swearing like anything.
Great video, no annoying loud music. You showed the problems worked them out and found the solution. I know plumbers would be laughing at you, but I’ve seen them make mistakes too!
This is just so eye opening how things are done in other parts of the world. In the USA water pressure is supplied by the city. We generally keep our hot water tanks in the basement or ground floor. Nothing is gravity fed. There's no need for pumps or anything unless you live in very rural areas. Don't be upset with your mistake. It's just a little bit of water. Who hasn't flooded their house before? Haha. Great video as always!
Really interesting video to watch as a few years ago I was the production foreman for a company in the UK that made really expensive, high end bathroom and kitchen fittings and I used to make, restore and rebuild, amongst other things thermostatic showers. The thermo cartridges are usually non serviceable apart from if they're lightly scaled. I think your temperature might not be right because you need to align the two red marks on the cartridge (one on the body and one on the centre spindle) before installation. If the cartridge is working properly this will be your 38°C temp setting. The white 'stop collar' is then fitted so the safety stop button engages on it's stop at the 38° mark and prevents the water from accidentally being made too hot. Interestingly, If the units were destined for oap customers the cartridge was set a couple of degrees cooler to err on the safe side.
I absolutely love these videos. Please do more! Shows real life problems, solved by real life people. Not some cheesy 3 minute corporate video that does not go into detail. As someone who likes to have a go and try and save money where I can I couldn’t recommend these videos enough
Love the video, the 'springs' are actually non-return valves that stop the water in the shower riser and head flowing back into the potable water pipes if there's a drop in pressure. Shower heads are pretty disgusting things inside, you wouldn't want that water in your kettle.
@@Mymatevince jack of all trades MASTER OF NONE!!!!!....that is such a pants saying ! i can do all my home repairs,i am a computer technician !...i don't have to pay a geezer to come and fix things in my home (the only people that come are to do the boiler !..for obvious reasons)...knowledge is power !...i can can do all my home fixing and i'm proud of it.It is good that you show it can be done,that is why i love this channel 😊
We are 2 women and had a great fun watching your video, mate! You are so funny but actually you are explaining so good and we followed you step by step and we fixed it. Thanks! Keep posting!
Good job V. Now you know how to remove the valve, yank it out again and stick it in an ultrasonic cleaner. Looks like you live in a fairly hard water area and those things get calcified over time - which will give you even more trouble with temperature control. An ultrasonic bath cleans them in a way that you can't really do mechanically. And when you're feeling up to it, pulling the assembly off the wall and leaving it to soak in a bowl of Kilrock or other descaler will bring it up like new.
Stumbled across this video whilst trying to find some sort of inspiration for exactly the same issue. Having never attempted anything plumbing related, this video gave me the confidence to not only give it a go but actually fix my mixer taps. They are still going strong today and I saved all of the costs of getting a plumber so big thanks!
You inspired me to take it apart and see why is not working. Managed to undo the thermostatic cartridge and non return valves. After good clean seems like new. Thank you!
your perseverence and good attitude is amazing... i also had huge issues with scaling, sometimes taking out sand and scale flakes out of the filters. it is good to use a descaler solution that will bubble the scaling inside the pipes and take it out. at the new house i installed a water station in order to get rid of this issue. however, now that water is not directly drinkable....
Great video, have enjoyed the home DIY videos as everyone can relate to them. It’s also great that you included the ‘flooding’ footage as these kind of things can happen to anyone when tackling new DIY tasks so we can all benefit from other’s experiences. I enjoy looking at your approach to problem solving. Great job!
Mistakes? Who the hell DOESN'T make mistakes?? You've got over 170 comments now on this clip, so i'm sure you won't see this, but i'd still like you to know: You've been entertaining me for years, Vince, and i am beyond grateful. But that's just the surface joy. Cause from being electronically illiterate just a few years ago, your persistence made me try harder, to the point where i've just completed a custom circuit board (albeit heavily modified from an existing design) that controls additional lights on my bike from the signal and brake lights inputs, through an arduino, and even created the gerber files to order a custom PCB for this project in the future. I still have to adapt the code for 4 LED strips, and of different lengths at that, but i wouldn't be here if it weren't for your enthusiasm for DIY. I appreciate watching a true craftsman at work, i appreciate a perfect restoration, a super skillful fix etc etc. But being here with you as we discover together what makes a certain device tick, and thinking about ways to fix without having to purchase new parts? Effin' priceless. You're too modest to realize it, but your persona is changing the world for the better.
Oh my God!! I absolutely love this. My shower has the exact same problem and I tried to sort it out. I turned the cold off but the hot one was on - it’s a cylinder so there were so many bit and quite confusing. It’s quite far from the shower so by the time I gif back the wooden floor was soaked and ruined it. So I just stuck it back on! So I was just about to buy the mixer shower and I came across your video!! I would never watch something this long! But it was sooo great! I’m sorry about your ceiling! And I love the wife comment!! lol bless you! For going through that and filming it!! So much gratitude to you sir!! ❤️❤️❤️
Love this, I wish I could do plumbing but my age, back, knees and arthritis stops me. However, you did influence this 72 year old woman to repair an NES, a sega genisis and a few xbox controllers. I'm still working on the super nintendo.
Great video, really appreciate your efforts, including the mishaps. Just the type of additional incidents many of us experience whilst trying to uncover the mysteries of household repairs. Keep the vids comming Vince your inspirational :)
Thanks so much for uploading this, just had to fix our broken mixer tap which was also only running cold. Turned out that it was likely just a limescale buildup and the initial clean process you demonstrated but didn't fix your tap did indeed work for ours so thanks for not cutting out the fault-finding part of the process!
This and the toilet cistern are examples of modern, overly complicated things that are not designed to last or be repaired. The cistern valve looks like something we'd have here in Australia, no where near as reliable as the brass ballcock and float I remember from the UK a few decades ago. Just be thankful you still repair stuff there. Plumbers here put everything together with oxy-acetylene and there are no cold header tanks or hot water tanks with coils in for back boilers.
Thankyou, I have the same problem and knew it was not the pump as the sink hot tap was boiling, I googled and clicked to your link and it answered every question I needed to know. You doing it from not knowing what was ahead with minimal tools and you not given up made this a fantastic video and I will tackle this tomorrow and as your method of teaching I will not forget or need you video next to me. Big thanks once again much appreciated.
Oh my 😂 out of all your videos, this one had me in stitches! The slow motion spring part 🤣 wow. Don't usually comment on YT vids but this one was gold! Thanks for cheering me up lolol
Really appreciate your video. Ive been chasing simalar issues this week. I didnt cause a flood but i did end up dropping the top half of the shower that connects the rain head to the bar and left a massive ding in the shower tray. I took my valve cartridge out but i think it broke in half and half of it stayed in the bar. I think the thermostatic bit is actually a wax motor that pushes out a stainless rod according to the temperature if the water usung the thermal expansion of wax. The tap just sets the preload on a heavy spring and that combined with the wax motor pushes the valve to the right position and if the temperature of the hot water drops the wax moves the valve to compensate and keep the output at the set temperature. I dont think mines going back together but then a whole new shower from wickes was only £5 more than a replacement valve. It all fell apart when i tried to take it out and the back half looks to be stuck down the hole. My biggest issue is pressure. I can pee higher pressure than hot water comes out of my taps and i cant figure out why when theres about 10 foot of head. Ill strip it all down and replace most of the pipe work at some point. Ill figure it out if it kills me
Thanks for this video Vince. I have just fixed the shower in our bathroom using the exact same methods, I think I got lucky and it worked first time though. Top job mate, keep up the good work.
The white plastic ring is the calibration piece. Take it off, go all the way to hot, measure temp, reduce until you get to 38c, then put the white ring on again.
I absolutely love this video well done for fixing it. I have the same problem but I’m not gonna attempt it. I’m going to get a plumber you did really well😂
Vince, A DIY plumbing project is never complete without a flood. Use the white collar to adjust the temperature. The last test is to flush the toilet while you're in it to see if the auto temp compensation is working. My kid and I would always flush the toilet when one or the other was in the shower for fun. After I replaced them with the auto temperature compensating valves, we used pitchers of water. Good times.....
The spring is to privent either hot or cold water to mix in the pipe. If you get hot water into the cold water, you get a bacterial scale up, and you can get sick of it. Thank you, filming project like this is so hard, and you do a great job doing just that.
Great videos, just a little tip when opening valvs always open them slowly because the sudden water pressure can kick loose bits and pieces inside the pipes
In this situation, some vinegar into the shower tap assembly would get you a few more years of use before needing to renew it. I need to take my Mira shower unit apart and 'vinegarise' it. Especially the boiler assembly if I can. Showers and taps with showers need to have a one-way valve as part of regulations to prevent 'dirty' water from going back into the system. My Grohe bath deck with built-in shower outlet has a one-way valve built in. Also, perhaps get a dehumidifier on rent from hss hire or the like for the room that has leaked into to speed up the process. Another entertaining video, Vince. Cheers!
I love this fix. I also live in an area with hard water. For me vinegar is the first thing I turn to when I suspect limescale buildup. I honestly put a lot of vinegar mixed with boiling water to soak everything to remove the buildup. I honestly haven't killed a seal to the best of my knowledge but if one is leaking I have a replacement assortment. Our shower tap has a thermostatic valve built into it but the thing is ours you can't control the temp. We have to replace the cartridge about every 5-10 years. Though one thing for us is that the replacement cartridges are free. We either order them from the manufacturers website or visit a local store that usually carries replacements as part of their lifetime warranty. I remember an incident in my own house when the Hot water heater (Boiler in your case) sprung a leak. We got it replaced though everything replaced is done by my family as my father has a gas certificate so he is licensed to work on all residential gas appliances. Then soon after we had a short period we had black gunk coming out of multiple taps. It turned out that the rubber bladder in a tank that is used to reduce water hammer had disintegrated. Got that changed out too. Though the bathroom sink tap still had bad pressure. I removed the Aerator (the mesh at the tap head). There I had found a big chunk of rubber from that burst bladder blocking the tiny distribution hole. Once removed that tap still works to this day.
Great video (as always) Vince! I know Vince you want to fix the failed/broken component but these typically cannot be serviced/repaired (the cartridge) - usually it's the biggest job just removing these cartridges and finding the match for older ones. I had one in our last home that was only about 12 or 13 years old and it took me more than 2 hours to remove even with the special tool - thankfully the hardware store had a few in stock. The piece that makes the "magic" happen is a bit of wax that expands when the blended water temperature is too high to prevent scalding - my understanding is that once they've failed they are failed for good.
I just want to thank you for the last four videos, as i've really missed the "fixing things around the house" series. As many already have said in the comments, the variety on this channel is just fantastic, along with your personality, makes it the best channel on RU-vid👌👍
Great video as always Vince really cool to see how different the plumbing in the UK is to the US as here a lot of houses just have the water main come in straight from the street to a water heater/boiler usually in the basement and then just go's strait to the shower valve solely relying on the pressure coming in from the water main in most cases this pressure is perfectly fine although i have heard of pumps being used in larger houses or apartment buildings or just in areas where there's low water pressure.
Think i have the same issue at the moment and came across this video with a similar shower unit to myself. Was tempted to skip through to the solution but glad i didn’t. The world needs more realism and helpful content like this instead of airbrushed fakery. Thanks for cheering me up.
Great video Vince. Thought it just needed freeing up, but no. Missed the hex retaining lug, flooded the shower room, but got there in the end. I'm SO glad it isn't just me that has these kind of problems. I think it adds to the sense of satisfaction when you actually do achieve the fix though eh.
Good job! Figuring it out for yourself makes for the best learning experience. Now that you have had it apart and cleaned it, future clening and eventual cartridge replacement will be easy. 👍🏻
Having made similar mistakes whenever I tackled plumbing, I really appreciate this video. I have a similar problem with my bar mixer but having seen your experiences, I am going to call a plumber !
I had the EXACT same problem Vince, and like you i had a 'flow' problem British Gas changed the entire shower-and it still only ran luke warm, it turned out to be a valve inside the boiler that has a three legged plastic insert that had broken up and was restricting the flow of hot water to the shower, (and the taps) changing that fixed it. P.S if you want to increase the force of your shower, take the shower head off, and increase the size of the opening in the head (that lets the water in), to the same size as the pipe feeding it (i ran a drill through it) to allow more water through. I did it, and my shower had much more force, if for some reason it makes the shower worse, a new head is only about 5-6 quid. Regards Chris
Well done, you are a man like me, willing to give it a go. Mine has just started going hot cold hot cold. Thought it was the boiler and had that serviced and repaired but it never changed the shower. I have one very similar to yours, a Architeckt. The original one was put in 5 years ago then behaved like my recent one is. A new cartridge is £55 where the whole shower was £75, so just replaced the whole thing. Now it behaving badly again, I'm going to take it apart and soak it in white vinegar and see how that goes. Great video
Thanks for the honest video, mistakes and all. It’s all about learning from mistakes and honest videos may mean someone can learn from yours. I must fess up I had exactly the same fault on mine and just swapped out the shower , I assumed the thermostat had gone. Perhaps I could have repaired it too. Here’s a tip for you , when working on showers and taps etc , either put the plug in or something over the plug hole , to stop little grub screws / parts from being lost forever.
I have to say as much as I enjoy ebay fixes it's a pleasant change to watch you try to fix things around your house also it gives us a good opportunity to have a sticky beak around your house and see what it's like living where you are the amenities so to speak Boy your so funny Vince OH GOD THERE'S A FLOOD I have to say your a daring fellow fixing this tap
Not sure if anyone else has already told you @My Mate Vince but the mechanical temperature control is a wax capsule. Wax expands when hot. Turning the temperature control moves the capsule and then it equalises the mix of hot and cold water to get the perfect output temperature by expanding and contracting.
The first video that I have seen that I can really relate to, what you did Vince, is probably what I would have done, trial and error till you fix it or destroy it. Well done, I love your candid way of life.
That was very informative thank you. I have the reverse problem, shower runs too hot. But now I know how to turn of the water supply valves, remove the thermostatic cartridge valve, remove the mixer bar, and put it back together. And of course to close the shower door!
Brilliant! I was laughing 'with' you. That's exactly why I call a man in. The man being my brother (the heating engineer and former plumber). Nice fix. Satisfying.
Recently saw a meme about how you can find a video about an absurdly obscure issue you also have.. And there you were :) you have me the courage to try and fix mine before getting a new one. For me it's just about the turning ability of the knob that might be scaled up, but now seeing the spring valves, I'll just get it all out and give it a proper scrub. Thank you so much!
Well, for myself, I've learnt plenty in life by making mistakes, and imo, anyone who tries to advise me that they don't make mistakes, well, that's a mistake I plan not to make, placing my trust in someone or something that claims to not make mistakes. Great video, thanks.
Great vids,honest and truthful. And encouraging us all to have a go and investigate that little bit further.i did think close that door mate,only because I’ve learnt the hard way as well
I only needed to find out how to take the end of the mixer off as the knob was loose... now I want to take the mixer bar off so I can clean it 🤣 thanks for this video, I found it very helpful! I will also ensure I close the shower door (thanks for the heads up, what you did is exactly the type of thing I would do!).
4 My Mate Vince videos today is a nice day. Best line: Thank God my wife wasn't in. Should shoot a reaction video to what she says about the wet ceiling.
"Thank God my Wife was not in" was the best part of this video. Thanks Mate :D And Vince's reaction when the fix actually worked, I think I was as happy that it work as he was, or maybe not, but very cool!
To be honest I was overwhelmed with four videos last weekend. But I enjoyed ever one of them. And I can relate to several of the topics. Perhaps I will have a go at our garden door, which is just a blown up window… After all those years I still feel every new of your videos gives me more encouragement to have a go. ;)
Hay vince can you say hello to me when you give the my mate vince massive. I've watched you for so long. You've been an inspiration to me from fault finding to the near impossible fix. You've shown me some grate bridging and some grate soldering techniques. Thank you for the many hour's of footage. From your number 1 fan
Excellent video! I just had exactly the same problem and managed to clean out the gauze on the hot side of mine. Thank you so much, saved me calling a plumber 👍
Ah Vince Had the same problem removed and cleaned the cartridge... no joy then removed the mixer and the valve was stuck.. did exactly what to did and now I have full heat and wife is happy that she doesn't have to have a cold shower at 5.30 am (not fun) big thx for the video P.S didn't flood the bathroom..
Loved this, glad you fixed it and showed it warts and all, Bet Mrs Vince is not happy that you're not having cold showers anymore 😂 next video how to fix a cracked ceiling
Thanks Vince, my shower goes cold after a minutes will try and take the valve off and clean scale as we have hard water. Love your videos been watching for years after stumbling upon your headphone jack video so i could repair my sons headphones
Don't worry about the mini flood, I've done much worse. Swapped a immersion for a combi boiler, had to cut the pipes off the old cylinder to get it out, it pissed black water down my aunties staircase and through her kitchen light fixture..... luckily she wasn't home lol.
I did my shower 6 months ago. The thermostat went in the mixer. I live in Kent which is very hard so sprayed and lubed all the insides with silicone lubricant to keep things loose inside. Great fix though
Thanks for the great video. I believe that limescale usually occurs where the water is allowed to dry. I think you found check valves that were bound up. There were filters before them, so debris might not be the cause. Did they simply bind up? Seems like they are just flawed.
I am gonna guess that the HHH is the thermometer's peak temp was exceeded than what it was rated for ie it was hotter than actually 38 degrees in the shower.
4 vids Dave!!!! I thought I'd push out all the house repairs together. Viewers will be well and truly sick of my voice and iffy repairs after tonight 😂👍👍👍
Very nice video Vince... Its the first time I see you on you tube but for sure its not the last one...I really like the way you ask questions and talk ...And sometimes funny things happen and you know how to laugh too... Very informative video mate,keep going
Good vid thanks,. I would point out to anyone interested, that when working above sinks, baths, or shower trays, putting the drain plug in, could save you a lot of grief if something should drop into the drain.
Awesome - really enjoyed that! Looking forward to "How to fix a crack in your ceiling!" =D I need to swap my shower I think - this has put me off trying it myself lol!!!! Great video Vince =D
@@Mymatevince if you want to cover up water stains in ur celling, use white gloss paint normally used for skirting boards. then paint over the gloss in matt white celling paint. The gloss paint will prevent water stains from seeping through. As for hard water scale, use a chemical call "Phos" its industrial and 100 times better than the hard water limescale remover you'd buy from Wilkos etc, i think you can only buy it online. Just soak what ever needs descaling for 10-15 mins. you'll see it bubbling away as it dissolves the limescale
I had same problem but it was the brass cartridge that scaled up. I tried soaking it in vinegar but, better, I found Its not actually sealed but twisted apart into two threaded pieces which made it easier to clean inside.
