Mira shower handset repair
Lobster
http://tinyurl.com/66zwhrq
(or
<http://www.splashdirect.com/Brands/Mira/Shower-Heads/b1343/sc1527/p9172popup362.aspx>)
It's got water pouring out one edge - probably a duff O-ring - does
anybody know whether you can get inside the beasts to fix? I can get
the rotating circular piece off the outside but any more looks tricky.
Reasonably posh handset and in ohterwise excellent nick so would rather
avoid binning it
Thanks
David
The Natural Philosopher
Dont even try. I've had three of them and on mains pressure they blow
the O-ring in about 5 seconds flat.
Not fit for purpose.
Gave up and fitted a cheapo.
Other showers have old fashioned retro metal heads with no fancy
adjustment and work fine. I vary the spray using the taps.
Those things are designed to get the best out of a crap shower with
limited water and bugger all pressure.
> Thanks
> David
Mike Clarke
> I need to repair a Mira shower spray handset if possible - looks like this:
> http://tinyurl.com/66zwhrq
> (or
> <http://www.splashdirect.com/Brands/Mira/Shower-Heads/b1343/sc1527/p9172popup362.aspx>)
>
>
> It's got water pouring out one edge - probably a duff O-ring - does
> anybody know whether you can get inside the beasts to fix? I can get
> the rotating circular piece off the outside but any more looks tricky.
After removing the outer ring just unscrew the main plate in an
anti-clockwise direction. It will feel quite stiff but should move.
> Reasonably posh handset and in ohterwise excellent nick so would rather
> avoid binning it
There are 4 O-rings inside separating the concentric flow areas - that's
why it's quite stiff to unscrew. It's possible that one of them might
have split but when mine developed the same problem it was due to a
small split in the plastic body and I had to replace the whole thing.
Spare O-rings should be available from Mira (part no.41137). Google came
up with a place selling a set for about £3 but wanted £12.50 delivery
which comes out nearly as much as a new handset. You might find a better
deal on Ebay.
--
Mike Clarke
Nick
"Lobster" <davidlobs...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:KjT9p.70410$9b3....@newsfe23.ams2...
Mira are fairly good.
I made mine last nearly 20 years at mains pressure with the help of the very
nice, and knowledgeable, lady who answered the phone at Mira. This was about
once every 5 years and always, luckily, the same lady.
If you can get it apart, they can supply you the spares needed. Then you can
fix it.
Go with what Mike says.
TNP I think may be mistaken in his generalisations.
HTH
N
Skipweasel
> Gave up and fitted a cheapo.
>
Same here - with the added benefit that when the cheapy's O-ring went
about five years later it was easy to take apart - there's an obvious
screw. New O-ring and away it goes again.
--
Skipweasel - never knowingly understood.
Jón Fairbairn
> I need to repair a Mira shower spray handset if possible - looks like this:
> http://tinyurl.com/66zwhrq
> (or
><http://www.splashdirect.com/Brands/Mira/Shower-Heads/b1343/sc1527/p9172popup362.aspx>)
>
> It's got water pouring out one edge - probably a duff O-ring - does
> anybody know whether you can get inside the beasts to fix? I can get
> the rotating circular piece off the outside but any more looks tricky.
Others have said how to get it apart. If it's an O-ring,
you're OK, but there are boot-seals farther inside the works
that have perished in the one I have. I tried Mira for
replacements and got this response:
Thank you for your recent email. Although the 'O' seals
that fit to the inside of the sprayplate are available as
spares, parts housed beneath the flow divertor -
including the boot seals you seek - are not. Everything
beneath the flow divertor is factory-set and cannot be
reassembled by hand, hence why the components you seek
are not made available as spares. As such you will have
to replace the shower head on this occasion.
which didn't please me...
--
Jón Fairbairn Jon.Fa...@cl.cam.ac.uk
http://www.chaos.org.uk/~jf/Stuff-I-dont-want.html (updated 2010-09-14)
Lobster
> On 25/02/2011 19:22, Lobster wrote:
>> I need to repair a Mira shower spray handset if possible - looks like
>> this:
>> http://tinyurl.com/66zwhrq
>> (or
>> <http://www.splashdirect.com/Brands/Mira/Shower-Heads/b1343/sc1527/p9172popup362.aspx>)
>>
>>
>>
>> It's got water pouring out one edge - probably a duff O-ring - does
>> anybody know whether you can get inside the beasts to fix? I can get
>> the rotating circular piece off the outside but any more looks tricky.
>
> After removing the outer ring just unscrew the main plate in an
> anti-clockwise direction. It will feel quite stiff but should move.
>
>> Reasonably posh handset and in ohterwise excellent nick so would rather
>> avoid binning it
I think the bin beckons! but as you seem to have experience of this
shower head - does it definitely come apart as described above? I'm
rotating anti-clockwise as directed, and it's indeed pretty stiff (I can
hear/feel a protesting squeaky rubber seal inside) but it just keeps
turning. I'd assume it's undismantlable as others suggest, except that
your experience sounds otherwise?
Thanks
David
Mike Clarke
> I think the bin beckons! but as you seem to have experience of this
> shower head - does it definitely come apart as described above?
Mine did, but only to get to the O-rings. As Jón Fairbairn has noted you
can't do anything to the internal spray divertor unit.
> I'm rotating anti-clockwise as directed, and it's indeed pretty stiff (I can
> hear/feel a protesting squeaky rubber seal inside)
Sounds right. You should have about 1/3rd of a turn corresponding to
switching between the 3 different spray patterns and then it gets very
stiff. When you overcome the initial stiffness it should move quite
easily and come apart after about one whole turn.
> but it just keeps turning.
That seems odd. Perhaps the O-ring is stuck and stopping it coming
apart. Try giving it a hard pull or prising it off after a couple of turns.
> I'd assume it's undismantlable as others suggest, except that
> your experience sounds otherwise?
There's probably nothing you can do to fix the flow divertor which is
built in to the main part of the handset but you can change the spray
plate and O-rings. I've put a couple of pages from the installation
manual on Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawthey/5481688732 for the parts diagram
http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawthey/5481688736 for the parts list
Since you say that you have water pouring out of one edge I'd expect
that you have a problem with the largest diameter O-ring, but it might
be the casing that's cracked like mine was (after about 10 years of use)
in which case it's probably for the bin.
I'd expect any problem with the (non repairable) divertor would just
result in you not being able to select the desired spray pattern rather
than leaking round the edge.
Another point to note is that some models of the Response shower were
supplied with interchangeable high and low capacity spray plates
<http://www.flickr.com/photos/rawthey/5481144525>. My shower had the low
capacity plate as did the replacement I got from B&Q. If you replace
yours and the plate is different you might want to swap it over from the
original so don't bin the old one too soon.
--
Mike Clarke
Lobster
> On 27/02/2011 09:55, Lobster wrote:
>
>> I think the bin beckons! but as you seem to have experience of this
>> shower head - does it definitely come apart as described above?
>
> Mine did, but only to get to the O-rings. As Jón Fairbairn has noted you
> can't do anything to the internal spray divertor unit.
>
>> I'm rotating anti-clockwise as directed, and it's indeed pretty stiff
>> (I can
>> hear/feel a protesting squeaky rubber seal inside)
>
> Sounds right. You should have about 1/3rd of a turn corresponding to
> switching between the 3 different spray patterns and then it gets very
> stiff. When you overcome the initial stiffness it should move quite
> easily and come apart after about one whole turn.
>
>> but it just keeps turning.
>
> That seems odd. Perhaps the O-ring is stuck and stopping it coming
> apart. Try giving it a hard pull or prising it off after a couple of turns.
Many thanks for the further input. Looking closely at the shower head
and your manual, the spray patterns are actually very slightly different
and so they are evidently different models - anyway I just went for
broke, more out of interest than anything else really - and predictable
the whole thing burst apart in a flurry of broken bits of polystyrene.
There was clearly no way of dismantling it properly, and how bloody
irritating is that? I'd have expected more from a company like Mira.
Looking at my bits, the original leaking problem was exactly as I'd
envisaged - two O-rings have come adrift - but otherwise there's nothing
wrong mechanically anywhere, that wasn't cause by my recent application
of brute force.
David
Mike Clarke
> Many thanks for the further input. Looking closely at the shower head
> and your manual, the spray patterns are actually very slightly different
> and so they are evidently different models - anyway I just went for
> broke, more out of interest than anything else really - and predictable
> the whole thing burst apart in a flurry of broken bits of polystyrene.
> There was clearly no way of dismantling it properly, and how bloody
> irritating is that? I'd have expected more from a company like Mira.
Yes, I'd have expected better from them, the replacement I bought last
year was the same construction as the original so it doesn't look like
they've pruned down the design of the Response head but I don't know how
their other models compare. Could it have been a Mira lookalike?
Mira do seem quite keen on non-serviceable bits though. The thermostatic
mixer and control cartridge is designed as a non-serviceable unit
costing over a hundred quid (or more if you get it direct from Mira).
Ours developed a problem which left it running full flow even with the
knob turned to "off". I was about to order up a replacement when our
friendly local plumber said he'd taken one to bits before so it was
worth a try on the grounds that we couldn't make it any worse. After
prising off numerous snap on bits of plastic and springs and
re-lubricating with silicone grease he got it going and I had nearly
another couple of years out of it before having to get a new cartridge.
If the unit hadn't been flush mounted into the wall I could have just
replaced the entire shower for the same cost or less but would have had
to rip off several tiles to do that.
--
Mike Clarke
tony sayer
Clarke <UCEb...@milibyte.co.uk> scribeth thus
Showerspares on the net somewhere used them last year for Mira bits and
cheaper;)./..
Excellent unit's, had a couple some 10 years now and work fine apart
from one where the brushes did the motor armature a power of no good;!..
--
Tony Sayer
wizan...@gmail.com
halle...@gmail.com
Brian Gaff
needs a part replacing. I do hate plastic engineering myself. I do not have
one of these, but a neighbour did.
Brian
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