voted hot!

These are a bargain if you can find a Lidl with some in.

Do watch out for the idea that the whole weight of the fitting will be being borne by the H/C pipe fittings, so only contemplate these if your in-wall plumbing is soundly done.

Look VERY closely at the quality. Yes I know Lidl and Aldi sometimes loss lead but the material and manufacture cost of this would be more than they are selling it for. I know not everyone can afford Grohe or one of the quality makes but there would be a huge cost to fix if this goes wrong and on that basis I reckon it's a cold one.

Very well made stuff. Hot deal!

Rather pricey now as they've sold it on a number of occasions previously for 14.99

Quality is very high btw, I was told that alot of these fittings that Lidl and Aldi offer is manufactured in the same factories as other suppliers use but charge 4 times as much for.

Yup as I've still got it ready to fit, that picture is it out of the box -

States on the box thermostatically controlled, 5 year guarantee etc

how does this thermostatically controlled thing work?

My hot water tends to go from cold to lukewarm to burning within seconds and does this back and forth (**** boiler by a privatisation).

These are still a god buy even though they have gone up £5 form the last time Lidl had them on offer!

I have had one of these working in daily use for over 2 year, great quality you won't get a mixer like this for this price!

I can confirm they are definately thermostatically controlled as they don't work if you connect them the wrong way round !!!

They work by controlling the flow of the water to ensure temp satys pretty constsnt but the flow reduces of course if someone turns the hot tap on elsewhere in the house!

I got kitchen mixer tap from LIDL last year. Great quality stuff in general. Equivalent taps were several times the price in the likes of Wickes or B&Q. I wouldn't worry about the quality of these anyway. To install this tap you will need to put up some sort of partition/second wall at the end of your bath as the pipes will be buried behind it so its a bit of a job!

My parents have a similar one but the couple of times I've used it, it was a pain to get it at the right temperature.

What water pressure do these need? 0.5 bar, 1 bar?

From what I have seen most thermostatic shower controllers will require an external pump as the pressure from a standard gravity fed system will not be enough.

In my case the shower head will only be a few feet lower than the water tank in the loft, so having a 0.1 bar shower would only just work.

A hotel I stay at in Brussels has these dotted all over their rooms. The quality is very high but I find the temperature knob gets very tight after a while when going from hot to cold. This was evident in every room I stayed at in that hotel. Bare in mind this is a top hotel and so the quality of items is very high.

It looks VERY similar to the one above so I am going to stay well away I am afraid.
thank though.

DOH...just paid a fortune for a similar looking one from Bathstore....:x

Can anyone tell me what is the measurement of the pipe centers please.

How can there be a huge cost if these go wrong? If they arent any good then get a higher quality set. They should all have the same centers so cost is for a replacement set only. Its not as if you have to replace all the pipework again.

Note you will need decent water pressure for these. I tried a mixer using regular tank fed hot & cold but the pressure was not enough. Had to fit a shower pump in the end.

Personally i would pay a little more and get these:-

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/architeckt-como-exposed-540-15897

Look at the stats for houshold insurance claims, flooding caused by domestic plumbing failure is the biggest cost. In Europe there are upper limits on pressure (I think about 7 bar) and most taps are designed within this limit. There is no upper limit here and in some parts of the UK the pressures are much higher, as high as 12 bar are not uncommon. With UK domestic plumbing there is a surge of pressure when a high flow tap (kitchen or outside tap) is turned off and that can cause fittings in another part of the house to fail. Remember this is plumbed in so failure could be in a stud wall so as well as flooding there is likely cost of replacement tiles etc they you have to break to reach it.
I've not looked at this directly but did see some poor quality kitchen taps in Aldi a couple of years ago. Two simple checks, it should be all brass. And turn the taps from open to close very slowly, if you feel any roughness it likely will drip or worse.

Just spoken to customer services, shower units go on sale from next Thursday 31-01-08

Hot!!!

The pipes will be plumbed in regardless of how much you spent on a mixer so I dont get your point really. The quality of the mixer wont affect the pipes.

In any case, one would expect water escaping from one of these to go down a shower drain anyway ;-)

Manufacturing costs are likely to be a fraction of any selling price - it's all the middlemen taking their cut that puts the price of an item into orbit not to mention pricing that the market can support

CD's are a classic example...

If you look at the actual costs of manufacturing a car vs what you pay for one it would make your eyes water!!!

Edit
I spoke to a chap a few years back in RadioShack who supposedly worked for Iomega that manufactured "Zip" drives..well according to him the most expensive component of the finished product was the box/packaging that it came in :wink:

As it happens Lidl are showing a similare shower mixer to the one on this link for £14.99 !

http://www.lidl.co.uk/uk/home.nsf/pages/c.o.20080131.p.Shower_Mixer_Tap.ar3

true. ignore what I said anyway as that was a manual shower which are pretty useless compared to a thermostatic one.

That shower mixer is very expensive for what it is, It is not thermostatic to start with and that makes a vast differnce in price. I have one of these used it for two years no problems what so ever.Holds the temp no matter who turns on the taps elsewhare in the house. Even though it has gone up in price it is a real bargain. Look out for all the local plumbers who will be buying them and selling them to you for £100 + The shower of course is only as good as the out put from your boiler!

Just bought it, thanks very much :thumbsup:

Yep got two this morning, Quality looks first class, Well worth the price:thumbsup:

The s-connector is too small for the pipework in our shower. Thought this would all be standard. The pipework we have has outer diameter of 15mm but the s-connector is about 13-14mm (1/2 inch). Anyone tracked down different s-connectors?

Are these still on sale?
If I click on the link I am redirected to the homepage and a search for showers on the LIDL site brings up nothing.

What happens if connected wrong way around?