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Discuss Will my bathroom sink take a mixer tap? in the Plumbing Forum | Plumbing Advice area at PlumbersForums.net

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Fletch666

Hi,
My bathroom is getting redone in a few weeks. I have the option of 2 taps again or a mixer. I've seen online that if the hot flow is 'too much' lower than the cold, a mixertap won't work well.
How do I know if it might be an issue? (Or what the cause of difference is?) (I can't say for sure if it's always been different as I never really thought about it before). Does it depend how much the flow varies between the 2 taps?

I'm in a bungalow where the mains Stop Tap is in the bathroom under a metre from the basin, but the boiler is in the newer kitchen, probably about 6 metre away, (3 rooms down). It's a Worcester Bosch CDI~ CombiBoiler from 1997-9 (replaced in short period before I bought the place). I intend to replace it during 2022.

The boiler was moved 2-3 metre further out into the new build and lots of pipework got changed around when the extension that holds the kitchen was done).

A problem I do notice since the newbuild (2007) is that the hot water takes far longer to heat in the bathroom sink than in the kitchen. I can't comment re the bath taps as I use the shower (which I'm going to swap from electric to Mixer). In the kitchen I have a mixer tap and that gets hot OK.

So - 1, might this difference in flow impact on if a mixer will work properly? and 2, does it depend on the cause - is that something that needs checking out?
 
1. If you have a combi boiler then, unless you also have a hot water cylinder (unlikely), the hot and cold pressures will be roughly equal, at incoming mains pressure.
2. If the pressures are roughly equal you should have no trouble fitting a mixer tap.
3. The reason the hot takes longer to come through in the bathroom will be mostly that the water in the hot pipes which has cooled since last use has to be purged from the pipes before the hot comes through. There is little you can do about it other than:
3a. Change the pipes from 22mm to 15mm if they are 22 mm t start with.
3b. Improve the insulation on the pipes, which only helps if the hot is used fairly frequently.
3c. Some boilers have an "Eco" function. If this is NOT turned on they will usually keep the secondary heat exchanger hot, which reduces the time the boiler itself take to heat up that heat exchanger. This has nothing to do with purging the hot pipes, but might help a little at the cost of more gas consumption.
 

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