We did a loft coversion and installed a nice little shower room, spending the wrong side of £300 on a MIRA Orbis electric shower.
This came with a 2 years warranty and after the two years, we took out extended cover for £60. During this time, the shower failed, an E1 code, low flow. The technician visited and fitted a new thermister?
When the £60 warranty year passed, the premium jumped to £140 odd and see me to be just too much. The other option was a monthly budget plan, £16 a month to cover it but only one repair per fault per year. It seemed steep so it wasn't taken out.
Surprise surprise, now it's failed again, same E1 fault. Mira want £160 for the technician visit or, again, £16 a month for a warranty plan, to include this repair.
Notwithstanding the fee wanted, does it seem rather poor quality for a £300 shower to fail, with the same fault within 3 years or are these things just a consumable now?.
It's almost working out cheaper to buy a new shower with the two year warranty.
I'm pretty naffed off to be honest, it doesn't get much hammer and I assumed, wrongly it appears, that it might have been a bit more reliable.
Advice please, cut losses and change it or persist with repairs.
Order the part and fix yourself?
Buy a new one, different make
From memory a thermistor is about £15 from a spares supplier. I took a Mira sport apart for repair and was surprised at just how simple it was. Have a go or get a mate on it.
Not thought about the self repair. I'm a bit nervous around electric and water coming together.
I also can't seem to find any fitters who might specialise in Mira. It all looks like their official network.
A quick look and it appears that a new thermistor is £15.92 and doesn't appear to need breaking the water/compression fittings
100 quid basic powerful electric. Goes for years and easily swappable if it does break.
They are really simple though. No harder than bike maintenance.
£160 per year warranty on a £300 item makes the old Dixons warranties look cheap.
I'd not think twice about having a go myself if I was certain the fault was fixable and you are pretty much certain of the culprit.
edit: even comes with a new seal: https://www.showerspares.com/search/mira_orbis_orbis/mira_thermistor_assembly_1647.108/
Is a very easy fix.
I've done a couple and it's literally a 10 minute job with a couple of screwdrivers.
Downloadable diagrams of shower internals online. Turn off the power to the shower and go for it.
It really is easy.
(And £192/year service plan for a £300 item really is taking the piss 😯 )
I'll bet you don't need a Mira specialist, any decent plumber should be able to find the screws to get the lid off 🙂
Order the part, make sure the power is off at the board and take a gander. If its scary, call a plumber and explain its a repeat fault and you probably have the correct spare part.
£60 to insure a £300 item, why would you?
And on the same theme for future reference, the workings of a £300 shower are nearly always identical to the one inside a £60 shower.
You pay the extra for the fancy cover design, and an LCD/LED display.
Thanks for the tips all.
The part is cheap which makes the repair cost totally disproportionate.
I'll confess to being a bit nervous as the instruction manual repeats at nearly every page, that there are no user servicable parts inside the unit and only competent tradesmen should remove the cover.
Also, its water, and electricity and it's in the kid's bathroom. The potential for damage and injury is vast!
I know a friendly sparky so i think I'll order the part, isolate the shower and have a look inside. If it looks ominous then a sparky should be able to tackle it.
Just spoken to Mrs R and the chap that came the first time, from Mira, was in her words, a numpty. He didn't understand how to isolate the cold water supply! Went into the shower cubicle and stood on the tray in massive work boots. Not exactly confidence inspiring.
I'll confess to being a bit nervous as the instruction manual repeats at nearly every page, that there are no user servicable parts inside the unit and only competent tradesmen should remove the cover.
That's how they manage to get people to pay £160 for a £15 part and 10 mins "labour" 😉
I have electric showers in a couple of rental properties, we have hard water around here and they always scale up every 2 years or so. At about £100 for a brand new one I just budget to replace them rather than spending a time trying to de-scale them. Not worth mucking about.
Anyway, in this case just change the thermistor. It'll be a really easy job. Honestly.
I had a similar fault / planned obsolescence issue with a aqualisa thermostatic shower tap. this happened twice, weeks after the warranty expired. I have now changed to another supplier.
Have a go at fixing it yourself as per above suggestions. I'm as ham fisted as a man with hams for fists and I've fixed lots of shower problems. This website is good to id parts needed http://www.showerdoc.com/shower-spares
Good luck 🙂
TS
Sounds like a shower designed for the gulible . Is it odb2 compliant ?
My shower broke, i just replaced it with another of the same make Bristan Breeze, £50 a time and the last one lasted 5 years in a hard water area.
Not familiar with Bristan Breeze, but I'm guessing for £50 it won't be very powerful ?
9.5 kw they've been brilliant.
That step was easy, the part arrived today.
Very small and it doesnt look like fitting disturbs any of the compression joints so water leaking shouldnt be a consequence.
Just need to isolate it and get the cover off.
I'll get Mrs R to stand by with a wooden handle broom in case it goes wrong.
rockhopper70 - MemberThat step was easy, the part arrived today.
Very small and it doesnt look like fitting disturbs any of the compression joints so water leaking shouldnt be a consequence.Just need to isolate it and get the cover off.
I'll get Mrs R to stand by with a wooden handle broom in case it goes wrong.
We had a relay fail inside our shower and I was a bit like this, regarding the whole electrickery & water potential for disaster.
But, just made sure I tested it all with the beepy probe to make sure it was all isolated and it turned out fine.
We even had the element unit fail last year, which required dismantling most of the shower unit & disconnecting load of the wiring to get the new one plumbed in. But, I just took my time with it, took loads of photo's to see where the wiring went & tried to do it as methodically as possible.
It was fine. The only problem I had was forgetting to turn the water back on, so it kept tripping when I turned it on (low pressure fault detected). I assumed I had messed up the wiring and put the kettle on to ponder what to do, then suddenly realised there was no water supply to the shower!
A massive pat on my own back today......shower fixed for the cost of a £16 part.
It was an easy job in the end, multi plug connector out, torx screw out, and replace like for like.
Thanks to those who encouraged me to give it a go.
Win!