Shower cartridge

There's a mystery problem with the underfloor heating in the warehouse. A couple of weeks ago the circuit to the office stopped working and a section of tiles rose by about a centimetre making it difficult to open the door.

Bill came round, added water to the circuit and sealed off the offending loop. After a few days heating the place up again, they reenabled the suspect loop and it seemed to carry on working fine. And the tiles sank back to normal, although you can see them move when you stand on them (and hear air hiss out of the skirting).

Bill says "it's not rational". I'm more inclined to think we just haven't figured it out yet. Anyway, we're going to wait till it happens again. And we found other bits that need fixing meantime.

While looking through my stock of parts, I found the manuals for the shower. There's been a problem with the thermostat cartridge, but neither the plumber nor City Plumbing have been able to identify a replacement part. Armed with the part number I phoned the manufacturer.

"That's an old part number" she said, as if I was looking for a Victorian lead fitting, instead of something purchased new less than ten years ago. "I'll see if I can translate it to a current number."

Five minutes later, having replaced all the '0's with 'A's she came back with a quote - £258!!! Probably cheaper than replacing the whole kaboosh, but still a bit of a shock.