Don't buy an Aqualisa electric shower

[Hector12]

I bought an Aqualisa electric shower and paid a lot to have it professionally fitted . Almost immediately, when switched on, water began gushing out of the back and down the wall. I looked online and found several postings, including one which explained this was due to a pressure relief valve opening and described how to fix it. Basically, you switch off the electricity, take off the cover, unscrew the valve (difficult) and push a plastic ball back into its tube and then reassemble. OK for a month then it happened again.

I phoned Aqualisa customer services and asked for a fitter to repair it under the 2 year guarantee, which they did. Six weeks later same problem. This time customer services said they will make a total of 2 repair visits and thereafter, until the 2 year guarantee has expired, they will post you a new valve which you will have to fit yourself.

So what happens after 2 years? You have to buy them and keep changing them yourself or you don't have a shower.

It is clearly a design fault, but customer services say it isn't, and "it isn't part of the shower because it's a safety feature", even though it is inside the shower under the cover. What utter nonsense !

I now have a shower that fails every six weeks and the manufacturer won't honour the guarantee.

I want my money back but don't know how to get it without spending even more money

There are quite a lot of internet postings on Aqualisa electric showers describing exactly the same fault - take a look.

Don't buy Aqualisa showers.

[BankFodder]

So would you like to do something about it?

[Hector12]

Yes.

But Aqualisa liability is limited to the value of the shower (not unreasonably), not all the money I spent having it installed. And I don't want another Aqualisa, this was clearly a design fault which I am sure will be common to all their electric showers.

However, any useful advice which won't cost even more money will be gladly considered.

[BankFodder]

Please will you set out the chronology.

 

When did you buy it, who did you buy it from, how much did you pay, when did the fault appear? Et cetera.

[Hector12]

Bought online from Plumbworld June 2015 for £117. Installed few weeks later. Fault showed up week after installation, fixed by me after viewing online posts (see previous post on this thread). Failed again and fixed as before. Failed again last month and pressure relief device changed by suppliers repairman. Failed last week and fixed by me as before. Over to you.

[BankFodder]

Well actually, it's over to you. Because this contract was made before October/November 2015, you are covered by Sale of Goods Act. Goods must be of satisfactory quality and must remain that way for a reasonable period of time.

 

It's over to you because it is clear that you are dealing with a reluctant supplier who doesn't want respect your consumer rights. I don't really understand why you have accepted the story that their liability is limited to some 24 month guarantee. It's not. In particular, if you are reading around the Internet that there are defects in this item, and those are exactly the defects which are appearing in your own installation, then it seems clear that there is quite an extensive liability on behalf of the supplier's.

 

It's over to you because you will now have to decide whether or not you want to take a County Court action. Taking a small claim action against them would be very easy and very cheap. For this kind of money I can imagine that they would simply put their hands up once they were convinced that you were just bluffing and you were going to issue the claim. They might even wait until you had issued the claim.

 

You can read around about taking a County Court action. You could even go so far as to buy our new Consumer Survival Handbook which is available on Amazon which will give you a lot of information about starting a claim and also about your rights under consumer law. However, if you really want to save money then it's all on this forum although it will take you more time. Read around and understand the steps you need to take to begin a small claim – and the steps you need to take after that. Starting the action for a small sum such as this will only cost about 30 or £40, I expect. However, there is also a hearing fee to pay. I'm not sure what that is at present. On the facts as you present them, you are highly likely to win and you will then get your court fees back. But this is a choice that you will have to make and of course there is a measure of risk involved that you might lose the case and be unable to recover the court fee.

 

Your only slight stumbling block here is that you seem to have purchased the unit from one company and you have had it installed by somebody else. I suppose it is possible that if you sue the seller, they will try to say that there was nothing wrong with the item, it was the installation. However, you seem to have turned up a lot of information suggesting that it is a fault in the item and this seems to be happening so often and they must each have been installed by different installers that everything points to a fault with the shower unit.

 

It's a shame that you didn't react as soon as the fault occurred in the first place and deal with the seller immediately rather than try to sorted out yourself and to wait all of this time.

[Hector12]

Here is where all the other postings are about the same problem with Aqualisa showers:- http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2867796

 

 

Note the 13th post; the bloke says it's beginning to happen more frequently, and he changed his PRD ( pressure relief device) as well !!

Be warned. Guarantee or not, it's going to recur.