ᐅ Incorrect Shower Fixture Installed by Developer – Replace or Refund?

Hello everyone,

In 2021, we purchased a new condominium from a developer, which we are renting out. We opted for the standard sanitary fittings. The plan was to install a built-in (concealed) mixer with a thermostat. Recently, I happened to notice that we actually only received the simpler built-in mixer without a thermostat, which is about €500 (approximately $550) cheaper according to the price list.

The plumbing company responsible is willing to install the thermostat mixer afterwards. Now I’m wondering if I even want to do that, or if it might be more reasonable to ask for financial compensation for the reduced scope. With a built-in thermostat, you gain comfort but also face higher maintenance costs, since thermostats can often fail. I would like to avoid this if possible.

Can anyone estimate how much work is involved in retrofitting a built-in thermostat? Would the tiles need to be removed? What amount would you consider a fair compensation?

What do you think—how would you decide?

Thanks for your feedback!

Good luck!

I’m not an expert, but in our case it works like this:
Universal flush-mounted boxes are installed. These are the same for both types of fittings.
The actual fitting is attached to the universal box. This fitting contains the thermostat or not, depending on the variant.
However, it is only installed after tiling.

In my view, the effort to replace it should be relatively low and should not create much mess.

Unfortunately, I can’t provide any information about maintenance, as we have no experience with it ourselves.

fm-united schrieb:

Can someone estimate how much effort it takes to retrofit an in-wall thermostat?

If an iBox or similar mounting box is already installed as the base unit, the replacement might only take about 10 minutes and can be done without any damage.

I’m now 50 years old and have never had a thermostat fail yet ;-)

If you have a high lime content in your water, thermostats tend to fail more often. At least, I removed mine after 2 years.

Without a product description, it’s difficult to comment on the financial compensation.

hanghaus2023 schrieb:

If you have hard water with a lot of lime scale, thermostats like these tend to fail. At least, I removed mine after 2 years.

Without a product description, it’s difficult to say much about the cost compensation.

This concerns a Kludi Zenta built-in thermostat valve and the corresponding non-thermostatic model: built-in single-lever shower mixer.

Kludi Zenta built-in thermostatic valve 305 euros

Kludi Zenta built-in single-lever shower mixer 104 euros

Approximately 200 euros refund from Ergo. The proportional surcharge will not be reimbursed by the general contractor.