Beautiful Bristan mixer tap and control in our double shower.

AB fab as is said...

Thanks to everyone for the feedback, Bristan it is.

I suspect that they won't keep replacing those cartridges FOC, only for the first year or two. Any decent-length product 'warranty' only extends to the non-consumable parts, rather like a car and its clutch where the latter has a very short warranty.

Like with inkjet printers, many tap manufacturers make most of their profits out of selling the initial whole product cheap and charging a relatively high amount for the cosumable parts.

I replaced my OEM kitchen mixer tap with a 'Just Taps' one, as I noted many negative reviews from Bristan tap owners, specifically about the ceramic cartridges and dripping taps/how long the cartridges lasted. Ironically, the supposedly 'top' quality make of Grohe wasn't much better on that front, and the price of their replacement cartridges is even more expensive.

Sometimes I think that taps with ceramic cartridges are more trouble (and expense) than they're worth, especially as two of my other taps (bathroom WHB) are stilll on the OEM washers after 18 years.

You're lucky if a ceramic cartridge lasts 3-4 years these days, and there are so many small variants that mean they are expensive due to little standardisation.

I live in a hard water area and limescale is the killer for ceramic washer taps. Flow rate is another disadvantage. I've found it impossible to obtain any other type. Interestingly, I did once find something on youtube instructing how to remove limescale from ceramic discs.