Mira shower not working: common faults and getting it repaired

Which Mira shower do you have?

Mira sorts its showers into four types, and the name or model number is usually on the front of the unit: Mira Sport, Mira Coda and Mira 415 are typical examples. If the badge has worn off, the type is easy to tell from what is on the wall.

The checks Mira recommends before anything else

These come straight from Mira's own troubleshooting advice, and they take a few minutes. They either fix the problem or tell the engineer where to look.

• Check the lights on the shower and on the pull cord or isolator switch. No lights at all on an electric, power or digital model points to the electrical supply.
• Make sure the stop tap has not been turned down, for example after other plumbing work.
• Turn off other taps, the washing machine and the dishwasher, then try the shower again.
• Think about any recent work in the house or on the road outside that could have affected the water supply.
• Unscrew the shower head from the hose and run the shower into the tray. If it now runs properly, the head is blocked with scale and needs cleaning or replacing; our guide on how to descale a shower head explains the cleaning.
• If it is still poor, take the hose off too and run it over the tray. If it works without the hose, the hose is kinked or its lining has collapsed and needs replacing.

Mira electric showers

If nothing happens and no light shows, check the pull cord and the fuse spur or isolator, and look at the consumer unit for a tripped breaker. Do not reset a breaker that trips again straight away, and do not open the shower cover. Mira's advice is that no power to the unit needs a qualified electrician to investigate the supply.

An electric shower that starts and then stops after a few minutes, or halfway through a shower, is usually protecting itself. Low flow through the heater, most often from a scaled head or a restricted supply, lets it overheat, and a safety cut-out switches the heating off. Our guide for when an electric shower keeps cutting out goes through that pattern. A shower that runs only while you hold the start button in has a separate fault, listed in Mira's help pages, that normally needs a repair to the unit.

Water running out of the bottom of the unit is a warning sign. Electric showers have a pressure relief device that releases water if the outlet is blocked, and a leak can also come from a cracked internal pipe or tank. Switch the shower off at the isolator and stop using it until it has been looked at. Our broader electric shower not working guide covers the no-power, no-water and no-heat cases in more detail.

An electric shower is a high-powered mains appliance with water inside it. Never remove the cover with the power on, and do not keep using a unit that is leaking, smells of burning or trips the electrics.

Mira mixer showers

A mixer shower blends hot and cold water from the house supply, so its faults are about temperature and flow rather than power. A thermostatic Mira mixer that swings between hot and cold is usually reacting to a change in one of the supplies: someone running a tap, a toilet refilling, or a combi boiler struggling at a low flow rate. Mira's help pages cover this, and our guide to thermostatic shower temperature problems explains how an engineer separates a supply fault from a failing cartridge.

If the temperature control does nothing at all, or the shower will only run cold, the thermostatic cartridge may have seized with limescale, or the small filters and check valves in the inlets may be blocked. If the water has no heat anywhere in the house, the problem is the boiler or cylinder, not the shower. A mixer that keeps dripping after it is switched off usually has a worn flow cartridge or seal; our guide for when a shower keeps dripping after it is switched off covers that. If the cartridge needs changing, our guide on how to replace a shower cartridge shows what is involved.

Mira power and digital showers

A power shower has a pump built in and is designed for a gravity system, with a cold tank in the loft and a hot water cylinder. It should not be connected to a combi boiler or the mains. If you hear the pump run but get little or no water, the supply from the tank may be low or airlocked. If the pump is silent, check the power first.

A digital Mira has a controller in the shower and a processing unit hidden somewhere else, often in the loft, an airing cupboard or behind a panel. If the controller does not respond, check the power supply to that remote unit as well as the one in the bathroom. Error lights or a controller that shows a fault need the model's manual, or Mira's support team, to interpret. Do not open the processor yourself.

Mira pumps sold separately to boost a mixer shower are a different product again. If yours has a separate pump, our shower pump not working guide may be the more useful starting point.

Under guarantee? Contact Mira first

Mira runs its own repair service. You can book a fixed-price repair online, carried out by Mira's engineers using genuine Mira parts, and it offers repairs for showers that are out of guarantee too. If your shower is still within its guarantee, go to Mira before anyone else, because a third party opening the unit could complicate a warranty claim.

Mira's repair plan excludes some older models and products whose spare parts are no longer made. If your shower is old, it is worth asking early whether parts are still available, because that decides whether a repair is realistic.

When a local plumber is the better call

Some faults are not really shower faults at all. Consider calling a plumber when:

• The shower is out of guarantee and you want it looked at the same day or out of hours
• Water is leaking behind the wall, through the ceiling below or around the tray, which needs tracing rather than a new cartridge
• The supply is the problem: low pressure, an airlock, a cylinder or boiler fault, or a pump that is not suited to the system
• Parts for your model are no longer made and you need a like-for-like replacement fitted
• You want to change from an electric to a mixer shower, or the other way round
• You have an Aqualisa rather than a Mira: see our Aqualisa shower not working guide, which covers the pumped processor problem after a boiler change

Repair or replace an old Mira?

A single failed part on a newer shower, such as a hose, head, flow cartridge or thermostatic cartridge, is almost always worth repairing. The case for replacing grows when the unit is old, parts are hard to get, the casing is cracked, or more than one part has failed. With an electric shower, a replacement of a different power rating may also need the cable and protection checked by an electrician, which affects the total cost. Our comparison of a mixer or electric shower helps if you are weighing up a change of type.

Get your Mira shower looked at

Loyal Plumbers covers London and everywhere inside the M25, 24 hours a day, with 10 vans on the road. We deal with shower faults on the plumbing side: mixer valves and cartridges, hoses and heads, leaks around showers, pumps and supply problems. Call 020 4652 8585 and tell us the model on the front of the shower, what it is doing and whether it is still under guarantee.

Our call-out charge is £60, and the engineer explains what they have found and what the repair involves before starting. Where the fault is in the electrical supply to an electric shower, we will tell you so, because that work needs a qualified electrician. Our general plumbing and bathroom fitting pages cover the wider work, and our emergency plumbing page covers leaks that cannot wait.