Front Lit Illuminated Mirror in Matt Black

An illuminated mirror: the plain front lit mirror, with lit panels at face height and no demister.

Bathroom lighting is the one part of a house where getting it wrong is a safety matter rather than a taste matter, and it is sold almost entirely on photographs. Every listing here states the zone the fitting may be installed in, the IP rating with both digits explained, the colour rendering index, the lumen output and the efficacy in lumens per circuit watt. If a fitting is not suitable above a bath we say so on the page you are buying it from. If a mirror is backlit and will not light your face, we say that too.

Specification

• Zone: zone 2 and outside the zones. Zone 2 is the 600mm band beyond zone 1 and the 600mm radius around a washbasin tap. It is not rated for zone 1, which means not directly over the bath
• IP rating: IP44. The first digit, 4, means protected against solid objects over 1mm. The second digit, 4, means protected against splashing water from any direction. It is the minimum for zone 2 and it is not enough for zone 1
• Dimensions: chosen above. Depth 42mm from the wall
• Light output: 1150 lumens at the front, giving 280 lux at the face from 400mm
• Colour temperature: 4000K neutral white, which is the right temperature at a mirror
• Colour rendering: CRI 90, with R9 above 50, which is a good deal better than the eighties that this category usually offers and is enough for everything except colour matching makeup
• Dimming: touch dimmable from 10 to 100 per cent
• Electrical: Class 2, hard wired to a fused spur behind the mirror
• Fire rating: not applicable to a wall or surface mounted fitting
• Standards: BS EN 60598-2-1, BS EN 1036 for the silvered glass, and BS EN 12150 for the toughened substrate. Every mirror is safety backed so it holds together if it is broken
• Weight: approximately 12.4 kilograms
• Guarantee: three years
• Finish: a fine texture matt black powder coat over a chromated primer, because black paint straight onto aluminium in a bathroom lifts at the edges within two years
• Lighting position: front lit at face height, which lights a face properly
• Demister: not fitted on this model
• Glass: 5mm silvered float, safety backed to BS EN 1036
• Mounting: two brackets with a levelling screw, one person

What arrives

• the mirror
• wall brackets and levelling screws
• a drilling template
• the connection block and gland
• instructions and a cleaning card

Installation

A registered electrician for the spur. Electrical work in a room containing a bath or a shower is notifiable under Part P of the Building Regulations in England and Wales. That means it has to be done by a registered electrician or signed off by building control. Replacing a like for like fitting on an existing circuit is not notifiable. Adding a new circuit, a new socket or a new spur is. Leave the access hole where the template shows, because a connection block behind a fitted mirror reached through the wrong hole becomes a tiling job.

Choosing between this and the alternatives

A backlit mirror throws its light at the wall behind it and returns a halo. It is beautiful and it does not light your face. If this mirror is the only light source at your basin, choose a front lit one instead, or add a light above. We sell both because plenty of people want the look and are right to, but the specification says which is which and the lux at the face is printed for each. If a backlit mirror is your only light at the basin, add a bar above it or a pair of vertical fittings beside it, and the room will work.