Ruined weekend... shower faucet plumbing

[Rob Bourgeois]

Wed. morning my shower woudln't turn on all the way. Its one of those one handle, turn right to cold, left to hot types. Normally it would go 3 o'clock to get full cold and 9 o'clock to get full hot. Now it only turns to about 7 o'clock(more like 6 and a half).

Whats going on and is it a big job. I just don't have a clue to this one, never had a one handle faucet to work on. This is a new house(slightly more than 2 years old) and frustrating to have issues. Its an American standard faucet but I cant find it on their site.

Any help would be appreciated.

[Matt Meiser]

The deltas in our house have a cartridge type thing that pulls out. I think they have replacements at the borg. You just need to shut off the water, remove the handle, remove a trim ring, a trim sleeve and then remove the cartridge thing with a big wrench.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

The Price-Pfisters in our house that are one valve have a ceramic cartridge IIRC.

[Jeffrey Makiel]

Perhaps it has an anti-scald button that was accidentally turned on? This would limit the rotation from going all the way to hot.

If not, the entire cartridge is removable from the shower side. It's a matter of removing the escucheon and examining how the cartridge is held in place.

Good luck...Jeff

[Rob Bourgeois]

Thanks thats seems doable with out too much fuss....famous last words.

[Ben Franz]

No plumbing project can be completed with fewer than 3 trips to the store. If you can swear like a sailor, it might help (and it can't hurt??). Good luck.

[Rob Bourgeois]

Well one trip to Home Depot to get a small allen wrench(the allen wrench bits on driver were too wide to fit in the narrow hole). Looked around to see if they had any parts for American Standard...nope. Talked to the plumbing guy there (old man knows his stuff see below), he says that if its the whole cartridge the only sure place in town is probably closed since LSU/UGA game today. Turns out owner is a big fan and has a suite.

Upon return the idiots who install my water pipe did not leave enough clearance in the plastic value housing to turn the value all the way off. So I dug up the housing and dug around it to turn off the water. So far 2 hours killed and no plumbing. (swore like a sailor while digging in my 20 days without rain hardpacked clay soil)(see Ben Franz post above)

Now to the actual plumbing, unscrewed retaining screw to remove handle, unscrew cover plate and I see that there is a red limit tab that stops the handle from turning all the way. This is where the old guy at Home depot comes in..."Sounds to me the limit lab got jimmied out of place. Move it back and I bet you wont need to replace it." So I moved the limit tab and turned on the water...presto... steamy hot water.

Now to redig and replace a value housing.

Total time plumbing 5 minutes... so for 2.5 hours and counting on the job. So far only one trip to the store.

For those wondering...down here the water pipe is 12in underground where the meter is and roughly 6in next to the house where the value is.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Rob,

Be happy........pipes are buried 48" below ground here.......

[David G Baker]

Buried 42 inches below grade here in Mid Michigan. Ben Franz has said it like it is! I have a very large supply of plumbing parts and still have to make 3 trips to the store.