A leaked shower head or shower faucet can be expensive and irritating. Beyond the annoying dripping of water, a leaked shower faucet can waste hundreds of water gallon every month. Also, if the leakage is on the hot side of your shower faucet than it can waste a good amount of energy that a water heater continuously use to operate warm water. This in return increases your electric bills. Moreover the leakage inside a wall rises more concern to house owners. Because this type of water leakage can cause serious structural problems which costs expensive repairing. Before we go into the detail discussion of how to replace shower valve/faucet and how to fix a leaky shower faucet let’s find out what causes shower faucet to leak.
Causes of a leaky shower faucet:
Shower faucet may leak because they are used so much. If the leakage is around the nut area of the faucet then the cause of water leakage is may be due to loose nuts. Most of the cases, the inner seals get worn or may be the parts become clogged or corroded due to deposits of hard water. With the passage of time and continuous usage, the gaskets and O-rings which seal the connections between the moving parts of metal wear out. When this happens, water usually drips out.
Moen Shower Faucet Repair
Shut the whole water supply of the house and drain the water from the pipe before getting started. Follow these steps for moenshower faucet repair
Step 1: On top of control valve, pry off a plastic cover. Use a Phillips screwdriver to remove the screw which are present at the knob center. You will see the two screws securing the escutcheon plate. Unscrew these two screws and pull the plate off from the wall. If necessary pry it using a flat-bladed screwdriver gently. Do not scratch its finish.
Step 2: Pull out the stop tube by sliding it off from the cartridge. Pull off the U-shaped cartridge retainer clip from the valve body by using a plier’s pair. Slide the spacer washer off from the shaft and set it aside along with the retainer clip.
Step 3: A nut-like tool in white plastic should get packaged with new cartridge. To interlock it with the new cartridge, slip this white plastic nut-like tool over shaft. After that turn it back and forth with pliers and release the cartridge from the body of the valve.
Step 4: Push the new cartridge straight into the body of the valve till it seats. Slip the white plastic nut-like tool on the cartridge. Orient the cartridge with this tool so that the ear of the cartridge are at the bottom and top of body of the valve. Now slide the U-shaped retainer clip back in the body of the valve till its snap into its place. If your retainer clip doesn’t snap into its place properly then you may not have seated the cartridge correctly in the body of the valve. With the plastic nut-like tool, readjust it properly.
Step 5: Turn on the water supply. Mount the knob of the faucet on the shaft temporarily. Hold a bucket under the head of the shower and turn the hot water side on and make sure the hot water is working. If there is no hot water coming out of the shower then you need to readjust the cartridge. Readjust it with the plastic nut-like tool again and check hot water is coming or not.
Step 6: Put small spacer washer on the shaft. Slide the tube back on the body of the valve. Replace escutcheon plate and put two screws back in clockwise direction to secure it. Put the plastic knob back and screw it in its place and over the screw secure the cover plate.
How to fix a leaky single handle bathtub faucet
Traditionally, bathtub faucet has two handles for both hot and cold water but for a single handle bathtub faucet, there is only one handle for cold and hot water. Single handle bathtub faucet fixtures are found in new bathrooms. Sometimes this handle become leaky and you need to know howto fix a leaky shower faucetsingle handleby yourself. There is no need to panic because replace bathtub faucet single handleis similar if you know how to replace a two handle bathtub faucetor simply if you know how to replace bathtub faucet handles. Typically, a faucet usually leaks due to worn out of O-rings and rubber ring. To fix your single handle bathtub faucet follow these steps.
Step 1: Turn off the whole water supply of the house from the main plumbing line of your house. Cover the shower drain with a cloth so that no parts fall down. Now remove the plastic or metal face of the plate. To remove this plate, use a screwdriver and remove the exposed small screw. Also remove the face plate around the fixture.
Step 2: Once your fixture gets exposed, you would see the cartridge sticking out of it. In single handle bathtub faucet, you would see that the cold and the hot water would shut offs on the both side of this cartridge. There will be a pin or nut holding this cartridge in its place tightly. Remove it with pliers. Set them aside and then use pliers to slowly pull out the cartridge from the wall.
Step 3: After removing the cartridge, you may notice the cartridge would be damaged. If the cartridge is beyond repair them you need to replace the entire thing. But if it is good then you can simply remove the small rubber O-ring. Take this O-ring to the hardware store and find an appropriate replacement. Replace the O-ring with the new one.
Step 4: Reverse all the steps to reassemble your fixture. Turn the cold and hot water and see the problem of leakage is fixed or not.
Note: if you are looking method for two handle shower faucet repairthen apply the same steps with both handles of the bathtub faucet. Also, before you fix something remember to see the diagram first. For example see the delta single handle shower faucet repair diagram before you start the whole fixing procedure.
How to fix leaking Delta Shower Faucet
In order to stop the leakage of Delta shower faucet follow these steps. Shut the whole water supply off of the house and protect yourshower floor or tub and cover up the drain to protect any drop down of small parts. Buy a new delta cartridge for replacement.
Step 1: Remove cover cap which hides screw of the handle. Unscrew this handle and then pull off it.
Step 2: Remove two screws which hold the escutcheon plate. From wall, pull away the escutcheon plate and expose the hole around the faucet.
Step 3: Slide the sleeve off which are outside which are also known as stop tubes. To slide it off grip the sleeve and pull it in the outward direction. Use a Jaw pliers’pair and turn it counterclockwise direction to remove the brass bonnet.
Step 4: Pull plastic cap off and then grip and wiggle the cartridge. It will get lose then pull the cartridge off. See any loose particles or deposits in the valve’ internal side and clean it up by using a rag.
Step 5: Insert a new cartridge. This cartridge’ one side is marked as hot and you need to position it on hot side of the water. Push it in its place.
Step 6: Place brass bonnet over the valve. Turn it in clockwise direction and tighten it up. Check the threads properly grip it. Firstly tighten it with your hands then snug it by using jaw pliers. Clean up the wall before you place escutcheon plate. Placeback outer sleeve upon the cartridge. Push it in its place. Replace the trim plates along with the handles.
Step 7: Turn on water supply of your house and check if everything is working fine. Caulk perimeter of trim plate with the tub caulk and seal over the wall.
How to replace shower faucet/valve?
Homeowners replace single handle shower valve when the water does not stop dripping. But sometimes they get confuse whether they should replace shower valve from front or they need for replacing shower valve behind wall. Sometimes a quick shower valve repair fixes the problem but sometimes shower valve replacement is required. If you are a homeowner and you have made decision of replacing shower valve of your bath then follow these steps to replace shower valve. Whether you want to replace single handle showervalve from front or from behind wall, you need to follow these basic steps.
Replacing shower valve involves two steps: Removing the old shower valve and installing the new shower valve.
Removal of the Old Shower Valve
Step 1: Turn off the whole water supply of your house and cover the drain to block any drop of a shower valve part.
Step 2: Remove the handle of the valve. For removing the handle, unscrew the screws that hold these handles to the wall.
Step 3: Then you need to remove the escutcheon plate. There are also screws which hold the escutcheon plate on the wall. You may see caulk around the trim plate. Cut the bead of the caulk and remove it from the trim plate.
Step 4: For removing and installing the shower valve, cut a hole. Here you have two options. Whether you can cut into the wall behind the plumbing cavity or you can work through a small front opening that is present in the surrounding. Now the choice is yours whether you want to replace it from the front or behind.
Step 5: Remove the clip of the valve. If your valve clip is not damaged then you can reuse this clip. Some of valve clips are secured with retainer nuts which hold them in its place. In such case unscrew the nut and remove the valve.
Step 5: Grip the valve and pull it out of the wall carefully.
Installation of New Valve
Step 1: Grip end of your new cartridge of valve with pliers and slide it into the slot of the wall. Make sure the new valve cartridge is of the same size of the old one. Also, if you notice any rust while changing the shower valve then you may need to replace the whole shower valve assembly.
Step 2: Slide the metal plate back into its place
Step 3: Reverse the steps and turn on the water supply. Check if you shower valve is working properly.
How to fix shower diverter
Before you start fixing the shower diverter, you need to know how to remove it carefully. If is advice to never use any kind of hammer to remove it. Use a gear and gently dismantle it. Remove the metal plate and you will get a clear view of the diverter. Then follow these steps.
Step 1: Determine which type of diverter valve you have. Remove the old diverter valve. For this unscrew the nut which are present at the stem.
Step 2: Take a new perfect size of the diverter valve. Before fixing, wrap Teflon tape’ double layer on the thread of the stem of the new assembly of the diverter to stop leakage of water.
Step 3: Install the new diverter valve.
Step 4: Reverse all the steps and see if your problem is fixed or not.
Note: Use the same steps if you are looking for how to fix shower faucet stem.
Things to Remember while Shower Faucet Repair at Home:
If you turn the sower faucet off and water keeps dripping out from the shower head then crank the handle closed hardly. Sometimes, this makes things even worse. Because if you over tighten it, the valve may get damage. So, be careful while turning faucet handle off. Before you fix the shower faucet, turn off all the water supply first. In most of the houses, shut-off valve may locate near the shower or in the bathroom or basement. Make sure you turn off the whole water supply of the house before fixing shower faucet. After turning off the whole house water supply, open the sink faucet of the bathroom to drain water left in the pipes.
Article Source is https://yourproplumber.com/how-to-fix-shower-faucet/