Experience in How to Repair a Drip Showerhead

June 3, 2009 by homebuilder
Filed under: Bathroom

There’s not anything rather like hearing to water drip all through the evening to spur you into a dwelling fix task. In my case, the difficulty was with my somewhat new shower. After rotating off the valve, water would extend to drip…and drip…and drip..about 7 feet to the wash floor, where each fall made a pleasant “smack!”

I advised chartering a plumber, but determined I would give the fix a shot myself, in wants of keeping a twosome century bucks. Fortunately, I had kept the manufacturer’s (California Faucets) setting up directions, though I likely could have discovered them online with a bit of searching. Aha! On the back of these was a handy troubleshooting journal for my pressure-balance wash valve. And right there was “Shower head drips after closing off the valve.”

I investigated the directions and the exploded-view drawing, and rapidly disassembled the unit with a minute Allen wrench, a twosome of screwdrivers, and a two of needle-nose pliers. I easily taken the handle with the Allen wrench, unscrewed the diverter knob (this is where the pliers came in handy), then taken the attachments that held the faceplate. On the valve body in the partition, there are two shut-off valves that I turned 90-degrees with a flat screwdriver to close off the water to the valve before disassembling any thing else.

After eliminating a couple of more attachments, I was adept to drag out the whole valve cartridge. I pried two little filter injects out of the valve body (the part still in the wall), cleansed them out under a toilet, and took off the little O-rings that closed them. I furthermore taken the O-rings on the valve itself. With O-rings in hand, I travelled to my localized home-improvement center and acquired replacements along with some O-ring sealant. The total account was under $3.

I returned, reassembled everything as asserted by the directions and….it still dripped. This intended the valve was faulty. So I called the manufacturer. They said, “Yep, the valve is faulty.” But here is the good news: the unit has a 10-year warranty, which is not unusual.