On our house, the shower valve was plumbed wrong. Turn it to hot and you get cold. Is there a way of taking the valve apart from the shower side and flipping something inside to make it correct?
Thanks,
Martin
Edited 11/25/2003 4:03:28 PM ET by MARTINK98
Replies
Doh!
Open floor below? It would be much easier to swap them in the basement.
Is this a Moen single handle shower valve? If so, remove the handle and rotate the stem 1/2 turn, then reinstall the handle. It should then work correctly with the hot on the left/cold on the right.
That's my first question, is it a single lever job? If so, probably just installed wrong. http://www.moen.com has all the instructions if it's a moen; go to the man's web site.
Incidentally, one of the instructions for moen shower valves on new construction is to take the valve cartridge out, and flush the lines. I doubted the usefulness of this, until I tried to give the kids their first bath. Water dribbled out, would have taken 1/2 hr to fill the tub. Next day, when I pulled the valve out, it was plugged with wood chips and sawdust.
The bath tub /shower in my circa 1933 house has the original porcelan cross type hot and cold shutoff valves, but the hot is on the right and the cold on the left. It is plumbed like that with threaded brass pipe all the way to the basement, so there is no easy fix.(I just have to warn guests.) Funny thing is that the down stairs lav sink was also plumbed backwards. This was easy to fix when I put in new sink and vanity by reversing the faucet connections to the shut-off valves. I can only conclude that the plumber was celebrating the repeal of prohibition when he did this work. Maybe the inspector also.
"It is plumbed like that with threaded brass pipe all the way to the basement, so there is no easy fix."
Just swap 'em in the basement. Brass is easy to work with.
When I was a youngun, we had a plumber who enjoyed imbibing replace the water heater in our old (200 yr old) house. He mixed up the hot and cold. If you were the 5th person to use the john in the morning, you learned the meaning of steamed buns!!!
Thanks for the input. Since I view it as part ot the house's "charm", I've never given much serious thought to fixing it. But ,since you brought it up... the lines come straight down, side by side, and connect directly with a "t" fitting to the main hot and cold "feeder" lines. If it were copper, I could cut them back , put on elbows and "swap" them ,as you say. How would you do it with threaded brass? (My plumbing skills and tools don't include cutting and rethreading brass pipe. Can that actually be done by most plumbers?)
I cant see it , but if its brass pipe [ boy that sounds expensive] you could undo it and change it over with copper flex set for a hot water heater. That should be HO easy.
Tim Mooney
"But ,since you brought it up... the lines come straight down, side by side, and connect directly with a "t" fitting to the main hot and cold "feeder" lines. If it were copper, I could cut them back , put on elbows and "swap" them ,as you say. How would you do it with threaded brass?"
Brass was very popular for water supply plumbing at one point.
You can solder brass to copper. Just like with brass 'sweat' valves that are soldered to copper pipe. Or you can cut threads in soft brass easily using standard pipe-threading tool.
If you have other fittings in the main feeder lines that aren't too far from the tees, just cut off the piping on either side of the tees, remove the cut off pipes back to the fittings, screw in male adapters and re-plumb with copper. Probably take an hour or so!! <g>
Most home centers carry threaded brass pipe nipples up to about 6" in length and various fittings in a variety of diameters. But it ain't cheap.
Single lever?
Brand?
Make?
Model?
Who ever invented work didn't know how to fish....
Edited 11/25/2003 5:03:21 PM ET by IMERC
Some of the faucets you can turn the handle so that the pointer is down instead of up and then it will point appropriately to the "H" or "C" on the cover plate. However, you still have to turn it clockwise for hot, which means that if you get used to it, you will get in trouble any time you stay at a motel...