hot-waterplumbingplumbing-fixtureshowerwater
I have new house and one shower is either all hot or all cold. The shower head in the off position is down and when I turn it to the left its all hot. center is off and right is is all cold. I tried adjusting the plastic adjustment ring and that worked a little but is there a way to make is so it goes off to all cold mix then all hot like my other shower is?
Also if this fix can be made by changing the cartage can someone help me identify the brand based on the picture attached.
This depends on the shower valve you have.
On some there is nothing you can do short of replacing it. On others there are pressure balancing settings that you can change and these should be adjustable once you take off of the trim. Most of the time they are right in front and you will see notches.
For American Standard valve they call it the "hot limit stop". The picture I have below shows how to change it. You will need some pliers (to turn on the shower without the trim on it) and a screw driver (to take off trim and adjust setting).
This is kind of hit and miss with most valves - you really just have to change it and see if it is what you want. I have mine on the hottest setting and the range is kind of warm to pretty hot. Can't take a really cold shower in one of my bathrooms!
Warning: If you have children using the shower then I would really test the settings for scalding water. Most newer ones that I have installed don't allow all hot to got through but who knows. Test it out.
Also if you look like you could or might break something when you are adjusting the valve, I would leave it alone until you can figure out what your replacement options are. You might want to figure out what model it is so you can look up instructions and then to have that model # to replace if needed. Changing this is a very easy process for new valves but the much older ones can have issues.
The hot water inlet side of your valve may be clogged with rust or mineral deposits. I have had that happen before. In my case there was a galvanized steel pipe section screwed directly into a copper pipe section, which always causes rust in the pipe (galvanic corrosion).
Based on having the red and green adjustments, this sounds like a single-handled valve with a cartridge in the center. You will need to remove the valve cartridge to clean out any deposits.
Is this a newly-installed valve in the shower, or is it an existing valve that just recently started having problems?
Best Answer
It looks like you have an issue with the mixing valve which looks like this -
More specifically it is probably due to an issue in the cartridge which is the front part of the mixing valve and is usually a white plastic cylinder that look like this -
These are in the wall right behind the shower handle. It is likely that something is either jammed up (sediment) or broken in the cartridge. If you open things up and take pictures we can help more.