Water – Symmons shower isn’t producing hot water

cartridgehot-watershowervalve

A shower in one of our bathrooms isn't producing any hot water (but every other sink/tub in the house is). I tried to fix this by loosening the limit screw so the handle would go a bit farther and warm/slightly hot water started to come out, but only as a light trickle.

From everything that I've read online, it sounds like I may have to replace the valve/cartridge (are these terms interchangeable?), but I'm unsure how to do so.

Below is a picture of what I'm dealing with. The shower hardware brand is Symmons and the valve/cartridge below isn't what I've been seeing in any of the DIY YouTube videos.

If I wanted to replace this, how would I take it apart?

I can't tell if this is one piece or if I can take it apart piece by piece. I've gotten some estimates from a couple plumbers and they're saying this is going to be a $300-350 fix for just labor, so I'm trying to see if this is something I can do myself.

Any advice and suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

enter image description here

Best Answer

I does sound like your cartridge has gone.

It's hard to see from the photo, but It looks like this is your valve: enter image description here

It looks like you can actually just replace the spindle:

enter image description here

You should just be able to unscrew it from the main body if you get an adjustable wrench on the flats on the front of the threaded section just behind the splined part.

Notes:

  • Don't forget to shut off both supplies up-stream!
  • Even with the water shut off, you will likely still get some coming out when you remove the cartridge. I tuck a sheet of plastic around the bottom, and as far behind as I can go to try and catch this, so it doesn't go into the wall cavity.
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