Shower faucet

Philip Williams · 01-19-2006, 04:33 PM

1988 Excella, the shower faucet has low pressure, like no hot water abd it leaks where the showe hose connects. I was thinking about replacing this entire fixture wuth a faucet that has the hose connection coming out of the top of the fixture. Has any one done this or does anyone have a suggestion?

BigAl · 01-19-2006, 04:51 PM

I have a 94 and it also has low pressure and minimal water flow. That is probably to conserve water and not fill grey tank too fast. As for the leak at the hose connection it is probably a back flow preventer and it should leak after you turn off the water but not while using the shower.
they are designed to prevent dirty water from gettting sucked back into your drinking water supply..
Al

Philip Williams · 01-19-2006, 04:59 PM

Appreciate your reply. I thought of the points you mentined but I mean LOW water pressure! Also it leaks at the connection even when water is on. ??

**Janet** · 01-19-2006, 06:07 PM

Way out of my league... but you may have an inline filter somewhere that is plugged. Our trailer has one just uphill from the city water intake...

john92021 · 01-19-2006, 07:20 PM

Hi, Be sure to screw the shower head off and clean the filter in there. I almost tore the thing apart before I checked the obvious one.
John

j54mark · 01-19-2006, 07:49 PM

As noted above, clogged outlets in the shower head will cause exactly the symptoms you mention - both the low flow rate and the leak at the hose connection. You may also have small bits of debris in the faucet itself, which would cause the low flow rate, but not the leak at the hose connection. That could be a simple washer replacement.

Good luck,

Mark

Philip Williams · 01-23-2006, 10:53 AM

I will dig deeper, thank you.

Buttercup · 01-24-2006, 03:21 AM

We replaced our shower valve because it had froze and came apart in about a dozen places.
We documented the steps we took. Your experience may be different but the one thing that doesn't change - you can do it if you need to and the good thing is that you can put in a real nice unit to replace the old one.

Condoluminum · 04-10-2006, 01:23 PM

Philip-

May be too late, but I wondered if you had owner's manual for your Excella including detailed section on adjusting the cartridge for flow in your shower mix valve? We've had lingering issues with ours as well, dripping on hot side...

Valve was made by company called NIBCO (not Moen) and cartridge included a pair of adjustible plugs inside. Process requires a long and very fine (5/64") allen wrench to turn the plugs at the back and adjust flow and stopping points.. If you do not have manual describing process, let me know and I'll scan ours and send via PM. Manual also describes removal process for cartridge to check it.

If failed, NIBCO sold the business to Phoenix Products in Avon Lake (Cleveland area) Ohio in 1995. They still make some of the parts available for both shower mix valves and sink faucets. They can be reached at (800) 222-6041, or on the web. By the time you look at 90 degree inlets and number of piping changes to make, fixing existing valve might be easier than total replacement...

John McG

>> Proving the falsity daily to the song "It never rains in California..."

rmscottrds · 02-08-2007, 06:32 PM

On you water hook-up, is there a pressure reducer? We had a leak at the shower head and went to a campground that had these at all the sites. We had no leak after that. We also bought a reducer at Walmart just in case subsequent campgrounds did not.

Condoluminum · 02-09-2007, 05:22 PM

Ours leaked and dribbled even with pressure regulator...

We did find sources for NIBCO replacement cartridges. Lowe's shows them in their catalog, though they aren't stocked at stores. Our new store couldn't exactly figure out how to order one from their own catalog, but their supplier took pity and furnished the replacement cartridge directly to us...

Search on NIBCO to find current suplier and model number. Price around $14. New springs, seats and body will solve flow and shutoff issues, and a lot easier than changing the entire valve, which has four threaded pipe connections (brass and plastic) in tight space against flat surface...

alan · 02-09-2007, 07:55 PM

Be careful on this one.

I found water dripping on the backside of the shower wall. Turns out that the original shower faucet was installed upside down (I wondered why cold water was on the left).

The shower faucet should be installed with the shower connection down. When shut off, the water in the line to the shower head drains back into the valve body, and then out the bottom. In my case, the water was collecting in the body of the shower faucet, and then finding its way through the wall.