fixitmyself
New Member
We have a shower and a tub/shower, both coincidentally started leaking (one last month, one this week) damaging ceilings below. They both leak ONLY when shower (or tub) is on - about a cup of water for 15 minute shower. With no trouble-free showers left in house I spent last night finding the leaks! I think I found the same problem for both but I need some more help):
After reading all of the advice here, I checked the pans (poured an inch of water on the tub and shower - no leak). I took off the shower arm, no wetness up there (re-teflon'd the arm). So, I went into the valve. Previous owner had good records, shows two Grohe Talia fixtures installed in 1998, with a pressure balancing roughing valve in the wall. It looks most like this:
http://www.guillens.com/index.jsp?path=product&part=405632&ds=dept&process=search&text=GRO 35251
I got to the roughing valve, turned on teh water, and water dripped (about 2-3 drops per second) out of the stem going into the valve. Paper towel confirmed no leaks above the stem or around any of the joints, or casing of the valve. So... I went ahead and opened the casing, some crud but pretty clean - I cleaned everything. There's a hole where the stem comes out that have a teflon ring closest to the base of the stem, then a 0-ring (maybe?- can't get them out of the casing and didn't want to scratch them), then the casing wall, then a small o-ring sits outside the casing (which as far as I can tell has no function at least for leaking). The stem itself is part of a complicated pressure-balancing cartridge that has teflon (??) gears inside, and 2 o-ring-covered ports on the L and R which connect to teh input H and C water inlets. As far as I can tell, water goes into teh cartridge, mix, and come out into the space between teh cartridge and the outer casing, and then flow out the up/down pipes. So, I THINK THAT THE WATER IS JUST LEAKING PAST THE TEFLON/O-RING SEAL THROUGH WHICH THE STEM COMES OUT FO THE VALVE CASING. Does this sound right? There are 3 options to buy Grohe parts:
(1) Buy a replacement front cover, which contains teh front-half of the casing (that I had removed) which includes teh teflon and o-ring. This would work if the only problem are these rings.
(2) Buy a replacement PBV cartridge (I worry about replacing this in case the old casing (no longer sold by Grohe) doesn't fit perfectly). This would be good if I've misdiagnosed and teh real problem is either inside this cartridge or that the stem is no longer smooth.
(3) Buy a whole roughing valve, take it apart, and stick in everything (so I don't need to re-connect pipes!). OR, buy this, hire a plumber, and have to replace the whole unit. This I suppose is the last resort.
What I did in cleaning everything was I put some plumber's grease everywhere there was a moving contact (stem, hole, o-rings) in case just a littel grease would hold the pressure. It made the shower handle open/close nicely (almost feels too loose), but alas, leaks as much - maybe even worse- than before (still thankfully no problem when shower is not running).
HELP!
After reading all of the advice here, I checked the pans (poured an inch of water on the tub and shower - no leak). I took off the shower arm, no wetness up there (re-teflon'd the arm). So, I went into the valve. Previous owner had good records, shows two Grohe Talia fixtures installed in 1998, with a pressure balancing roughing valve in the wall. It looks most like this:
http://www.guillens.com/index.jsp?path=product&part=405632&ds=dept&process=search&text=GRO 35251
I got to the roughing valve, turned on teh water, and water dripped (about 2-3 drops per second) out of the stem going into the valve. Paper towel confirmed no leaks above the stem or around any of the joints, or casing of the valve. So... I went ahead and opened the casing, some crud but pretty clean - I cleaned everything. There's a hole where the stem comes out that have a teflon ring closest to the base of the stem, then a 0-ring (maybe?- can't get them out of the casing and didn't want to scratch them), then the casing wall, then a small o-ring sits outside the casing (which as far as I can tell has no function at least for leaking). The stem itself is part of a complicated pressure-balancing cartridge that has teflon (??) gears inside, and 2 o-ring-covered ports on the L and R which connect to teh input H and C water inlets. As far as I can tell, water goes into teh cartridge, mix, and come out into the space between teh cartridge and the outer casing, and then flow out the up/down pipes. So, I THINK THAT THE WATER IS JUST LEAKING PAST THE TEFLON/O-RING SEAL THROUGH WHICH THE STEM COMES OUT FO THE VALVE CASING. Does this sound right? There are 3 options to buy Grohe parts:
(1) Buy a replacement front cover, which contains teh front-half of the casing (that I had removed) which includes teh teflon and o-ring. This would work if the only problem are these rings.
(2) Buy a replacement PBV cartridge (I worry about replacing this in case the old casing (no longer sold by Grohe) doesn't fit perfectly). This would be good if I've misdiagnosed and teh real problem is either inside this cartridge or that the stem is no longer smooth.
(3) Buy a whole roughing valve, take it apart, and stick in everything (so I don't need to re-connect pipes!). OR, buy this, hire a plumber, and have to replace the whole unit. This I suppose is the last resort.
What I did in cleaning everything was I put some plumber's grease everywhere there was a moving contact (stem, hole, o-rings) in case just a littel grease would hold the pressure. It made the shower handle open/close nicely (almost feels too loose), but alas, leaks as much - maybe even worse- than before (still thankfully no problem when shower is not running).
HELP!
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