Cal Faucets cartridge removal

[Anthony Curtas]

Hi all,
New wall spout tub filler stopped working. It's two quarter-turn valves that feed a spout. It's been used a few times to fill the tub and things worked fine.

Model number is 50-W-R https://www.calfaucets.com/bathroom/parts/valves/1-2-wall-stop-valve-only-50-w-r

Today, the cold would not shut off all the way. Felt stuck. So I closed the emergency shutoff and then took a look.

It has a nut thing in front of the valve that came off easy enough, but the valve itself won't budge. I tried turning it CCW from the stem, but it seemed to be twisting a lot without anything moving so I backed off.

Almost impossible to find information on their site. Best I could find is this datasheet. Nothing about removing the cartridge. https://cdn.calfaucets.com/uploads/instructions/TO-XX-W_ii_190418-1.pdf

Any ideas are appreciated.
Thanks,
Anthony

 

[Anthony Curtas]

Fixed it myself. I used the handle instead of a wrench and it broke free pretty easily (which is what I expected yesterday). Unit is held in by a few threads and an o-ring. That top cap seats the second o-ring to prevent leaks.

I had a small piece of debris in the cartridge. Probably a solder blob, which is odd since we purged the lines before sweating on the tub filler assembly and used this several times with no problems.

The cartridge seems no worse for the wear and seals fine. I have it back assembled and working great now.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Terry]

Thanks for the update on that. Solder blobs or dirt can come from anywhere. Or so it seems. I one time found a plastic ball from a water heater heat trap bouncing in the pipes.