Shower Valve Deep Rough-In kit leaks

duners · Jan 17, 2007

I placed the deep rough-in kits on both my shower and bathtub and the shower one will not stop dripping. The valves are American Standard single handle "R120?". The bathtub has a different manifold than the shower, see pictures, and I don't know if that is the reason the shower drips and the bathtub doesn't. The bathtub manifold is plastic with a metal ring and the shower manifold is completely metal. I swapped the extension and cartridge from the bathtub and placed it on the shower valve and it still drips. I then bought a new cartridge with new rubber washers and have the same result. I then removed the extension and mounted the cartridge directly to the manifold and there are no leaks. It could be that the extension is the wrong part for the shower valve, however I purchased the valves about 6 years ago at the same time and thought they were the same. Also, both the shower and bathtub cartridges appear to be identical. I even torqued down the screws so tight at one point, to stop the drip, that I cracked the plastic case on the cartridge. The American Standard deep-rough in kit P/N is 060213-0020A and was used for both valves.

Pictures are at the link below:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/album?c...hTF_9u.42xXSYEl6pyAeg--&ts=1169077644&.src=ph

OldPete · Jan 17, 2007

duners said:
I placed the deep rough-in kits on both my shower and bathtub and the shower one will not stop dripping. The valves are American Standard single handle "R120?". The bathtub has a different manifold than the shower, see pictures, and I don't know if that is the reason the shower drips and the bathtub doesn't. The bathtub manifold is plastic with a metal ring and the shower manifold is completely metal. I swapped the extension and cartridge from the bathtub and placed it on the shower valve and it still drips. I then bought a new cartridge with new rubber washers and have the same result. I then removed the extension and mounted the cartridge directly to the manifold and there are no leaks. It could be that the extension is the wrong part for the shower valve, however I purchased the valves about 6 years ago at the same time and thought they were the same. Also, both the shower and bathtub cartridges appear to be identical. I even torqued down the screws so tight at one point, to stop the drip, that I cracked the plastic case on the cartridge. The American Standard deep-rough in kit P/N is 060213-0020A and was used for both valves.

Pictures are at the link below:
http://new.photos.yahoo.com/album?c...hTF_9u.42xXSYEl6pyAeg--&ts=1169077644&.src=ph

Good Luck with this. I just went a full round with American Standard's Chief tech guy on a similar matter. I can TRY to help. Can you get a very close and CLEAR picture of the extension and the valve body that it is suppose to mate with? 99% of the time the bozo's at American Standard don't realize that they have to actually mate up!

Pete

Sponsor · 2022-01-29T12:20:58-0800

duners · Jan 17, 2007

Thanks for the response Pete. I have placed a close-up picture of the extension and cartridge at the link below. The interface between extension and cartridge is where the leak is with the torque on the screws at max. I also swapped extensions between the bathtub and shower and the shower still dripped and the bathtub did not. The screw torque is about the same for both shower and tub. Do you suspect that the shower valve manifold surface is not flat enough and causing the extension not let the gaskets on the cartridge to fully seat? It seems very probable due to the valves being different.

http://new.photos.yahoo.com/album?c...hTF_9u.42xXSYEl6pyAeg--&ts=1169077644&.src=ph

Were you able to resolve your problem?

OldPete · Jan 17, 2007

Ok... from what I can see there are 3 indentations in the brass (shower) and 3 "pegs" in the extension. Those three should interlock. The order of things is that there should be three washers between the brass and the extension and then 3 washers between the cartridge valve and the extension.

What I *don't* know is why the bath ones looks so different from the shower one. What is behind those screws on the bath one?

duners · Jan 17, 2007

The three screws hold the metal ring to the plastic manifold. The ring is about an 1/8" thick and holds the cartridge.
The stackup is the same on both valves... o-rings, extension, rubber washers, cartridge.
Also, I put some valve lube on the extension to evaluate contact at the interface to the cartridge. The gaskets on the cartridge appeared to fully cover the holes on the extension and make contact. However, it seems that the cartridge is just not seating the gaskets enough to stop the drip.

OldPete · Jan 18, 2007

Though one... Especially around here. These guys don't like American Standard one bit... maybe somebody will give you some ideas. Did you try calling American Standard (90% of the time it won't matter the tech people there have zero clue.)

duners · Jan 18, 2007

I did call American Standard and you are correct.....they are clueless. He had no tips or tricks to solve the problem and just wanted to send me a new cartridge (even though I told him that I already purchased a brand new cartridge and it still leaks).

duners · Jan 18, 2007

I called American Standard again with a little more information. It ends up that the shower valve is a R020 "Non Pressure balance" and the tub is a R120. The extension kit DOES NOT work on the R020, per American Standard, and DOES work on the R120. I guess the only thing left to do is cut out the valve and relocate it to the proper position.

OldPete · Jan 18, 2007

Yuppers!

That rings very similar to my saga. American Standard does NOT support their line of non-pressure valves.

I learned my lesson.

Shower Valve Deep Rough-In kit leaks

Users who are viewing this thread

duners

New Member

OldPete

DIY Senior Member

Sponsor

Paid Advertisement

duners

New Member

OldPete

DIY Senior Member

duners

New Member

OldPete

DIY Senior Member

duners

New Member

duners

New Member

OldPete

DIY Senior Member

Similar threads