Never ending leak on showerhead...

Good morning all! Thought I'd try here before I lose all hope on on fixing my master shower. I have twice in 2 weeks replaced both the seats and the stem/bonnett on both the hot and cold sides of the shower. now, when I install everything and turn the main water back on there is no drip, but as soon as I turn either side on and off it continues to drip no matter what.

Made sure I have correct seats/stems
installed in open position

I ended up capping off the shower neck so that I can at least sleep at night. After turning the main water off I remove the cap and also open all the water valves in the house to release pressure. But the last time there was still a good steady drip going from the shower neck.

Any suggestions?

This is actually in a mobilehome and the parts are Phoenix parts.



Thank you in advance!

Any suggestions?? I attempted it yet again, I re-inspected the stems and they have no damage, went ahead and put some teflon stape on the backs of them, re-inspected the stem/bonnets and no damage, yet I still have a small steady stream upon turning off, I did not put the shower head back on to guage the actual water coming through... Is it worth it to replace the valves in the back? I took a pic of it from the back access panel.

Wish I had an answer for you. But I got nothing.

At some point you need to stop the bleeding. By bleeding I mean all the repairs.

Have you considered purchasing a new unit?

JW

I'm about to that point, I was planning on looking for a whole setup replacement this weekend. Hopefully that will solve the problem and there not something else causing the leak.

Why not replace that push-fit connector. with other material? For your pipe thread, consider using pipe dope.

The use of tape on the stems may be your problem...at least on the ones I'm familiar with, those are NOT pipe threads (they're regular straight threads), and rely on a gasket or washer or o-ring to seal. The introduction of tape (and it is not Teflon...Dupont's trademark) on the threads can and often does cause leaks on fittings not designed for them.

Whoever sold you the tape, should be fired.
No tape on stem threads.

Now that I've thawed out my weary old bones......

I believe jad nailed it 100% as far as the taped connections causing a like problem.

Its hard for the average person to see that their fix will end in a result comparable to the original one.

I'm curious about that piece of, looks like pex, heading for the area of the showerhead on the right side of the picture.

In any event, best answer has already been posted and looks to be an easy task: Replace.


Just saw the post from the boss.

I agree with him also.

Thanks for all the suggestions... I'm heading out to find a whole new unit this weekend, as for the tape it was a last ditch effort as it was leaking before the tape was put in and allother pieces were replaced.

palletworx12 said:

Thanks for all the suggestions... I'm heading out to find a whole new unit this weekend, as for the tape it was a last ditch effort as it was leaking before the tape was put in and allother pieces were replaced.

Click to expand...

The ordeal you went trough is a royal pain in the ass. I know. I live and breath this type of ordeal monthly.

When you try and fix something there is the factor of "Your Time" All Parts All Materials.

Spending a day to fix a $40.00 fixture is in my book not so smart. But - it's the pricinple I think that drives us to repair these old fixtures. It's better practice to buy the parts to fix and the new fixture as back up (if you can return it later) and to try and cap the time you spend on a repair.

If something is leaking and I'm called to look at it I'll say something like

"Do we try and fix this? Should we invest $100-$200 in a repair or should be just go all new?" I like this question because it informs the client that the plumber's travel time to and fro and the repair time is all billable hours.

With experience comes judgement. There is a wack of it here.

Sorry Pallet you did not find the easy fix. At least you gave it a solid go of it!

Lets see a finished shot of the new one when you are done. And please list what type of new fixture you found in case this helps someone else down the road!!!