Gator bite and tub shower problems

Over the weekend, I changed my daughters shower/faucet hardware as we put in a new tub and surround. It was a moen brand and everything went well. I used gator bites and found no leaks, but after completing the job, we turned on the water and found that when set on tub fill, not only did water come out of the tub faucet, it also came out of the shower head. I called moen's help line and was told that if I had used a gator bite-EL on my downspout to the faucet, that was the most likely reason for the problem. Has anyone else had this problem and could there be other reasons for the water coming out of the shower head even though the diverter had not been flipped? Thank you.

weasels2 said:

Over the weekend, I changed my daughters shower/faucet hardware as we put in a new tub and surround. It was a moen brand and everything went well. I used gator bites and found no leaks, but after completing the job, we turned on the water and found that when set on tub fill, not only did water come out of the tub faucet, it also came out of the shower head. I called moen's help line and was told that if I had used a gator bite-L on my downspout to the faucet, that was the most likely reason for the problem. Has anyone else had this problem and could there be other reasons for the water coming out of the shower head even though the diverter had not been flipped? Thank you.

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What pipe did you use, if its PEX then that's the problem as the id restricts the flow and will cause this. I would never use a "gator" or shark bite for the tub spout but I don't see that as being the reason for this.

If there is "any" restriction on the tub spout piping, it will force water up to the shower head.
It needs to be unrestricted copper, galvanized or brass.

CPVC or PEX won't work.

IF you used PEX, or did not remove the "stiffener" inside the fitting if you used copper, that is the problem. Unless, are you sure you did not put the valve in upside down?

Thanks to all that responded. I did not remove the "stiffener" and did use 1/2 inch copper. I do know the valve is in the proper position. I am going to remove the gator bite and sweat a 1/2 inch copper elbow and hopefully that will take care of my problem. Thanks again

ON the Sharkbite, the internal stiffener is designed and intended to be removed if using it on copper...I'm assuming that's true with the Gatorbite fitting as well. The easiest thing would be to remove that and see if it solves the problem, and if not, then solder on a fitting. Now, most pros would never have used the press-on fitting in the first place, but that's a different story.

quote; remove the gator bite and sweat a 1/2 inch copper elbow

Why not do it the "easy way" and just remove the stiffeners from both sides?