Over the years I have renovated several bathrooms in an old apartment building I own.
I have replaced the existing Price Pfister compression type faucets with similar washerless styles. The shower sets cost about $65.00 and they have been perfectly reliable (meaning that in the five years or so since I installed the first one I have never had a problem with them).
I like them, they allow the user to control the volume and the cold/hot mix and the sets seem reasonably attractive to my eyes.
But, by current codes it seems they are no longer allowed in new showers. I guess that means that they are required when a shower is rebuilt.
So, based on a lot of criticism that I received when I admitted that I wasn't upgrading to pressure balance faucets from a plumbing forum that I posted on I decided that I would use a pressure balanced faucet in my next shower project.
So I bought a Delta single handle pressure balanced faucet from Lowes for about $80 that included the MultiChoice® Universal rough valve body (that seems like an amazing deal based on what I saw on the internet). I was happy. Not too expensive and it put my conscience to rest. But it turns out this faucet doesn't allow you to control the volume. That seems really lame to me, but is it?
My intention is to take it back and get a t17 series faucet that does allow volume control. That is probably a lot more money and for what? A common topic on plumbing forums is esoteric problems with pressure balancing faucets. The old PP double handle faucets seemed really nice to me. They are cheap and highly reliable.
The building has copper plumbing and high water pressure and nobody has ever complained about sudden temperature changes while they are showering.
So now I'm having second thoughts about switching to a pressure balanced shower faucet. One little worry that I've had is whether a pressure balanced faucet could exacerbate water temperature changes for people without the pressure balanced faucets. When the faucet senses that the pressure has dropped on the cold side does it reduce the flow on the hot side to maintain a constant water temperature or does it increase the opening on the cold side to maintain a constant temperature. If it increases the cold side flow it seems like there might be a cascading effect where people without the pressure balanced fixtures experience an even higher temperature transition than they would otherwise when water pressure drops.
I have replaced the existing Price Pfister compression type faucets with similar washerless styles. The shower sets cost about $65.00 and they have been perfectly reliable (meaning that in the five years or so since I installed the first one I have never had a problem with them).
I like them, they allow the user to control the volume and the cold/hot mix and the sets seem reasonably attractive to my eyes.
But, by current codes it seems they are no longer allowed in new showers. I guess that means that they are required when a shower is rebuilt.
So, based on a lot of criticism that I received when I admitted that I wasn't upgrading to pressure balance faucets from a plumbing forum that I posted on I decided that I would use a pressure balanced faucet in my next shower project.
So I bought a Delta single handle pressure balanced faucet from Lowes for about $80 that included the MultiChoice® Universal rough valve body (that seems like an amazing deal based on what I saw on the internet). I was happy. Not too expensive and it put my conscience to rest. But it turns out this faucet doesn't allow you to control the volume. That seems really lame to me, but is it?
My intention is to take it back and get a t17 series faucet that does allow volume control. That is probably a lot more money and for what? A common topic on plumbing forums is esoteric problems with pressure balancing faucets. The old PP double handle faucets seemed really nice to me. They are cheap and highly reliable.
The building has copper plumbing and high water pressure and nobody has ever complained about sudden temperature changes while they are showering.
So now I'm having second thoughts about switching to a pressure balanced shower faucet. One little worry that I've had is whether a pressure balanced faucet could exacerbate water temperature changes for people without the pressure balanced faucets. When the faucet senses that the pressure has dropped on the cold side does it reduce the flow on the hot side to maintain a constant water temperature or does it increase the opening on the cold side to maintain a constant temperature. If it increases the cold side flow it seems like there might be a cascading effect where people without the pressure balanced fixtures experience an even higher temperature transition than they would otherwise when water pressure drops.
