Show trickle, valve/body issue

Okay, I have delta faucet in a rental house, it was working FINE when I left. A few months later (a few ago) my renters said the water pressure had went down, now it's to the point it will only dribble out. I told him to replace the valve. He went to Lowes and purchased a new one, it didn't work at all. I told him to turn it around and then it started dribbling. When he has the valve removed and turns on water to the house, only cold water flows out the right side, there is no hot water coming out the left side. I had him open and close the shutoff screws. I had him pull out the "stop" following this and he did and reinserted it. http://www.moen.com/shared/docs/instruction-sheets/mt620j.pdf I do not believe we have balancer in this unit as I believe that is contained in the valve and not the body....

Is that normal for no hot water to flow? There is a shower unit behind this so ... < 5ft a way that shower has hot water... I'm really puzzled at this point. The house has a fantastic softner/arsenic remover, so I'm just confused what else could be going on here?

I have attached pictures of the valve body and the valve. He says it's a delta monitor unit. It is a bath only unit with no shower. I think this is the right picture for this faucet. http://www.deltafaucet.com/customersupport/documentation/1323.html?document=pd&fromDetailArea=bath&documentIndex=0#flashWrapper


When I did my new delta install I had a similar issue but it was only because I didn't have it seated 100% it was REALLY hard to get it all the way in. I could really use some ideas on other things to check.

As you can see we have one of those solid back splashes so I'm really worried there's something else wrong with the valve body and we'd have to replace it. Can you replace one without damaging the back splash? A plumber wants $100 just to come look at it so I'd like to know what's wrong so that if he comes out he also fixes it in one visit , or better yet fix it without a plumber but I think I'm getting past that point on this one since I'm just being phone support to someone more novice than myself.

It sounds like you have a blockage in the pipe, and I have herd of people back flushing the pipe to the water heater or to another faucet, but I have not seen it done.

I replaced several like this ... If the replacement is not seated properly, you will get little water or little hot. I also remove the limiter so the water can be hotter.

Honestly, your best bet is to get DELTA customer service on the phone and have them walk you through the reinstallation. They are surprisingly helpful.

ANd, don't ask me about the guy who had sons who liked to turn off the shower with their feet ... cost him a lot of $$$.

Neal,
That's what I'm ultimately afraid of so I asked him to run some pipe cleaners through the hot side but I know the branch is only 5 feet away so I can't imagine it could be THAT bad of a blockage.

Villa,
I've had that same thing happen but I'm not there so I can't "try" to fix it (he lives 26 hours away)... summarize to say awful past decisions led me to this. Anyway, I'm going to have him re-seat it and then call delta customer support, do they still do the lifetime warranty thing?

-Joe

Sometimes a plumber can save you money in the long run

.... Neal, I would actually say exactly the opposite, they 'rip off artists' AKA Plumbers, save you money in the short run. If you learn how to do it yourself it may cost more the first few projects or the first house (because it takes 2 or 3 times to get it right or it causes issues later on) but in the long run DIY SHOULD save you money. If it doesn't save you money, you're doing it wrong .

Agree with most of that but in this case, you are the DIYer and you are trying to educate the person who should be injoying a rental house. This is all great if it works but it also could run into real problems and you are still on the hook for all repairs. I'm still on your team, just not sure it is the best plan.

There's some very..."special" circumstances around this rental where this is necessary, I'm basically unwilling to put another penny into it with the current renter. I would NEVER do this with any of my other rental units. I appreciate your response though Neal, I'm not really on the hook for the repairs because while I'm trying to do this with a happy heart if that renter complains much more I'll just evict them and sell the house for a profit.

It's a 4 bed 3 bath house and this is the master garden tub, that has a separate fully functional shower in the same room not to mention the 2 other bathrooms both with tubs & showers.. Ya, my pity tank is running on empty. I had actually written this rant before but deleted it .

gottodo1 said:

.... Neal, I would actually say exactly the opposite, they 'rip off artists' AKA Plumbers, save you money in the short run. If you learn how to do it yourself it may cost more the first few projects or the first house (because it takes 2 or 3 times to get it right or it causes issues later on) but in the long run DIY SHOULD save you money. If it doesn't save you money, you're doing it wrong .

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Wow!! I just read through this thread to catch up and possibly give some "free" advice, on my own "free" time, without charge to anybody...doing it simply out of my passion for the trade and willingness to help others.
But...as a registered master plumber who has experienced slum-lords who are too cheap to provide proper service to tenants and would rather have them crap in buckets or take cold showers for weeks, I can honestly say that you can eat my a$$.
Well done on insulting a plumber on a DIY help forum.:

Caduceus,
Just go back to your "master plumber only" forums and get out of here. You obviously didn't read very much of the thread if you're comparing me to that and you don't know the whole story so congratulations on making ASSumptions.

I'm renting the house to a veteran who's 100% disabled and has had 3 really bad years. His credit is bad, but he's a Christian and has a great family so I really want to help the guy out. He's living in a gorgeous house I used to live in 2 years ago and I loved it so much I upgraded the hell out of it solar water heater, 80gal water heater tank, tiled front courtyard, 4 bed 3 bath... On my part he's only paying a fraction of the rent necessary to cover the expenses of the house so since he's kind of handy I ask him to look at things as much as he can to help me out but I've had a dishwasher replaced and anything that actually impacted the livability of the house.

I've had alot of really bad luck with ripoff artists in both plumbers and contractors in general so I did generalize but I did admit in another part that there is a time and place when you have to get one and try to find one who's not a scum bucket. I don't know you or if you rip people off but by your comment I would wager you're as unintelligent as the rest of the plumbers I've worked with.

Just go back to your master plumbers only forum where DIYs aren't welcome because I'd rather get half brained advice and talk through things with honest people than advice from people in you "craft", witch craft right?

Hey pot...meet kettle. I know you better than you know yourself gotodo1. Your quote "if that renter complains much more I'll just evict them and sell the house for a profit." really shows who you are.
You would really evict a disabled veteran because of complaints and you have the balls to accuse me of not reading everything? You don't even remember what you said (even though it right in front of your eyes to read again) and by generalizing plumbers as rip off artists just shows again that you are shallow.
I help people on several forums and none are plumbers only, so this shows that you ASSume with the best of them. I actually didn't assume anything. Everything that I said was a direct representation of your statements. Maybe you are accustomed to speaking without thinking or being held accountable for what you say, but I can play this game for years and have a great time at it with you because of one important fact....you started it.
Yup, that's it. You started it and you haven't even attempted to apologize so put on your bib, grab your fork and like I said before, eat my a$$.

OK you have both had your fun, you should stop now before one of the mods come along, they do have the tools to stop you. So play nice.

Well, neal, I guess I'm just gonna go anyways. If gotodo1 is an example of what to expect here, maybe professionals aren't welcome in this forum to help DIYers. Insulting my trade and character without even knowing me will always be met with a quick and pointed response.

gotodo1, has obvieously had a problem with some one, which we can't fix here and his harsh opinion should not have been voiced here, but we all make mistakes. At the same time he does not speak for the hundreds of members and thousands of visiters that stop by for some information. So for what it's worth I hope you stay.

Gotodo did you you fix it ? My brother inlaw and the same problem. With the cartridge out I put my finger over the cold water hole and had him turn on the water to the house and some black gunk shot out of the hot side and the he had hot water again. Using the full water pressure was enough to clear the pipe. Maybe you could be so lucky.

Thanks Guyod, I haven't had any time to do any more with it yet. I was going to try using an air compressor to see if we could force it back up and out a nearby hot water faucet, but maybe trying that would be easier.

-gott

nealtw said:

gotodo1, has obvieously had a problem with some one, which we can't fix here and his harsh opinion should not have been voiced here, but we all make mistakes. At the same time he does not speak for the hundreds of members and thousands of visiters that stop by for some information. So for what it's worth I hope you stay.

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Neal, if voicing my experience and opinions are wrong then we shouldn't have any forums or BBSs, Plus I would gladly stand by anything I've said. MR master plumber got all hurt that someone has had a half dozen bad experiences. I've reported plumbers to the TSBPE and after the numerous complaints they've lost their "master" title. I've tried to clean the ranks of the master plumbers and I imagine if they were a little stricter about who they admitted, our self proclaimed master plumber wouldn't have so many people smearing his title.

The same thing could easily be said for Colleges who are propping up students to keep attendance rates climbing. So this of course doesn't just impact his title.

As "titles" have evolved over time in this country they keep meaning less and less because the people who have them become less and less qualified to do so. Rather than be mad at me that master plumber should be mad at the other "master" plumbers I've had who have repeatedly lowered my expectations to the point where I see a title of Master Plumber as nothing more than someone trying to steal my money, over charging me for the effort they put it, and in the past taking advantage of my lack of knowledge. That would be too hard for him to do of course as he would then have to doubt how valuable his own title is and therefore value himself by something other than his title.

That's why I didn't take offense at him calling me a slum lord, because I understand there's to many landlords who are just that. Without all the facts I'm sure he could see it that way that's why I explained the situation.

I've been on lots of forums where "master plumbers" try to intimidate or harass DIYers just like this guy because DIYers are cutting into their profit margins. Bad service, bad quality, bad attitudes from licensed master plumbers versus doing it yourself cheaper... it's not a hard choice. Which is why I started here. I'll gladly admit not every master plumber is bad, just like every criminal in jail isn't guilty you can't always account for that 0.1% that don't deserve the problems that the title they have causes them.

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