For the past year or more, the water pressure coming out of the shower faucet has been an issue. On full hot, we got good water pressure. But as you turn the temperature cooler, the water pressure would drop off to a dribble at times. After some research, David decided that the cold water input to the shower mixer valve was being blocked. Some internet pages showed a screen on the input to the valve that might have become clogged. But to get to the mixer valve, the wall next to the stairway would have to be opened up. Leslie was not thrilled about that idea. But she finally was fed up enough with the shower that she agreed to do what it took. David carefully disassembled the wall and exposed the mixer valve. We removed the cold water connection and looked, but there was no screen on the input. We ran the cold water into a bucket and got little crystals in the bottom. So we did the same to the hot water but did not get the same result. We really don’t know what the crystals were but David suspected they might have clogged the anti-scalding cartridge. Of course we could not find one in the local hardware stores, so we had to order a new cartridge through Amazon. Meantime, David completely removed the mixer valve. With the cartridge removed, he tried blowing on the cold water input and could barely get any air through, while the hot was wide open. So he took the valve completely apart, cleaned everything, adjusted the cut off valves completely wide open (they were partially closed when it pulled it off). When the new cartridge arrived, we installed it in the valve and put it all back together again. That shower has NEVER worked this well. So, we probably had a combination of things (debris in the line, bad cartridge and the cut off valves partially closed) causing our problem. We are very happy with how it works now. It took David a couple of weeks to reassemble the wall so that you could not tell it had ever been removed.
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| Wall disassembled |
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| Crystals from the cold water line |
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| Mixer valve removed |
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