Digital_Larry
Member
These were installed when I built my house (well, I didn't do it myself) in 1994.
I have replaced the washers a few times. Last time I did so, 6 months later one of them was leaking again. I swapped it out and the recently replaced one was "all tore up" rather than "all mashed down" as some of them get over time.
"Hmmm", I thought to myself, "that would only happen if the edge of the valve seat was really sharp or something", but I thought that was unlikely and just replaced the washer again.
Then the downstairs shower/tub valves started leaking a lot and I decided to get entirely new valves even though they don't have them with white trim any more - only chrome. The new set came with new valve seats and I went to Ace to get one of those universal valve seat tools.
I took the old valve seats out and lo and behold, the one on the HOT water was all corroded around the edge resulting in a very sharp surface. So that was lesson #1. The diverter and cold water valve seats were not similarly corroded.
Issue #2, when putting the new valve seats in, I had no problem with the hot/cold sides but I could not get the one in the diverter to "catch". I tried for about ten minutes which is pretty frustrating hunched over in the shower. Then I noticed that this universal tool (has a stepped end so it can fit different sizes) was sticking out the far end of the valve seat by almost half an inch. I thought maybe it was hitting something inside the valve and preventing the new seat from getting pressed in far enough for the threads to engage.
After some mental flip flops I tried putting one of the old seats on the tool (these use the largest size hole, so they go furthest down on the end of the tool). Then then I put on the new seat sitting above this one - so less of the tool was sticking out the end, and the new seat was being engaged by the middle section of the tool - kinda like using a slightly too small hex key but it works anyway. And that worked fine!
Sorry for the run on sentences.
I have replaced the washers a few times. Last time I did so, 6 months later one of them was leaking again. I swapped it out and the recently replaced one was "all tore up" rather than "all mashed down" as some of them get over time.
"Hmmm", I thought to myself, "that would only happen if the edge of the valve seat was really sharp or something", but I thought that was unlikely and just replaced the washer again.
Then the downstairs shower/tub valves started leaking a lot and I decided to get entirely new valves even though they don't have them with white trim any more - only chrome. The new set came with new valve seats and I went to Ace to get one of those universal valve seat tools.
I took the old valve seats out and lo and behold, the one on the HOT water was all corroded around the edge resulting in a very sharp surface. So that was lesson #1. The diverter and cold water valve seats were not similarly corroded.
Issue #2, when putting the new valve seats in, I had no problem with the hot/cold sides but I could not get the one in the diverter to "catch". I tried for about ten minutes which is pretty frustrating hunched over in the shower. Then I noticed that this universal tool (has a stepped end so it can fit different sizes) was sticking out the far end of the valve seat by almost half an inch. I thought maybe it was hitting something inside the valve and preventing the new seat from getting pressed in far enough for the threads to engage.
After some mental flip flops I tried putting one of the old seats on the tool (these use the largest size hole, so they go furthest down on the end of the tool). Then then I put on the new seat sitting above this one - so less of the tool was sticking out the end, and the new seat was being engaged by the middle section of the tool - kinda like using a slightly too small hex key but it works anyway. And that worked fine!
Sorry for the run on sentences.
