OMG... :-( New Shower Dripping...

[MichMich]

Old house, old bathroom, 50 years old.
Was installing new tile and had to move shower from one wall to another.
My brother helped me.
He moved from copper to flex lines.
Installed it with shark bites.
See pics.
Now: it all works fine. BUT...
Turn on the shower only - shower works, faucet is OFF.
Turn everything OFF, all is OFF no water dripping, good!
3...2...1...

Turn the water (bottom faucet) ON... and the shower drips/showers too (lightly, but still, keeps dripping water, showering lightly).

What is the issue????

Should we use copper? I saw a video with guy with issue like mine... Ugh...

Can this be remedied without getting into the walls???
I'd have to most likely go thru the kitchen wall (easier and cheaper).

BUT:
Is there any way to fix it without going thru the walls?

 

[voletl]

You need to replace the 2 pipes circled in red with half inch copper. The diameter of those Pex fittings is smaller than 1/2 inch which is restricting the flow of water which is causing the spray when your trying to take a bath.

 

[MichMich]

Thanx so much for your response. Unfortunately, we realized that after tile was already installed.
Is there any other safe way to bypass the problem? Would a pressure reducing valve on the shower head work? any other ideas?

 

[MichMich]

You need to replace the 2 pipes circled in red with half inch copper. The diameter of those Pex fittings is smaller than 1/2 inch which is restricting the flow of water which is causing the spray when your trying to take a bath.
View attachment 17867

Also, can we replace it with 3/4 flex pipe? Would that work?

 

[voletl]

Yes but personally all shower risers I do in copper.

 

[TomFOhio]

Are you saying that when you turn on the faucet to the tub spout only that it is dripping out of the shower head????

 

[jeffnc]

Sorry, but the answer so far doesn't fit the problem. Using a pipe with a smaller diameter than copper is not going to lead to water dripping from the shower head when you're just trying to use the tub spout. If anything, this would cause the opposite problem - i.e. water leaking from the tub spout when you're trying to take a shower (since the pipe is too small a diameter, the water pressure in the shower pipe would be too high, causing the diverter to be overloaded - possibly.)

However no instructions I'm aware of require you to use copper going up to the shower head. What the instructions do call for is copper in the pipe to the tub spout only. The reason for this makes sense once you understand the above. Since the inner diameter of PEX is smaller than copper, the water pressure inside the tub spout can get too high, and it can start pushing water up to the shower head. The problem would then be your shower head leaking when you're trying to draw a bath. In other words, exactly what a diverter does. But this is definitely not the problem you're describing.

The most likely culprit is the mechanism inside the tub spout that diverts the water to the shower head. It's not cutting off the water supply fully. Possibly just swapping out the tub spout will fix the problem.

 

[Mr_David]

The Op's description is a bit difficult to follow I would agree
But I believe when he said
" Turn on the shower only - shower works, faucet is OFF "
shower is on, the tub diverter spout has been activated.
Now here is the confusing part ;
" Turn the water (bottom faucet) ON... and the shower drips/showers too (lightly, but still, keeps dripping water, showering lightly)."
I believe he is calling the diverter spout the bottom faucet and being on, the water is flowing from it.

The main contributor to problem, which has already been pointed out,
is the 1/2" pex and the fact the valve is set higher with the extend length of pipe to tub spout, causing a bit more resistance on flow to spout.

just look for shower head valve, lots to chose from

https://www.google.com/search?q=sho...ved=0ahUKEwjh4J_fpNzcAhUJCDQIHQwrBC4Q_AUICSgA