Squealing shower

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ggrimes

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Our master bath shower has begun to squeal when we turn it on. Is it the shower head causing it or the valve? It is a multi-position shower head and no mater which setting it is in the squeal continues. My guess is the valve but why all of sudden it becomes noisy?
Thank you.
Gary
 
Restrictions cause some whistling. I would start by pulling my test head off truck. I keep it extra clean and in factory shape. If still whistling then you have trash in cartridge or your cartridge is coming apart and becoming the trash. I would Guess the valve but have heard shower heads whistling. If you run shower without head then you have zero restriction after valve and you need the back pressure to create the whistle. You could hear nothing and misdiagnose. Pictures of the valve or brand will help us out too.
 
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I have attached a picture of the faucet which is a Moen. I do not have the model number. Our house was built in 1991. Is the cartridge hard to remove? Thank you.
 

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One other note. If I turn the faucet completely to hot, there is no noise. As I turn the faucet toward cold it will start squealing all the way to all cold.
 
You need a moen puller and a new cartridge. Those things whistle. While your in there shine a light and make sure you get all the rubber out of valve ports. When installing new one. I always take a brass 3/8 brush and smooth it back up and use plumbers grease on new cartridge. You can find a factory dress up kit with new handle and chrome with the cartridge. It’s the same moen valve on shelf today. Just different knobs. But you have 3 choices. Pull and turn, positemp which just turns , and the high end positemp volume control. Other than that moen is fine.
 
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I would almost bet my paycheque that it’s the diverter spout and not the cartridge. Moen spouts squeal like crazy when the seal gets or if your system starts to experience low pressure.

Next time it happens stick your finger inside the spout and wiggle the gate and see if it effects the squeal. If it does, replace the spout
 
Update. This is a single handle Moen unit installed in 1990. It pulls out and turns to left and right.
So I went the cartridge route, 28 years old. How could I go wrong.
Bought a cartridge puller at Lowes ($12) and it worked great. The cartridge was a Moen 12801. They don't make that anymore. The replacement cartridge is the Moen 1225. Bought it at Lowes for $15. I installed the new cartridge and it still squealed. Damn!
So I took off the shower head (Peerless multi-function) and replaced it with another shower head from our other bathroom. Squeal is gone. My guess is the shower head has calcium buildup inside the unit.
Note to self: Take the easy route first. The cartridge did seem really worn though. The o'rings were all really flat. It was probably close to its end of life anyway.
Matt30 - Spout do you mean shower head?
Thanks for everyone's help.
 
Matt was referring to a tub/shower unit that has a tub spout that diverts the water flow to the shower head.
Never heard of a 12801 Moen cartridge. still have it? Got a picture of it?
They were originally brass core #1200 then replaced with The plastic #1225.
The Positemp is a whole new animal.
 
Was just trying to determine if they needed a 1225 or a posi-temp cartridge.
easy to tell from the picture.
screw under handle for plate bottom right . There is a pair of those under handle. @ 5 and 7 o'clock
Positimp plate screws are @ 2 and 7 o'clock.
Plate screws on Moentrols are the same as Positemps BUT the Moentrol takes the 1225 core that pulls out for on
 
Correct, two screws at 5 and 7. Here is a picture of the 12801 cartridge. You can see the 12801 on the cartridge.
 

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Update. This is a single handle Moen unit installed in 1990. It pulls out and turns to left and right.
So I went the cartridge route, 28 years old. How could I go wrong.
Bought a cartridge puller at Lowes ($12) and it worked great. The cartridge was a Moen 12801. They don't make that anymore. The replacement cartridge is the Moen 1225. Bought it at Lowes for $15. I installed the new cartridge and it still squealed. Damn!
So I took off the shower head (Peerless multi-function) and replaced it with another shower head from our other bathroom. Squeal is gone. My guess is the shower head has calcium buildup inside the unit.
Note to self: Take the easy route first. The cartridge did seem really worn though. The o'rings were all really flat. It was probably close to its end of life anyway.
Matt30 - Spout do you mean shower head?
Thanks for everyone's help.


Thanks for the update. Always good to hear what the issue was.
 
removing cartirdges and flushung out valve sometimes helps as well as changing the cartridges, if it continues you may want to think about replacing body of valve
 
Call Moen and see if they will give you a new unit for free. A lot of Moen products have lifetime warranty if there’s an defect or product no longer functions properly.
 
easy to tell from the picture.
screw under handle for plate bottom right . There is a pair of those under handle. @ 5 and 7 o'clock
Positimp plate screws are @ 2 and 7 o'clock.
Plate screws on Moentrols are the same as Positemps BUT the Moentrol takes the 1225 core that pulls out for on
Wow that’s a cool tidbit of advice I didn’t know as a licensed plumber. The screw hole location to determine the cartridge. I like that. It’s a nice time saver.
 

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