Remodeling a shower
 

In Kalifornia - and perhaps elsewhere - shower valves are supposed to be idiot proof. They are now both "water saving" and anti-scalding. I am doing remodel of my shower and I don't want to reuse my 24 year old valve - are there good valves out there - cuz I cant find them here! Thanks.

What are you looking for? Is it a master or guest shower? Do you want thermostatic control? Your old valve and body maybe better then the cheap newer ones, unless you pay a little more for a good one. If you are happy with the way the knobs look, just get new valve stems and seats and reuse the old one. the casting should be fine. Many of the stuff at the large home centers are not so good. I worry that they are, like many things today, throw away items. Parts in 10 years are my major concern. Give me a little more info, may be I can be a bit more helpful.

I recently installed a Delta valve I got at Lowes. It wasn't cheap - $175 - but it had a better heft and feel than the $20 fixtures. The "anti-scald" feature is simply a stop to limit the maximum hot water it will mix in; I just set it all the way hot, so I can still scald myself if I want to.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1301186823.jpg
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1305311861.jpg

We have 5 year old Kohler fixtures and I've already had to replace parts...

I'm tell'n

I'm a fan of Moen brand fixtures.

That looks like the same Delta that I installed last year. Bought it from Ferguson's though. Anyway it felt solid enough and seemed well-made. Better than the 18 year old builder grade (brand X) stuff I had before.

Hans Grohe. Parts are always available and they are well made. You can have one with Thermostatic control build into one unit for under 500 bucks. There are a few companies that are just as good for about 100 cheaper, but they are not as nice in terms of style. Grohe is another German company that make a similar product at around 3-400 dollar range. Great product. New Port brass is another who make a great product. They are local.

i got the Kohler Rite-Temp valve. pretty simple. should crap go bad, i just remove a plate and slide out a cartridge. i took it apart and it is pretty simple. there are knobs you turn with a screwdriver to allow you to limit your hot water to 120.

my city inspector bought off on it, so i assume it meets code. my tankless water heater, i limited to 120 also, for some redundancy.

i cant wait for the project to come to an end. :(

What happened to the Delta I used to know ....... ;)

Interesting timing on this thread:
I have a really old mixet faucet for my shower and it started siezing until it was really, really hard to adjust the temperature. Eventually the POS plastic handle broke from too much force.

I tried to rebuild it a while ago but it was soo corroded it wouldn't unscrew and I was afraid I would break off the pipes in the wall if I really cranked down on it so I left it. I didn't feel like knocking a hole in the wall or having the water shut off in the house for an extended time.

Well, yesterday I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.
With a 24" pipe wrench I got up on it it and eventually the frozen nut unscrewed and I was able to fight it apart and extract the guts from the valve body.

With some serious cleannig with a dremel and some acid to eat the calcium deposits, it was all cleaned up and went back together with dow corning 111 grease on the o-rings and never-sieze on the threads. it turns so easily now it's almost too loose ;)

Just thot I'd share.

I always hear from plumbers that they like Moen and Delta. I think because you can buy parts for it anywhere.
I like Kohler, Hans Grohe and I currently have Mico Designs in my master which seems like a quality product, but expensive. I have seemed to notice that some of the Kohler stuff at big box stores are made with more plastic instead of brass.

Similar case here but no fixed yet. Can't adjust the temp anywhere, so I pull the handle off. After the handle came off, it's all plastic in there and it's stuck hard. I am too afraid to crank it. BTW, it's prise pfister.

Sammys noted a good point:a little lube goes a long way.
I put in a sink stopper the other day and coated it with pure silicone grease from a tube. Even when overtightened it moved smooth.