Shower Valve, Showerhead and Tub Spout Repair in Phoenix

What's behind the handle

Behind the shower handle is a valve body set into the wall, with a cartridge inside it. The cartridge is the part that moves. Turning the handle slides it to mix hot and cold. The valve body is plumbed in and stays put. The cartridge is a replaceable part, and it's what wears out.

Most Valley homes have single-handle showers. The valve is a pressure-balance type, which keeps the temperature steady when someone flushes a toilet. That's been required by code for new showers since the 1990s. Older two- and three-handle showers have separate hot and cold stems instead of a cartridge, and those get rebuilt or replaced the same way.

The common problems

• Handle is stiff or won't turn. Scale on the cartridge. Forcing it can snap the stem. A new cartridge fixes it.
• Water won't get hot, or only gets warm. The pressure-balance cartridge has a scald limit, and scale or a worn cartridge can throw it off. Sometimes the limit stop just needs adjusting. Sometimes it's a new cartridge.
• Drips when it's off. The seals on the cartridge have worn, and water is getting past. New cartridge.
• Drops in pressure or spits air. Scale is clogging the inlets to the cartridge, or the showerhead itself.
• Handle came off in your hand. The screw or the splines inside the handle have stripped. A new handle, or a new trim kit, fixes it.

Cartridges are made for the brand and model of valve, so we identify the valve first. A photo of the handle and the plate behind it is usually enough. Some brands stamp the name on the plate. If not, pulling the handle shows the cartridge.

Showerheads and tub spouts

Showerheads clog with scale. Soaking one in vinegar overnight clears a lot of it. When the holes stay clogged or the swivel leaks, a new head goes on. Handheld heads, rain heads and slide bars all fit the same pipe coming out of the wall.

A tub spout that sprays water from the back when the shower is on has a worn diverter. That's the knob you pull up to send water to the showerhead. Spouts screw on or slide on with a set screw, and both kinds are replaced from the front. A spout that leaks at the wall needs the pipe behind it checked, since a loose or corroded stub pipe is what lets water into the wall.

When the wall has to open

A cartridge fixes the inside of the valve. It can't fix a cracked valve body, a leak at the solder joints behind it, or a valve so old that no cartridge is made for it. Those mean opening the wall from the front, or from the back if there's a closet behind the shower, and putting in a new valve. We do that work too, and the quote says what it involves. If the tile around the valve is already loose or the wall behind it is soft, the shower may be leaking behind the tile.

Problems we fix on this page

• Shower head low pressure
• Shower head leaking at the arm
• Tub spout diverter won't send water up
• Tub spout leaking
• Tub spout loose
• Rain shower arm leaking at the ceiling
• Shower valve dripping
• Shower handle hard to turn
• Shower water won't get hot
• Shower water too hot (scald limit)
• Shower handle falls off
• Want a handheld shower
• Want a rain shower head
• Want a slide bar
• Want new shower trim and handles
• Moen shower cartridge stuck
• Moen Posi-Temp handle hard to turn
• Delta shower valve dripping
• Delta Monitor cartridge replacement
• Kohler Rite-Temp shower too cold
• Price Pfister shower valve leaking
• Old two-handle shower valve dripping
• Old three-handle tub valve leaking

How it starts

Send a photo of the handle and the plate behind it, one of the tub spout if you have one, and tell us what the shower is doing. You'll have a fixed price before anyone shows up. Levi does the work himself.