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Friday, November 24, 2023

Repairs - Moen Chateau valve repair (UPDATE)


In a home there is ALWAYS something to do and fix.

This time is an old bathtub/shower valve that start to be difficult to operate.

Is an old Moen Chateau fixture, with very very very probably a totally worn out cartridge.

This article should be titled "plan for the worse, hope for the best" :)

In these cases is a good idea to start to investigate the problem and possible solutions.

Problem

To open the water the handle need to be pulled and to close it it need to be pushed.
Pulling the handle is become more and more difficult, very hard to do so and is almost impossible to control the flow.

i.e. is almost an on/off operation rather than a smooth flow regulation.

To set the water temperature the handle need to be rotate,  clockwise for the hot water and counterclockwise for the cold water.

Also in this case the operation is more difficult than usual, the handle oppose some resistance and actually engage the change temperature after a while.

Identify the fixture

The first thing to do is to try to identify as much precise as possible the brand and model of the broken piece.
In my case I was able to identify at 90% accuracy the brand, a Moen and the model, Chateau.
Is a model used in the 80s/90s.
Since the house was built in the 80s it could be accurate.  

Diagnose

Looking around the problem is related to an old/worn out cartridge in the valve itself.

The Moen Chateau valve used a cartridge type 1220.
So to fix the shower I need to buy such cartridge or an equivalent (1225)

Repair - the plan

There are lot of video that shows how to remove an old cartridge and the operation is really simple ... unless something goes wrong.

The main problem here is the fact that doesn't exists a local shut-off valve.
It is necessary to remove the water to all the house.
If something goes wrong, NO WATER will be available in all the house until the shower valve is fixed !

One thing that can go wrong is the cartridge breaking apart while pulling it off.
There is a tool, a "puller" that need to be used and sometime, due to corrosion/age, the puller instead to remove the entire cartridge, removes only the internal part, leaving the external body of the cartridge inside the valve.
There are tricks that can be done to remedy that, but is always good to plan for the worse and be ready to call a plumber, in case the entire valve need to be changed because damaged by the cartridge.

I don't know how old is the cartridge, but surely I know are more than 16 years it is in there.
The average lifespan of a cartridge is about 7 years !!
So twice the normal working time means possible parts glued together or worse.  

These my preparation steps :

  • collect links to different scenario for the cartridge change, including the worse ones
  • buying two cartridges (I have two identical showers valve, thus same age)
    Did buy two 1225

  • buy the classic puller tool
  • buy a more sophisticated puller capable to extract the cartridge in case of break out
  • buy silicon grease (for the new cartridge)
  • plan the work on a weekday morning in order to be able to call for help
  • identify one or more plumber to call in case of need
Then the repair day :
  • review some videos just before to start
  • prepare all the tools
  • shut off the water
  • substitute the cartridge
  • .... hope everything goes well ....
  • pull back everything
  • turn on the main water valve
If something goes wrong :
  • try to fix the problem
  • if damage is done or a big damage is possible, call a plumber and be ready for a big bill
If no leakages and the new cartridge works fine, call the day :)

Repair - execution


Finally the big day arrived.
Everything planned and ... everything smooth and as planned, no problems !

After closing the main water valve, I removed the faucet handler and the metal cover.
Then removed the cartridge block pin and using the Ona puller tool, I removed the old cartridge.
No problem at all, even if it was a very old cartridge it didn't remained stuck as I feared.
A very neat and clean removal 

The old cartridge removed


Following the instructions I did prepare the new cartridge, abundantly greasing it and installed, no problem whatsoever.
The valve was in good conditions


As only problem I discovered that the faucet handler, already a replacement of the original one, was broken, had few cracks, probably due to the need to pull and push it hard
So after the repair I went to buy a new one.

Now opening/regulating the water temperature/closing is incredibly smooth and effortless.
Actually I don't even recall to have EVER experienced such smoothness before.

Small problem


After changing the cartridge to the second shower, again everything went well.
No cartridge stuck in the valve and new one slip in without problems.








However a small side effect happened.

When opening the valve (pulling the handle) automatically the handle is shutting off automatically, stopping around the middle of the course.
For now no action will be taken, is possible the new cartridge needs some time to adjust itself.

I'll check back in a month to see if the problem solved itself.



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