I did disassemble the valve to the extent that I could, and found a
"cartridge" which I must assume gets replaced as an assembly. My next move
will be to see if I can get warranty replacement since it is not too old,
and has worked this way since installation.

Thanks Bob to you and other members of this newsgroup for your kind
assistance.

Smarty


"Bob F" wrote in message
. ..
I guess my next step would be to disassemble the valve and
lubricate the moving parts. Or ask a plumber as a last resort.

Bob

"Smarty" wrote in message
...
No Bob, the water seems to immediately flow from the shower head (or the
spout) as soon as the valve is turned on. The temperature regulator is
the
really sluggish part. It's as if the valve has to overcome some friction,
spring pressure, or some other warm-up delay before it responds to make a
temperature change..


"Bob F" wrote in message
. ..
You got me then. Does the water take a long time to even
show up when you turn it on?

Bob

"Smarty" wrote in message
...
Thanks Bob,

It is definitely a low flowrate showerhead, but there is also a
diverter
to
all the same valve to control the water flow to a spout, and this
flowrate
is very fast. The valve is extremely sluggish when used either with
the
showerhead or diverted to the spout.

Smarty


"Bob F" wrote in message
. ..

"Smarty" wrote in message
...
I have a Kohler single lever temperature balancing shower valve
which
prevents scalding since it supposedly senses and compensates for
water
demand changes elsewhere in the house. The problem is that the
valve
is
extremely sluggish in responding to the user's manual adjustment,
and
therefore, trying to get the water temperature to the right mix of
hot
and
cold is very time consuming.

If I make a first guess at where to set it and wait for 30 or 45
seconds,
the temperature will stabilize, but is often too cold or too warm.
If
I
then
adjust the valve to a hotter or colder setting, it eventually
reaches
a
new
setting, again taking maybe 30 or 45 seconds to do so.

Most of the time I can hit the right setting on the 2nd guess.
Sometimes
a
third and final adjustment is required, again taking another 30-45
seconds.

Throughout the entire adjustment period, I am typically standing in
very
cold or very hot water, waiting for an adjustment to stabilize.

I assume this is ***NOT*** the way the valve is supposed to behave.
I've
taken the value apart hoping to find springs or other thermal
compensators
which could be adjusted or replaced. There appears to be no user
adjustable
parts, with the exception of a high temp limit stop which restricts
the
valve rotation beyond a comfortable upper temperature range.

Whatever mechanism Kohler uses to sense and react to manual valve
changes
seems to be outrageously slow. I can't believe this is the way the
valve
is
supposed to work. It is also an expensive (over $100) part for just
the
valve itself (with no trim kit) so I expected it to be a deluxe
item.

I welcome any thoughts of how this should be serviced? Many thanks
in
advance.

I suspect that you are just dealing with a problem of low volume
shower heads. Because it is low volume, it takes awhile to get new
water from the valve to the head. If you take off the showerhead,
does the water get there fast?