Joseph Meehan wrote:
Joseph Meehan wrote:

Chris Wacalwik wrote:

I would guess you have very good water pressure. The diverter
does not shut off the shower, that is always on, but it opens the tub
outlet. Normally the difference in height keeps water from coming out
the shower. With enough water pressure, or restricted flow to the
tub, water will come out the shower.

Try using your hand to block the flow into the tub to see what I
mean.


After returning from a bike ride, and took a shower, I checked that out.
Well things change in 40 years. The diverter on my current shower does seem
to block off the shower when the tub is selected. Sorry for the bad advice.


Sounds like your diverter is on the wall, and not on the spout.

The OP's description of "pushing down" on the valve made it sound to me
like it's one of the "in the spout" ones, and I haven't yet heard of a
spout with a valve which will block off the feed to the shower head.
Anything's possible I suppose, though why would any manufacturer bother
to make ones like that?

Since the OP didn't say, "This just started happening", chances are his
water pressure increased since the original installation, or it's been
that way ever since it was built because the installer saw it and just
said, "WTF".

One "fix" for his situation is to run the shower feed piping in an
inverted "U" up past the shower head and then back down to it, assuming
space exists overhead to do that. But that's likely to be a Gawd awfull
expensive proposition in an existing situation, unless the other side of
the wall behind the shower and the space overhead aren't finished. Even
then it's a fair bit of work.

I'd suggest, in the following order:

1. Learn to love it the way it is....It's not bothering anything but his
sense of perfection.

2. Try a new spout. Preferably a different make. It might just do the trick.

3. Put a throttling plug valve just behind the shower head and suffer
with opening and closing it when needed. They make 'em with a chrome finish.

3. Measure the water pressure and if it's well above what he needs,
install a pressure reducing valve after the water meter, and crank the
pressure down 'till the dribble stops.

Comments?

Jeff

--
Jeff Wisnia (W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"My luck is so bad that if I bought a cemetery, people would stop dying."