OK this is not one of your serious life-threatening issues, but it has
been bugging me.

Installed a new shower hardware set a couple months ago -- valve, tub
spout, shower head. It is a mid-range set from Price-Pfister. It's
very nice except: at first the shower diverter dingus on the tub spout
would drop down by itself after you turned the water off (ending your
shower), draining the water in the line leading to the shower head.
But now it doesn't; if you forget to push it down manually, it just
drips for hours but never drops back down. The old hardware did that
too -- it was an el cheapo, but I thought that problem would go away
when I put this nice, kind of heavy-duty new hardware in. Fondly do I
recall my halcyon youth, when these things just worked. So, why don't
they anymore? -- H

The one I remember from my childhood, had a big lever handle on that always
got stuck and eventually broke off with all the heave ho... We used to
enjoy playing telephones though...

S


"Heathcliff" wrote in message
ups.com...
OK this is not one of your serious life-threatening issues, but it has
been bugging me.

Installed a new shower hardware set a couple months ago -- valve, tub
spout, shower head. It is a mid-range set from Price-Pfister. It's
very nice except: at first the shower diverter dingus on the tub spout
would drop down by itself after you turned the water off (ending your
shower), draining the water in the line leading to the shower head.
But now it doesn't; if you forget to push it down manually, it just
drips for hours but never drops back down. The old hardware did that
too -- it was an el cheapo, but I thought that problem would go away
when I put this nice, kind of heavy-duty new hardware in. Fondly do I
recall my halcyon youth, when these things just worked. So, why don't
they anymore? -- H

"Heathcliff" wrote in message
ups.com...
OK this is not one of your serious life-threatening issues, but it has
been bugging me.

Installed a new shower hardware set a couple months ago -- valve, tub
spout, shower head. It is a mid-range set from Price-Pfister. It's
very nice except: at first the shower diverter dingus on the tub spout
would drop down by itself after you turned the water off (ending your
shower), draining the water in the line leading to the shower head.
But now it doesn't; if you forget to push it down manually, it just
drips for hours but never drops back down. The old hardware did that
too -- it was an el cheapo, but I thought that problem would go away
when I put this nice, kind of heavy-duty new hardware in. Fondly do I
recall my halcyon youth, when these things just worked. So, why don't
they anymore? -- H


Not sure why it doesn't work right, but you could get a round earth rare
magnet and put it on the knob to give it weight to make it drop. But then,
it might magnetize everything, and then it wouldn't work that way either.
OR take a round piece of metal and epoxy it on there to give it some extra
weight. OR use it enough where it gets worn enough to drop on its own, in
the meantime taking several hundred blasts of ice cold water to start your
shower. OR just get used to pressing the thing down after you get hit with
enough blasts of ice cold water that you remember. (for me and my short
attention span, about 150) But still, there will be those times where
you're half awake or half sober, you forget for that 2.143 seconds, and
there will be the screaming and instant awakening.

They just don't build stuff like they used to, and if you can find said
"stuff", it usually co$ts 10X what a regular one co$ts.

Lastly, you could use one of those red ribbons on there like they have on
aircraft "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" that says "DROP DIVERTER BEFORE SHOWERING."

OR watch for an old one at a yard sale, and pay the plumber $100 to put on a
50 cent item.

Steve

Heathcliff wrote:

OK this is not one of your serious life-threatening issues, but it has
been bugging me.

Installed a new shower hardware set a couple months ago -- valve, tub
spout, shower head. It is a mid-range set from Price-Pfister. It's
very nice except: at first the shower diverter dingus on the tub spout
would drop down by itself after you turned the water off (ending your
shower), draining the water in the line leading to the shower head.
But now it doesn't; if you forget to push it down manually, it just
drips for hours but never drops back down. The old hardware did that
too -- it was an el cheapo, but I thought that problem would go away
when I put this nice, kind of heavy-duty new hardware in. Fondly do I
recall my halcyon youth, when these things just worked. So, why don't
they anymore? -- H


It's likely a matter of the height of the water column between the tub
spout and the shower head and the static pressure created by a water
column that high.

Most of 'em do that, but they generally fall back down by themselves
when that water column gets lowered by the dripping. Yours may just be a
little sticky too.

If you wanted to get anal about it you could figure out how much more
weight you'd need to add to the plunger to overcome the static head and
cure the problem, 'cause the back pressure when the shower's running is
a lot more than the static head and would overcome the added weight.

Then you could machine up a nice brass gizmo of the correct weight, have
it chromed at an outrageous "one piece" expense and epoxy it onto the
diverter knob.

My advice.....Learn to live with it.

If it's the drip, drip, drip sound which bothers you, then a length of
string tied onto the tub spout in just the right place will solve your
problem. G

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
The speed of light is 1.8*10^12 furlongs per fortnight.

Plumbers grease.

"Heathcliff" wrote in message
ups.com...
OK this is not one of your serious life-threatening issues, but it has
been bugging me.

Installed a new shower hardware set a couple months ago -- valve, tub
spout, shower head. It is a mid-range set from Price-Pfister. It's
very nice except: at first the shower diverter dingus on the tub spout
would drop down by itself after you turned the water off (ending your
shower), draining the water in the line leading to the shower head.
But now it doesn't; if you forget to push it down manually, it just
drips for hours but never drops back down. The old hardware did that
too -- it was an el cheapo, but I thought that problem would go away
when I put this nice, kind of heavy-duty new hardware in. Fondly do I
recall my halcyon youth, when these things just worked. So, why don't
they anymore? -- H

I hate to say it, but the problem is probably Price-Pfister. I made
the mistake of buying a a P-P kitchen faucet as an emergency
replacement during a kitchen renovation. I never really liked it, the
mechanism was crummy (the handle usually doesn't stay up unless you
put the water on full force). Later research showed that P-P is
basically a low end brand of marginal almost-junk. Never again
anything but a Moen or Groehe.

On Mar 21, 1:41 pm, "Heathcliff"
wrote:
OK this is not one of your serious life-threatening issues, but it has
been bugging me.

Installed a new shower hardware set a couple months ago -- valve, tub
spout, shower head. It is a mid-range set from Price-Pfister. It's
very nice except: at first the shower diverter dingus on the tub spout
would drop down by itself after you turned the water off (ending your
shower), draining the water in the line leading to the shower head.
But now it doesn't; if you forget to push it down manually, it just
drips for hours but never drops back down. The old hardware did that
too -- it was an el cheapo, but I thought that problem would go away
when I put this nice, kind of heavy-duty new hardware in. Fondly do I
recall my halcyon youth, when these things just worked. So, why don't
they anymore? -- H