I have a Price Pfister shower faucet, it is a single lever turn handle
type. When I turn it to the cold water setting I get hot water for the
first few minutes. It then goes cold but it is very hard to regulate
warm water, I either get hot or cold. I was assuming it is a valve
within the cartridge that separates the hot and cold. I am also
getting hot water coming out of the sink tap for about 30 seconds now
as well. Will replacing the cartridge in the shower faucet solve both
problems or is something else going on with the plumbing?

According to :
I have a Price Pfister shower faucet, it is a single lever turn handle
type. When I turn it to the cold water setting I get hot water for the
first few minutes. It then goes cold but it is very hard to regulate
warm water, I either get hot or cold. I was assuming it is a valve
within the cartridge that separates the hot and cold. I am also
getting hot water coming out of the sink tap for about 30 seconds now
as well. Will replacing the cartridge in the shower faucet solve both
problems or is something else going on with the plumbing?

Is it a pressure balance faucet? Do you have continuous hot water
circulation for "instant heat"?

I could see a pressure balance faucet malfunctioning and doing
something like this, but not so that it would affect another
fixture. If you have continuous hot water circulation, some
setups will have warm water out of the cold faucet for a short
period.

Otherwise, it could be a cross-connect between hot and cold somewhere
else in the plumbing. Don't laugh, I saw a setup where the HWT
outlet was directly cross-connected with the cold side, and it
went undetected for _years_, before someone used to how it _should_
work (me) said "it shouldn't be working like this" (hot wasn't
very hot, and didn't last long), and spending half an hour tracing
the pipes.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

On Nov 1, 2:19 pm, wrote:
I have a Price Pfister shower faucet, it is a single lever turn handle
type. When I turn it to the cold water setting I get hot water for the
first few minutes. It then goes cold but it is very hard to regulate
warm water, I either get hot or cold. I was assuming it is a valve
within the cartridge that separates the hot and cold. I am also
getting hot water coming out of the sink tap for about 30 seconds now
as well. Will replacing the cartridge in the shower faucet solve both
problems or is something else going on with the plumbing?

Sounds like a cross connect between the hot and cold somewhere in the
house, possibly with a pressure differential for added excitement.

I have hot and cold water spigots at the front of my house, connected
by a Y hose. The cold is directly off the street pressure, the hot is
obviously at house pressure. If I leave both spigots open with a
closed hose attached, the street pressure cold water will force the
hot water back into the pipes and essentially reverse the flow of
water in my entire house. Cold water comes of hot taps, hot then warm
water comes of cold taps, toilets flush warm, etc.

Trust me, the first few times it happened I was completely baffled,
especially since it went away soon afterwards. It finally dawned on me
that it only happened when we were using the hot water outside.

On Nov 1, 2:27 pm, (Chris Lewis) wrote:
According to :

I have a Price Pfister shower faucet, it is a single lever turn handle
type. When I turn it to the cold water setting I get hot water for the
first few minutes. It then goes cold but it is very hard to regulate
warm water, I either get hot or cold. I was assuming it is a valve
within the cartridge that separates the hot and cold. I am also
getting hot water coming out of the sink tap for about 30 seconds now
as well. Will replacing the cartridge in the shower faucet solve both
problems or is something else going on with the plumbing?

Is it a pressure balance faucet? Do you have continuous hot water
circulation for "instant heat"?

I could see a pressure balance faucet malfunctioning and doing
something like this, but not so that it would affect another
fixture. If you have continuous hot water circulation, some
setups will have warm water out of the cold faucet for a short
period.

Otherwise, it could be a cross-connect between hot and cold somewhere
else in the plumbing. Don't laugh, I saw a setup where the HWT
outlet was directly cross-connected with the cold side, and it
went undetected for _years_, before someone used to how it _should_
work (me) said "it shouldn't be working like this" (hot wasn't
very hot, and didn't last long), and spending half an hour tracing
the pipes.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Thanks for responding. It's the original faucet installed by the
builder, I don't think it is a pressure balance faucet. It hasn't
given us any problems for 7 years. We have the typical tank type water
heater. Could it be cross-connected and not detected for 7 years (I
use the shower every day)? We are not getting the "(hot wasn't very
hot, and didn't last long).

wrote in message
oups.com...
I have a Price Pfister shower faucet, it is a single lever turn handle
type. When I turn it to the cold water setting I get hot water for the
first few minutes. It then goes cold but it is very hard to regulate
warm water, I either get hot or cold. I was assuming it is a valve
within the cartridge that separates the hot and cold. I am also
getting hot water coming out of the sink tap for about 30 seconds now
as well. Will replacing the cartridge in the shower faucet solve both
problems or is something else going on with the plumbing?

When I lived in Arizona, I had a similar problem. Bathroom faucet (cold)
would start out pretty warm and then go cold when the cold water faucet was
turned on. Turned out that a hot water pipe had ruptured under the slab and
soaked the ground with hot water, thus heating the water in the cold lines
to the bathroom. I figured about 30,000 gallons of hot water had gone into
the ground before I figured out the problem. My wife could hear water
running all of the time but I told her she was "nuts". Of course, being
the husband, I couldn't admit that I had become pretty deaf and that she
perhaps wasn't "mumbling" all of the time when she talked to me.

Tom G.

On Thu, 01 Nov 2007 11:19:07 -0700, wrote:



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According to :

Thanks for responding. It's the original faucet installed by the
builder, I don't think it is a pressure balance faucet.

PB faucets attempt to keep the water temperature constant when
hot or cold are drawn somewhere else in the house. I suspect
virtually all show faucets installed in the last 10 years or so
are PB in order to ensure that the water temperature never exceeds
a given value. You can often tell by seeing if there's any sort of
limit stop under the knob with an adjustment screw.

I believe PB devices sometimes get crudded up (with very hard
water or grit) and "stick".

It hasn't
given us any problems for 7 years. We have the typical tank type water
heater. Could it be cross-connected and not detected for 7 years (I
use the shower every day)? We are not getting the "(hot wasn't very
hot, and didn't last long).

The other symptom was that the water temperature was erratic. Without
_any_ other water being drawn in the house, the temperature sometimes
changed abruptly.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

On Nov 3, 9:32 pm, (Chris Lewis) wrote:
According to :

Thanks for responding. It's the original faucet installed by the
builder, I don't think it is a pressure balance faucet.

PB faucets attempt to keep the water temperature constant when
hot or cold are drawn somewhere else in the house. I suspect
virtually all show faucets installed in the last 10 years or so
are PB in order to ensure that the water temperature never exceeds
a given value. You can often tell by seeing if there's any sort of
limit stop under the knob with an adjustment screw.

I believe PB devices sometimes get crudded up (with very hard
water or grit) and "stick".

It hasn't
given us any problems for 7 years. We have the typical tank type water
heater. Could it be cross-connected and not detected for 7 years (I
use the shower every day)? We are not getting the "(hot wasn't very
hot, and didn't last long).

The other symptom was that the water temperature was erratic. Without
_any_ other water being drawn in the house, the temperature sometimes
changed abruptly.
--
Chris Lewis,

Age and Treachery will Triumph over Youth and Skill
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

Check the cold water dip tube on your water heater as it sounds like
it may be rotted off replace it and you will get hot again the pb in
the shower tap is not adjustable and will not affect the lav tap.