J
JezBond
I have an Arteform shower valve in my bathroom - top lever for the main shower head, middle for the handheld hose and bottom is the thermostatic control. The hot was not getting hot enough recently so (under instructions from the manufacturer) I removed the allen key valves bottom left and right in my photo (I think these are the non return valves?), cleaning everything out, and also removed the cartridge above and gave that a clean. I put everything back and the temperature issue was solved. Hooray! So that's not the problem – that's the backstory to give context.
The issue is this: when it all went back together the thermostatic cartridge weeped. So I took it out again and applied some vaseline to the three O rings on it (as per instructions again from the manufacturer, who said perhaps they had dried up a little). It still weeped. I then took it out again and put some PTFE thread around it before slotting it back in. Success, no weeping. But then five minutes later I saw the allen key head below, that was fine before, had started weeping. I spoke to the manufacturer again and they sent me new O rings for these. I removed the offending item, put a new O ring on and some PTFE and success. No weeping. Until five minutes later... when the OTHER Allen Key head started weeping. I removed this and did the same thing. Success. But lo and behold when I checked five minutes later the cartridge then started weeping again. I took that out and put a little more PTFE tape on it and rubbed a little vaseline around the rim – and it stopped. Then after five minutes the bottom right allen key head started weeping again. It's like whack a mole - I fix it somewhere and another leak pops up. And this is definitely a new issue since I took it apart (there was a stain on the ceiling below that alerted me to it and this only happened after I took it apart to solve the water temperature issue). At this point I feel like I'm going mad. And yes all the allen keys (including the one holding in the cartridge are super tightly in). I feel like I'm going round and round in some nightmare until you'll find me under the freeway in some America B movie as the gibbering person who went mad trying to fix a simple shower! For further context I'm no expert plumber but I've plumbed an entire flat before and hands on project managed (and designed) much larger things. Can anyone please help with some advice! Thank you so much. Jez (Realised I don't think I can add photos here – but I can send a diagram of the unit and a photo of the actual one in my wall, if anyone requires) 🙂
The issue is this: when it all went back together the thermostatic cartridge weeped. So I took it out again and applied some vaseline to the three O rings on it (as per instructions again from the manufacturer, who said perhaps they had dried up a little). It still weeped. I then took it out again and put some PTFE thread around it before slotting it back in. Success, no weeping. But then five minutes later I saw the allen key head below, that was fine before, had started weeping. I spoke to the manufacturer again and they sent me new O rings for these. I removed the offending item, put a new O ring on and some PTFE and success. No weeping. Until five minutes later... when the OTHER Allen Key head started weeping. I removed this and did the same thing. Success. But lo and behold when I checked five minutes later the cartridge then started weeping again. I took that out and put a little more PTFE tape on it and rubbed a little vaseline around the rim – and it stopped. Then after five minutes the bottom right allen key head started weeping again. It's like whack a mole - I fix it somewhere and another leak pops up. And this is definitely a new issue since I took it apart (there was a stain on the ceiling below that alerted me to it and this only happened after I took it apart to solve the water temperature issue). At this point I feel like I'm going mad. And yes all the allen keys (including the one holding in the cartridge are super tightly in). I feel like I'm going round and round in some nightmare until you'll find me under the freeway in some America B movie as the gibbering person who went mad trying to fix a simple shower! For further context I'm no expert plumber but I've plumbed an entire flat before and hands on project managed (and designed) much larger things. Can anyone please help with some advice! Thank you so much. Jez (Realised I don't think I can add photos here – but I can send a diagram of the unit and a photo of the actual one in my wall, if anyone requires) 🙂
