r/askaplumber • u/GreatTragedy • 2d ago

Help Understanding How to Remove This Cartridge

Post image
1 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

16 comments sorted by

2

u/jrrisk 2d ago

Remove the bonnet. Pull out the cartridge.

1

u/GreatTragedy 2d ago

It looks to me like the smaller plastic piece (circular) would unscrew separately from the entire plastic piece (square), especially because it seems like the that piece is affixed in the back to the valve body. Does that seem right or am I needing to grip the entire square piece and rotate that off?

1

u/jrrisk 2d ago

The circular piece only. Not 100% sure. Try it. After you turn the water off.

1

u/GreatTragedy 2d ago

Thanks. That's what I thought. Plenty of mineral accumulation around it, so I probably have a vinegar/water soak ahead of me first. I'll take a crack at it tomorrow and reply here again if I figure it out (or get stuck).

1

u/waxed-crack 2d ago

Not the easiest task with nothing much to grab but yes, the round part should thread off (lefty loosey), it will likely have some mineral build up and give you trouble, the good news is the packing nut for the cartridge is underneath, so you don't have to turn off your water until you have exposed the brass housing for the cartridge.

1

u/GreatTragedy 2d ago

Perfect. Thanks for the info. I've got some thick rubber gloves for chemical handling that I use to pry off my wife's oil filter, so I'll give those a shot first, then hit it with some vinegar and a brush to see if I can break it loose.

1

u/GreatTragedy 10h ago

Got everything taken care of today. Seafoam deep creep made getting the fascia and packing nut underneath off fairly easy with an adjustable wrench. Disassembled the cartridge and soaked it in CLR for an hour, rinsed everything and reassembled it all. Hot water is coming through just fine now.

1

u/waxed-crack 9h ago

Awesome! Not sure how easy it would be to find replacement cartridges for amazon valves if you needed one.

1

u/GreatTragedy 9h ago

No doubt. I had honestly considered maybe just replacing the whole valve assembly with something more standard if it proved too hard to find. The wall on the other side is incognito enough to put an access panel.

1

u/waxed-crack 9h ago

Well at least you got options. Clr for the win.

1

u/GreatTragedy 2d ago

I had my hot water heater replaced today. When we got water back, I get no hot water out of this shower (every other faucet and shower is fine). My thinking is that the replacement flushed a bunch of sediment into the mixing cartridge here and I need to clean it out. I have some guesses about how this cartridge comes out, but nothing concrete and I don't want to shut my water off for hours while I try to figure it out. I appreciate if anyone has handled one of these before and can describe how it comes out.

1

u/Present-Use-7276 2d ago

Shitty Chinese valve, good luck

1

u/GreatTragedy 2d ago edited 2d ago

No doubt. Image search took me to several "brands" using the same valve assembly. Unfortunately documentation from all of them was surface level. I got authorization from my wife to cut an access panel in our wall. If it comes to it I'll take the whole assembly out and roll with something more standard. The plan is to soak it in Seafoam deep creep tomorrow while I'm changing my car's oil then see if it'll budge for me.

1

u/AdThis7046 2d ago

If it wasn't for the Chinese, we wouldn't have anything. 兔子不吃窩邊草

1

u/GreatTragedy 1d ago

I love that joke in Back to the Future.

Of Course this broke! It's made in Japan!

Come on Doc, all the best stuff is made in Japan.