Brand new delta diverter flowing water out of tub spout when off? Help!!

[berwynpap]

Brand new delta diverter shower value installed. Been working great for a week. I had all studs exposed and thought it might be wise to put a new system in while I did a remodel. I Installed, soldered, and cement board and tiled. All was well. Functioned normally. No leaks whatsoever.

Tonight, water starts bursting out of the tub spout, and I mean flowing. I try turning off the water obviously thinking it was triggered by my cat or something but it did nothing. I run downstairs and shut off the water to house.

It's not coming out of the shower head, just the tub spout. I thought oh crap I must have soldered something wrong but that doesn't really make sense because it's a strong flow of water coming out, indicating a nice pressure. It's dry to the touch when I pop the echelon off. Which leads me to the diverter.

The cartridge is brand new, everything is new, however, I didn't use any plumber grease to set it properly. Like on the rubber rings was I suppose to glue that? But, that wasn't something I thought was necessary as I am not familiar with plumbing.

So I'm not sure what the deal is here. I found another thread from another forum where multiple people had this same issue with Delta systems. The people on that site had no resolutions other than one person resolved it by pushing the cartridge back together that seemed to be loose. Over a period of a couple years a few people posted the issue but nobody resolved it.

The manufacture says to replace the spring and rubber pieces and then if that fails to replace the cartridge itself. This is crazy and seems like it could be a major pain in the ass if I have to remove the entire valve, re plumb, re cement board, re water proof, re tile. If this is the case, I will never buy delta again and would caution against it.

I'm going to run out and buy the replacement parts and test that tomorrow, but guys in the thread I spoke about tried that with no success.

It's all copper 1/2" and installed correctly as far as I can see?

Wondering what you guys might think?

 

[Jadnashua]

To seat the cartridge properly takes a fair amount of force. If it isn't fully seated, when you tighten the retaining ring, you may not have the o-ring fully in place where it should be. The tolerances are fairly tight, and to get things in, you must compress the o-rings, and the grease helps a lot. IMHO, with my limited experience, I found it very difficult to push the cartridge in unless I first lubricated the O-rings with some silicon plumbers' grease. Once I did that, it went in fairly easily, and then, the nut was able to be tightened down fully.

If it was not fully seated, it could have worked its way out a little and you may end up with the mating surface on the cartridge scored slightly, and then, even if you do get it fully seated, it may have a slight drip, so replacing that wear surface is a good idea not counting having things move around more than they should, could have damaged the seals. It isn't all that hard or time consuming to replace the cartridge or the sealing plate assembly assuming you left the proper gap through the wall. I did find that a stiff wire made pulling out the sealing part beneath the cartridge easier...bent it into a hook, and then it was easy to pull it out.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

There is NOTHING that keeps the water from "flowing" out of the spout EXCEPT the cartridge, so unless you have a bad one, (and I do not know how it could suddenly start without you turning the faucet on), your description is illogical.

 

[berwynpap]

It's exactly what's happening. As soon as I turn on the water to the house, water flows like a river out of the tub spout.

 

[berwynpap]

Update, new cartridge fixed it. Replaced it. Must have been a defective unit.