Delta shower valve body - no water

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jrburt

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I have a 1995ish Delta single handle shower valve (model 1300 or 1400 scald guard I think) and I'm only getting a tiny trickle of water out of the shower head. I have replaced the cartridge but no change. I have both hot and cold water when the cartridge is removed. I removed the shower head and cartridge and tried to blow with my mouth from the shower head end of the pipe and didn't get any air flow. I tried to blow through with an air compressor and air wouldn't go through. The only thing there is the valve body. Show air flow freely through the valve body? Any thoughts?

The tub shower valve has a drop to the tub spout. For a shower only, that gets capped, but the water still goes down and then has a small port that brings it up to the shower head. If that lower part gets blocked with Debrie, then no water can go upward to the shower head.

delta-cartridge-summary.jpg
 
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Anthony M

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I am responding to this because I had the same problem and was able to identify the issue. I responded to a call for a customer who said the shower was trickling but had stopped completely. Also, the toilet had quit re-filling. I replaced the toilet fill valve and this resolved the toilet issue. I replaced the shower cartridge and still had zero showr/tub flow. During the work I noticed a considerable amount of debris in the water supply. I suspected a clogged shower cartridge.

I'll try to summarize what I was seeing, the possibilities I considered, and the steps to eliminate possibilities:

I was definitely getting water to the shower valve because I could hear the valve body fill with water each time I took the cartridge out and re-installed it (I had replaced the cartridge but still wasn't getting flow).

I was getting flow to the valve with the cartridge out and the water supply on (water would flow freely out the valve body and into the tub).

The cold water was restricted to some degree, but I had good hot water flow. I considered the scald feature of the cartridge might be preventing any water flow due to the imbalance of cold to hot water (this proved not to be the issue).

I ordered a Delta test cap (RP46078), which fit the 1300/1400 series valve. This test cap fits in the place of the cartridge. With this test cap in place and the cartridge out, and with the water on, there should be unimpeded flow to the shower head and/or tub spout (this eliminates the cartridge as the issue). I tried this and I still has ZERO flow. This meant I had a clog or plug in the valve body. My option was to replace the shower valve or unclog it. Since I had no back access to the valve (without moving a water heater), I decided to drill out the small tube in the outlet port within the valve to try to bypass the clog AND IT WORKED!

Let me try to explain the small tube I'm referring to and why this worked:
In the older 1300/1400 series valves, there are only three ports within the valve body. The hot inlet port, the cold inlet port and the shower/tub combo outlet port. The outlet port supplies BOTH the tub spout and shower. Water enters into the port within the valve body and goes down to the tub spout. Water is then forced back up to the shower through the tube that is centered inside the outlet port (when the shower diverter on the spout is engaged). You can see this tube inside the port when you have the cartridge out. There was a clog somewhere in the port before it reached the spout, so water could not get to the spout or to the tube. When I drilled out the tube within the port, it bypassed the clog and I was then able to get flow.

My objective was to provide the tenant with a shower until the shower/tub combo valve could be replaced, but interestingly it is now working perfectly fine. When the shower diverter is open water only comes out at the tub spout and when it is closed it fully diverts to the shower head. I suspect if water pressure was higher, then there might be flow at the shower head all of the time.

Anyway, I thought this might be helpful to someone. I spent a considerable amount of time researching this issue but never found a resolution.
 
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