Hot water reduced to trickle in shower - cold water works fine

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volleydog

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I received advice (outside this site) to remove the hot water stem and inspect for debris or functional problems.
Thanks to your help in another thread, I was able to get the stem removed last night.

- 3 handle setup - says "Central" on the hardware
- Hot water works fine everywhere else in the house
- No leaks along hot water supply line to tub
- One washer was deteriorating, but overall it seems functional. I looked as far into valve as I could and didn't see any debris present.

Removed the bad washer and ran a quick test (without new washer) to see if maybe that had been the cause - didn't change anything.

Is there something else I could check, or a process to troubleshoot the valve before I have to take apart the wall and replace the whole thing?


Thanks!
 

Terry

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If the washer had broken into bits, some of it could have lodged downstream. How much water do you get with the stem out?

If the home is plumbed in galvanized, you could have reduced flow on the hot side. Often with repipes, it's because the hot side has gone bad first. Water heaters do that to pipes.
 

volleydog

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If the washer had broken into bits, some of it could have lodged downstream. How much water do you get with the stem out?

If the home is plumbed in galvanized, you could have reduced flow on the hot side. Often with repipes, it's because the hot side has gone bad first. Water heaters do that to pipes.

The washer was mostly intact but could have sent a small piece downstream. Is there a way to clear it out if that's the case?

The water flow was a sudden change. One day it ran perfect, the next I had a trickle.

I didn't try with the stem completely removed; didn't have anything to block the valve opening to prevent water from going into the wall. I'll see what I can come up with when I get hom.
 

volleydog

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Still getting a trickle out of the spout with the stem out. Is there a way to check for a blockage in the valve between the hot water feed and the diverter?
 

volleydog

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Just got done testing a couple ways:

Removed center stem
- Turned on cold water: water shoots out (thanks for heads up)
- Turned on hot water: nothing comes out center hole, trickles out from tub spout

Removed hot stem, turned on hot water:
- Water does NOT shoot out hot hole - just trickles out from here

So it looks like some sort of reduced flow on the hot side as you mentioned, Terry. Is there any way for me to troubleshoot this on my own?
 
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