Delta shower valve plugged with sediment

[John Nunley]

I have a shower with a Delta 600 series valve, the one with the round stem that moves within the triangular shaped plastic shell. It worked well 4 months ago when the city had a water main break. When the water was turned back on, I ran all my faucets and showers in the house as well as flushed all the toilets to get rid of any air in the system. The water in the toilets and in the bathtubs, as I ran them, was extremely dirty. I ran everything for a while to flush things out and moved on with life. This brings us up to today. The one shower is for guests to use and has not been used in the last four months. Expecting guests in the next week, my wife cleaned the shower and turned it on to wash down the walls. Result: extremely low flow, like less than a half a gallon per minute flow. Ive replaced the rubber grommets and the springs in the valve, and the ball is in perfect shape. Ive removed the shower head and still no flow. With the valve internal parts removed, cold or hot water shoots out with tremendous pressure when controlled from water supply shut off valves. Hence Im guessing the valve is filled with the junk that was in the water when the city tuned it back on and has settled. I hooked a hose up to the shower pipe and back fed the valve with all the parts removed. The flow was about the same out of the valve, appx 1/2 gallon/ minute. Hence Im sure there is a restriction in the valve or in the pipe. Im guessing the valve. Anybody have any suggestions on how to attack the restricted flow problem? I put this valve in 15-18 years ago, but I cant remember if it had a plug in the bottom or not. I did too good a job of making a tight fit around the barrel and cannot see inside. I may have to cut part of the shower stall out.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions,

John

BTW, I hooked up my air compressor to the hole in the valve that takes the mixed water and sends it through to the pipe leading to the shower head. I hit it with 90 pounds of pressure, but with no improvement.

 

[Terry]

If you have sediment between the drop for the tub and the shower and you can't blow it out, don't cut the wall.
At least don't cut it beyond what it can be fixed with.

I sometimes replace the Delta 600 with a Moen Posi-Temp and TL2368EP trim.

The oval face plate allows you some room to work with.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

I assume you installed the valve right side up, so that the flow goes DOWN to a stub with a cap on it and then up to the shower head. If so, the bottom of the valve is probably plugged and you have to remove the capped stub, or plug, and clean it out.