Help adjusting shower water temperature

[Jaeger]

Hi, I'm new around here and am having trouble with my shower. The temperature settings on my shower are hot or scalding. This isn't good mostly because yesterday it was 101 outside, today it's supposed to be 105 and a cold shower will be needed tonight. Attached are some pictures of where I've gotten to. I have no idea what brand it is, or really what I'm doing.

Thanks for the help.
Andrew

 

[Jadnashua]

If your water pipes run through your attic...you may not be able to get a cool shower at all! Your attic could easily be 140-degrees or more, and depending on how they are run, and if they are insulated, and where, whatever cool water you may have had could be scalding by the time it gets to your shower on both the hot and cold sides. You may just have to run the water longer to purge out all of the heated water in the cold line, which may not be ideal in a desert climate...water is a precious commodity...maybe save it in a bucket(s) and water your plants?

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Sluggo]

Could be due to several factors. In addition to the issue of uninsulated pipes in a hot environment, the water heater may be set too high. Also, you might not be able to adjust the settings (if any) on the mixing valve if the valve is malfunctioning.

How long have you lived in this place? Long enough to know that this problem didn't happen last summer?

 

[Jaeger]

Thanks for the replies. Jadnashua, being that the house is on a concrete slab, I'm assuming the pipes are in the attic, and also I'm sure they are uninsulated. Sluggo, I'll check the settings on the water heater. We've lived here for 3 days. Was told the bathroom was remodeled but I'm betting the water temperature of the shower was un-tested.

Any idea how to remove the valve and replace it if I have to?

 

[Sluggo]

The valve looks pretty new. If there was some way to ID the manufacturer you could find out if there was a way to adjust the mixing settings. You can typically replace the innards if you know who made it. Otherwise, if you wanted to replace it, you would need to cut the piping and sweat solder in a new one. Also, while the pipes may well run through the attic, I had a house built on a slab and a lot of the piping was in the concrete.

 

[Reach4]

That looks pretty distinctive, and somebody may recognize it. The knurled plastic seems to have a post sticking into the slot. I would try turning the red both clockwise and CCW to the limits to see if that helps.

Testing out the theory that the cold water is so hot that the problem is not the control... How about either turning off the supply to the hot temporarily, or turning the water heater temperature way down or even off. If water still flows to the shower and it is still hot, then your cold supply is not cold enough.

 

[Jadnashua]

Most of those valves that do not have a volume control, start at full volume, and mostly cold. As you turn them, it adds more hot, and starts to limit the cold. That red ring shows a + sign, and would be used to limit how hot it can get, but since it starts with almost all cold, generally, starting out as too hot isn't an issue. Now, if they reversed the hot and cold, that could be the problem! Some valves support the hot/cold being reversed, and you can correct it by reversing the cartridge. I do not know about that one. It might work by simply rotating the cartridge 180-degrees to restore the proper hot/cold interactions.