Premature failure/erosion hot side shower valve seat Pf S70-500

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Gunslinger63

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I've got a Price Pfister three handle/knob setup, very basic. I have replaced the seat on the hot side more times than I can remember, at least once every 8 or 9 months for the past several years. Sometimes the seat is eroded at the base, sometimes where the washer makes contact, makes no since to me. I generally use pipe dope on the threads and when I fix it, it's good to go for another 9 months of so. Why do I continue to have premature seat failure/erosion with this one, hot side valve? This last time I replaced the valve and seat both, with genuine Pf. It lasted a little longer, but still failed within a year's time, erosion at the base of Pf S70-500 Seat. I have attached a few examples from when I've had to replace the seat, I have many more, varying in where and how they eroded. I hate to have to replace the whole thing, when I may simply be missing something simple that is causing this. Any help is appreciated.
 

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John Gayewski

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Sounds like a mixture of things. Maybe water that's a little hard? But also probably a less than ideal design. This could just be a turbulent design that causes erosion.
 

Jeff H Young

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hot always has more junk in it , is it galvanized pipe, totally repiped with no rusting pipes. old water heater?
 

Breplum

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Wow. That seems impossible to be erosion from clean, properly chemical balanced public water supply.
Never seen anything like that.
We see rusted out steel nipples near brass plumbing fittings. If it was electrolysis it would be galv. pipe breaking down, not brass.
 

Marlinman

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Look in your area for the valve seat in Monel. It is a copper/nickel alloy that is much harder than the brass replacements or Price Pfisters chrome plated brass. Also be sure to use a teflon based thread sealant paste. The 18 thread is known to have water seep around the seat.
 

Jeff H Young

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I didn't see anything suggesting a good clean chemical balance or the home being piped in brass. Good Suggestion to go with a high quality of seat Monel I guess being a good material. I see old houses needing repipe being hard on the seats before and it sure seems to effect hot worse
 

Gunslinger63

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Sounds like a mixture of things. Maybe water that's a little hard? But also probably a less than ideal design. This could just be a turbulent design that causes erosion.
I appreciate your input and apologize for my slow response; I thought I would get alerts when somebody responded to my question, but for some reason didn’t see any. We have an overly aggressive IT Department; it may have got canned before it got to me?

I reside in the small town of Ball Ground, Georgia, at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, just a few miles from the marble quarries that provided most of the marble used in our nation’s capital. Our water comes from a 480’ deep rock aquifer and is considered to be hard water. But, I have a lot of family and friends and having asked around, I don’t know of anyone having similar problems, at least anywhere near the level of premature failure that I experience.

Pretty sure it is a tried and true design, Price Pfister Windsor 3 handle.
 

Gunslinger63

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Wow. That seems impossible to be erosion from clean, properly chemical balanced public water supply.
Never seen anything like that.
We see rusted out steel nipples near brass plumbing fittings. If it was electrolysis it would be galv. pipe breaking down, not brass.
I hope it's clean, properly chemical balanced, I've been drinking it for 58 years. No galvanized in my residence, but it just occurred to me that our mainline water system is ancient metal/iron? But my neighbors aren't having similar problems. I wonder if it could be something isolated to my "T"? Maybe I should install a filter and see what it looks like after a few weeks.
 

Gunslinger63

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Look in your area for the valve seat in Monel. It is a copper/nickel alloy that is much harder than the brass replacements or Price Pfisters chrome plated brass. Also be sure to use a teflon based thread sealant paste. The 18 thread is known to have water seep around the seat.
I will definitely give this a try, THANKS!
 

Gunslinger63

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I didn't see anything suggesting a good clean chemical balance or the home being piped in brass. Good Suggestion to go with a high quality of seat Monel I guess being a good material. I see old houses needing repipe being hard on the seats before and it sure seems to effect hot worse
Thanks for your response, going to try the Monel seat. I got polybutylene pipe in my house, but lines at the street are ancient iron.
 

Gunslinger63

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Look in your area for the valve seat in Monel. It is a copper/nickel alloy that is much harder than the brass replacements or Price Pfisters chrome plated brass. Also be sure to use a teflon based thread sealant paste. The 18 thread is known to have water seep around the seat.
I plan on trying the Monel seat, the next time I have a failure. I was going to go ahead and order a couple online, I see Monel seats, some say Monel stainless steel, another says Monel Bibb Seat (Generic), is it safe to assume that if I buy the 970-500 PP Seat from any that have Monel in the description, that I am getting the high strength alloy Monel seat you are referring to. I just didn't know if Monel might make a variety of different seats, or if they are all the same, high performing alloy. I am open to suggestions as to where to buy. Thanks for your initial response!
 

Marlinman

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Stainless and Monel are 2 different alloys. Both are superior to plain or plated brass. I came up with this on a search.

 

HandyGary

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I've got a Price Pfister three handle/knob setup, very basic. I have replaced the seat on the hot side more times than I can remember, at least once every 8 or 9 months for the past several years. Sometimes the seat is eroded at the base, sometimes where the washer makes contact, makes no since to me. I generally use pipe dope on the threads and when I fix it, it's good to go for another 9 months of so. Why do I continue to have premature seat failure/erosion with this one, hot side valve? This last time I replaced the valve and seat both, with genuine Pf. It lasted a little longer, but still failed within a year's time, erosion at the base of Pf S70-500 Seat. I have attached a few examples from when I've had to replace the seat, I have many more, varying in where and how they eroded. I hate to have to replace the whole thing, when I may simply be missing something simple that is causing this. Any help is appreciated.
Just a random thought: Electrolysis Isolator on water heater?
 
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