Shower Doesn't Get Warm on Cold Mornings

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nymetsfan25

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Hi all,

Weird issue I've experienced the last two winters...on cold mornings, one shower in my house does not get warm. The colder it is outside, the cooler the water is...on a normal winter morning, on max hot water, its borderline uncomfortably cool. But, if its 60 degrees in the morning, there's no issue and it gets very hot (as it should) and I only need to turn the knob about 50% to get to a comfortably hot shower. This is unique only to this shower....all other sinks, bathtubs, etc. do not have this issue.

Any ideas as to how this could be possible?
 

Jadnashua

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Two things...sounds like the supply lines are in an outside wall, or, there's a lot of air leaks into that wall. Second, all modern shower valves have a limit stop on them, and you may need to adjust yours to get more hot water into the mix.

Depending on the brand, the method of adjusting varies. I put an article in the tutorial section that covers many of them and shows links to videos on how to adjust them. If that's not listing your brand, you'll have to search for it online. Some, you move a cam, some you adjust a screw stop. It might become obvious once you have the trim and handle off.

This is a common issue with this type of valve. My preference is a thermostatically controlled valve that won't have that problem, but they do cost more and most people live just fine with one like yours as well.

The reasoning is to prevent potential scalding, but it varies based on mixing your incoming hot and cold. Hot stays pretty much the same season to season, but your incoming cold supply can change radically summer to winter. So, to retain that ability to prevent scalding, but allow things to get hot enough to make you comfortable, you might need to readjust the limit stop summer/winter. If there are no elderly or young children around, you might just bump it to your preferred temp in the winter, but be aware, it will be able to get hotter than that in the summer...maybe LOTS hotter. Where I live, the incoming water temperature varies nearly 40-degrees summer/winter. That's huge when trying to mix to a specific temperature, and the limit stop is misadjusted.
 
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