Shower help - low hot pressure

[Lancecc1]

All, newbie here, so sorry if this is a repeat thread. After all we've been through with Harvey, I don't feel like searching. I am hoping I can just get an answer. Both of my showers/tubs have very low water pressure on the hot side. Cold is good, but when I swing the arm arm to hot, I get a clunk and the water pressure drops to almost nothing. I tried to upload a video, but, no matter how short I make it, it tells me it's too large to post. Best I could do it a pic of the fixture itself.

We just moved in last week, so I don't know the brand. My guess is it's a Glacier Bay, but I can't be for sure. Before the storm, I had done some searching and learned that, for whatever reason GB puts a restrictor on the hot side. I'd like to remove that. Soooooo, my questions are:

1) am I right about the restrictor? If not, any other suggestions?

2) how do I get the damn lever off? I see the set screw hole, but what angle (or time) does the lever need to be at for me to access the set screw?

Both showers are doing the exact same thing and have the exact same fixtures. This is also the only two places in the house where pressure is an issue. My deductive reasoning indicates that there's something in the valving (i.e., the restrictor). Thanks for your help!!

Lance

 

[Terry]

Video won't upload to the site. You can put it on youtube and then link to it.
It may be a balancing issue in the spool. I don't know the brand that you have. The Allen wrench should be parallel to the wall. It won't be angled.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Lancecc1]

Hi, Terry. Thanks for the suggestions. At this point, I'd be happy with just knowing how to get the lever off. I've tried every angle (especially parallel with the wall) and run the table on both sets of my hex key sets (metric and standard), but nothing bites. I thought it might be a 3/32 or maybe a 2.5mm, but it's all for not. I don't think there is one, but I can't imagine it's a press fit. It's a Glacier Bay, but I'm guessing it's a few years old. Any further thoughts? Thanks again, Terry!!

 

[Reach4]

Here is a different idea. Put a pressure gauge onto the water heater drain valve. Run the hot water to one of the "low pressure" faucets, and see if the water pressure at the WH is actually dropping a lot. If not, continue looking where you have been.

 

[hj]

The 'clunk" is the pressure balancing spool shifting. It is malfunctioning and shutting down the hot pressure instead of equalizing the hot and cold.

 

[LLigetfa]

The 'clunk" is the pressure balancing spool shifting.

My recently replaced water heater had heat traps that made a clunking sound. The heat traps would also get stuck at times reducing the flow of hot water.

Stand at the HWT and listen for the clunk while someone turns the hot water on and off. I have had to tap on the pipes while the highest flow fixture was turned on/off/on/off to get the heat trap unstuck.