Not having a good evening...

[dbhost]

This was supposed to be a nice relaxing evening at home, my lovely wife was showering and I heard a scream, a thunk, and a clang...

She's fine... The shower not so much...

She was going to turn the shower off, and the handle fell off in her hand and hit the shower floor.

Upon investigation I found the shaft to the stem had sheared off cleanly.

Now with most stems that is an easy fix, but this is a (expletive) Moen. Fine it's only 8:30 P.M., the stem is STUCK in the manifold, and the BORG is about to close... All I really know is what you can see from the outside of the manifold...

Get to Home Depot, find the one that looks the closest, grab it, and a set of needle nose vise grips, they only go so far. SO I figure hey, I am not going to rebuild the stem. I went and drilled the center of the original stem, ran a #10 screw through it, used a piece of plywood to protect the tile, and pressed / pried it out with a crowbar...

It was out, the bore was clean, and I was ready to go... So I go to reinstall the new one, check against the pieces of the original that came out (yes, I said pieces, it just disintegrated in the mainfold...) checked the install direction and ran it home. Set the keeper pin, turned the water back on. Success!. Shut it down, reassembled all the trim, and tested. SON OF A (expletive deleted by author)! The dumb thing is upside down, meaning hot is cold and cold is hot... I am NOT fixing this tonight! I need to use this stupid shower and go to bed...

Hope tomorrow goes better...

[chopnhack]

Wow, that is suprising!! I have always been a fan of Moen, they make pretty good stuff. Was your valve very old? Pretty strange.

[leehljp]

Hot is cold; cold is hot - That is when I tell my family members to just deal with it! At least it is working!

[LCHIEN]

the old MOen cartridges were all metal but the later ones were mostly plastic.


DB, its been a few years since i worked on them but I seem to recall you could flip the hot-cold to fix your problem without pulling the whole cart. out. I think you take the handle/knob off and simply grab the stem with some pliers and rotate it 180 degrees. The put the knob back on. The rotation stops are part of the knob and the metal shell around the cartridge and retaining clip and its symmetrical??? Anyway that's my recollection.

PS don't pull on the stem while rotating it or you will be very wet.

That reminds me last week were having our 1 yo grandson stay over and we gave him a bath. Well, he stuck his finger up the spout where the water was running out into the tub. Apparently the shower diverter knob extends down into the spout and he pushed it up from the spout end which resulted in all of us getting a surprise shower... I didn't even know you could do that!

[dbhost]

My cart is keyed. I have to pull it, rotate 180 deg and reinstall. Yes it was old.. 1984 to be specific... I replaced o ring about 5 years ago...

[greenacres2]

Lousy piece of ..... that you could only get 28 years out of a faucet.

I despise anything to do with plumbing, so it's hard for me to see that having to do a repair after 10 or 15 (or 28) years is a pretty good thing. This reminds me that the faucet in the big bathroom is from 1993--a very eventful weekend that brought with it much new plumbing so shut-offs could be installed, a new water heater, tub surround, and a few other odds and ends!!

Did i mention i hate plumbing????

earl

[woodturner]

Now with most stems that is an easy fix, but this is a (expletive) Moen.

FWIW, Moen has a lifetime warranty, and is very easy to deal with. Just call them up and they will send you the parts.
http://www.moen.com/consumer-support/warranty

Might not have helped in your situation, though, if you don't have another shower to use for the few days until the parts arrive.

[cabinetman]

I haven't done a Moen shower cartridge, but the sink ones were keyed, not reversible, or maybe just the ones I did were.

.

[Charlie R]

Installed a Moen tub kit (valve, shower, diverter) 30 years ago. The diverter is plated plastic and the plating peals off in sharp pieces. Called Moen when they advertised a lifetime warranty. They said to bad, older products are not covered. Hope you have better luck. On mine you turn the part the knob screws into half a turn to switch hot and cold.

[dbhost]

FWIW, Moen has a lifetime warranty, and is very easy to deal with. Just call them up and they will send you the parts.
http://www.moen.com/consumer-support/warranty

Might not have helped in your situation, though, if you don't have another shower to use for the few days until the parts arrive.

It was spewing water from the stem. Leaving it until parts arrive was not an option...

As far as the actual age of the faucets, I am not certain. The house is 28 years old, but I somewhat doubt it was built with MOEN faucets, those are pretty high end for the rest of the construction of this place...

Moen's are actually quite easy to service, assuming the brass shaft doesn't break off and you need to drill out the stem to run a screw into it to have something to grab onto to extract it...

The kitchen faucet is a Moen as well...

Honestly, I prefer the Delta / Peerless ball style faucets from an operation and maintenance standpoint... But I realize they need maintenance more often...

[JimD]

I have Moen faucets but Delta shower controls. We just liked the look of the Moen's in the faucets and the Delta's were fine for the shower controls. I got a great deal on a closeout double handle Delta for our shower so we went with Deltas for the other two baths too. That ended up confusing the plumber who couldn't find our trim in his storage because he was looking for Moen parts. At the last minute he remembered (or looked).

I've had no issue with the Delta showers but I've had to call Moen up and get a couple new faucet cartridges over the years (13). They are easy to change but I forget how each time and have to google it. I have 7 Moe faucets so replacing a couple cartridges doesn't seem too bad to me.

Jim

[dbhost]

Oh I have been in the Delta faucets all the way around (all 4 lav faucets are Deltas) twice in 10 years...

Honestly, the Moen cart in the kitchen needs to be replaced. It won't stay on, the handle just drops and shuts the water off...

[cabinetman]

Now with most stems that is an easy fix, but this is a (expletive) Moen. Fine it's only 8:30 P.M., the stem is STUCK in the manifold, and the BORG is about to close... All I really know is what you can see from the outside of the manifold...

It seems timely when things like that break. When we bought this home, the second night here, one toilet decided to disintegrate...late at night. It's an inevitable event, like getting a bad toothache at 5 PM on a Saturday.

Thought I would post this clip...you may find it entertaining...maybe not.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Tj5q_e2cI

.

[JimD]

I keep a stash of toilet parts on-hand. A few fill valves, a flapper or two, a flush handle. It seems like I always find they need something about 10pm. If all I have to do is walk down to my "stash" and take care of the problem I get a better night's sleep.

Jim

[dbhost]

I am thinking the stash of spare parts might just be a worthwhile expense...