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Plugged shower

Author: sum (FL)

I ran into a strange issue today, it's resolved now, but still puzzled as to what happened.

I have a tiled shower and apparently I had a leak, but I never knew I had one, until one day I turned the shower on, and at the same time my phone rang, so I went to the den which shares a wall with the shower (where the shower valve is), and as I talked on the phone I heard drip drip drip...

Concerned so I finished the phone call and went to turn the shower off. After a bit the dripping sound stopped.

Since it's not dripping when shower is OFF, it has to be in the pipes or joints AFTER the valve. I am hoping it's the threaded connection between the shower arm and the drop ear 90.

So today I unscrewed the shower arm, reached back there and cleaned the female thread with a small brush, cleaned the male threads of the shower arm, applied a couple of wraps of teflon tape, just to be on the safe side painted on some teflon pipe dope. Thread the shower arm back in.

Now, at the other end of my shower arm is an inline diverter, which connects to a shower head, or a hand shower. I threaded those back on as well.

Then I turned the water on, I heard the water coming, but nothing came out of the shower head, and nothing came out of the hand shower. Nothing at all. Not even a drop of water.

So I went to the den and listened, no dripping.

Went back to the shower, unscrewed the diverter from the shower arm, water shoots out. OK so far so good.

Then I screwed the diverter only back on, and water shoots out from it's holes.

Then I screwed the hand shower back on, and no water.

So I think something got flushed into the coiled shower hose? But should it at least be having some water? NOTHING, not even a drip is coming out. I took the shower hose, the threaded collar on the other end, and the quick connect to the Grohe hand shower apart.

One by one I put the shower hose only back on, water comes out. Now threaded back in the quick connect, no water.

So the quick connect is causing problems. I looked into it, didn't see anything. I ran some water into it from a faucet, tapped it a few times, blew air in it from my mouth, then put it back and it works now.

So my question is, if it's some crust or buildup that was dislodged during my shower arm cleaning, and it got flushed into the shower hose or the quick connect, shouldn't it be at last losing some water, it didn't even spill a drop. Why?

Re: Plugged shower
Author: LemonPlumber (FL) Grohe quick connect ?this portioning pressure compensated inlet may seal drag when fouled.Do not be surprised to find the next failure to be does not position one function only.

Re: Plugged shower

Author: vic

LemonPlumber,

You wrote:

">Do not be surprised to find the next failure to be does not position one function only."<

I really appreciate that you give advice however I feel that I finally have to say something,,,,, please.... you've got to make yourself more clear in your posts if you wish for us to understand.

Many of your posts are just hard to decipher and sometimes I feel as if I ought to delete a post simply because although it may contain valuable information, ideas, and/or advice no one can understand what you're trying to say.

Again, thank you for posting and I hope that by my stepping in here and saying "something" that after you write a post that you'll read it back out loud and will try to make it more readable before hitting "post message."

Vic

Re: Plugged shower
Author: LemonPlumber (FL) Sorry Vic thought he /Sum indicated that he had a shower arm type divertor .??I found failure not by number as manufactured but as stated by the customer.VIC!Yes I wildly guess.where no product number is stated.I hypotheses, if HJ is reading.I condemn the diver tor to farther failure. Edited 3 times.

Re: Plugged shower
Author: sum (FL) The diverter at the end of the shower arm is this sort. But this didn't fail. The shower hose after it didn't either. It is this part at the end of the shower hose. which the hand shower unit "clicks" into. This part had to be flushed/tapped/blown to get the water passing again.

Re: Plugged shower
Author: LemonPlumber (FL) your right Vic.maybe I should just stick to reading.

Re: Plugged shower
Author: Paul48 (CT) sum.....It looks like the quick-disconnects we use for compressed air.But with the ones I am familiar with, that part would be straight through and the part that goes on that would be opened by the tip of that part.

Re: Plugged shower
Author: hj This piece would be the reverse of an air hose. This part of the disconnect would be on the hose, and would insert INTO the head.

Re: Plugged shower

Author: vic

I'm glad to hear that you found that drip which over time could have caused quite a bit of mold or damage.

">So the quick connect is causing problems.<"

That sure does sound like the cause.

">I looked into it, didn't see anything. I ran some water into it from a faucet, tapped it a few times, blew air in it from my mouth, then put it back and it works now. <"

">So my question is, if it's some crust or buildup that was dislodged during my shower arm cleaning, and it got flushed into the shower hose or the quick connect, shouldn't it be at last losing some water, it didn't even spill a drop. Why?"<

I doubt that it was caused by "crud."

Many quick-connects that operate similarly to air compressor connections are either on or off and to me as I see it you've been describing a complete on-off situation and so I'm thinking that it wasn't crud that caused the total off but rather that the male/female connection had somehow come slightly apart a little which caused it to totally shut off.

I'm guessing that when you put it back after fiddling with it you reconnected it as it was designed to be and so all was well again.

Vic

Re: Plugged shower
Author: sum (FL) This part has a little piece of plastic in it the slides up and down on the inside.

Re: Plugged shower

Author: sum (FL)

Vic, thanks.

I was very perplexing to me because initially when I removed the shower arm, I only disengaged the diverter and never touched the shower hose and it's connection to the hand shower. After I wrapped some tape and dope on the shower arm and threaded it back onto the drop ear 90 in the wall, put the diverter (still connected to the shower head and the hand shower hose, never took those off) back on, turned water on. I didn't even hear water coming into the pipe, it sounded like a vaccuum.

Now later on, as I took everything apart, and put one piece at a time back on that's when I narrowed it down to this piece.

I fully expect some crud or rust or a blob of pipe dope or something to fall out of it, but nothing.

It works now though, so I am not complaining.

By the way, this is the first time I heard it dripping because it was the first time I went into the den when the shower was ON. It could have been dripping like this for many years...scary huh.

Re: Plugged shower
Author: hj It could be a "backflow preventer" or vacuum breaker, since many codes require them on handheld showers.

Re: Plugged shower
Author: LemonPlumber (FL) Right handed threads fail as right handlers use them.but .?do you know what the pressure reductive/compensated unit inside the plastic piece is?