Hello all, and thanks in advance for reading and offering any help. I purchased a Hudson Reed Thermostatic Twin Shower Faucet Valve with Diverter for a new bathroom in my basement and am having an issue with it. The water never gets hot enough, it only gets lukewarm. I have an existing shower in the second of my house which works fine. Every other faucet in my house works as it should in regards to temperature and pressure. The sink faucet in the new bathroom where the Hudson Reed is installed gets hot water. I took a temperature reading at 120F and was able to increase the temp up to 140F at this bathroom faucet.

I have a Titan brand electric tankless water heater. My house is plumbed with 1/2" pex piping and a manabloc system. The hot water supply and cold water supply at the Hudson Reed shower read 40 PSI right before entering the shower valve. I have disassembled the entire shower unit and flushed the hot and cold water thought it. I have removed the check/stop valves and filter screens and cleaned them. I contacted Hudson Reed in regards to the problem and purchased a new thermostatic cartridge and installed the cartridge only to have the same results. The cartridge currently installed is the 3rd cartridge I have tried.

The water never gets warmer than lukewarm out of the showerhead and/or handheld unit. I am able to access the rear of the shower unit and can feel the hot water entering the shower unit (I used an infrared thermometer and could register 128F water entering the hot side of the shower unit). The manabloc and water heater are less than 5 feet away from the shower unit. The hot and cold water supplies are connected correctly to the shower unit. The cartridge has a 'locating tab' which is installed pointing to the hot supply as indicated by the manufacturer.

I have also calibrated the cartridge to its maximum hot setting and the issue remains. I have run the cold water in the bathroom sink faucet to see if it is a pressure problem (I don't know, was just trying anything!) while running the shower on hot and the issue remains. I don't know what else to troubleshoot and am hoping someone on the forum could offer some assistance. Please feel free to comment, I don't know what else to do. Thanks!

could be that it is factory preset to give you 109F deg water?
it sure sounds like you have done EVERYTHING possible to get hotter water .

According to Hudson Reed's website, the preset temperature is 104F. Although, they claim you can adjust the temperature to a higher setting by calibrating the unit (which I have attempted).

you can ask the company if they have a rep in your area that does warrantee work?
you certainly have done everything a licensed plumber would have done (and more) yet the situation remains unacceptable.
you need someone who knows that valve, on site, to repair/replace whatever is faulty.
also mention to the company that many plumbers on this nationally known site are eagerly awaiting the outcome of your problem.
it is our business to know which products are backed up by the manufacturers and which are not.

Good advice, thanks. I have contacted Hudson Reed and they are in the process of investigating this issue. They stated I should have an answer by this Friday as to a solution to the problem or (possibly) an entire replacement of the unit.



Edited 1 times.

Hello,
I work for Hudson Reed and came across this post. First of all, I'd like to apologize for the trouble you've been having. I've gone through your email thread with our support reps and it looks like you have tried all the common problem solving techniques we recommend and none of these have worked.

Sometimes people install the valve the wrong way round and experience the problem you are describing, however from your support ticket I can see that is not the case with you.

Very rarely there is a fault with the cartridge and a replacement does the trick, however again this has not solved your problem.

As such we have sent you out a full replacement valve. This is almost never needed as our valves are all assembled and individually tested here in our home town in the UK. If you told me the serial number I would be able to find the name of the person who constructed and tested it, that is how seriously we take our quality control. Every valve is tested.

I do hope the replacement valve sorts your problem, although I do suspect it might be an issue of calibration still. Give your replacement valve a try but if it still doesn't work I'd recommend a calibration as per this video: [www.youtube.com]

Finally, if you still don't have any luck, please email me personally dan.gillen@hudsonreed.com and I will work with you and our resident plumber to get a solution.

Best Regards,
Dan Gillen
Hudson Reed USA

Hudson Reed sent out a replacement unit - entire shower valve with new cartridge. All the staff members there have been very helpful in attempting to help me with this issue. I installed the new shower valve, but have received the same results as before. I an in contact with Hudson Reed, but I wanted to post here to follow up.

The only ways to achieve hot water coming out of the hand held shower unit or the shower head is by reducing the flow of the hot water at the manabloc or at the shower valve itself, as it has stop/check valves for the hot and hold side. By reducing the flow of the hot water, I get hot water to exit the shower unit as I do at the other fixtures in my house. However, the pressure of the hot water exiting the shower unit (hand held, or showerhead) is reduced by about 50% when compared to the cold water pressure exiting the shower unit. The hand held unit delivers 2.5gpm, there are no restrictors installed in the hand held (or the shower head). According to the Titan tankless electric heater manual, it should deliver a temperature raise of 57F at 2.5 gpm. My incoming cold supply is 50F, so the water delivered to the shower should reach 107F, but it does not.

I have also attempted to calibrate the cartridge, but the temperature does not change from the factory preset.

Please, any responses are welcome.

In working with Hudson Reed towards a resolution, the electric tankless water heater I own has surfaced as the possible issue of the water not getting hot enough for a shower. Knowing that by restricting the flow of the water, the hot water heater would heat the water to a sufficient showering temperature, I purchased a 1.75 gpm showerhead. I installed it and tested it and was able to receive a nice, hot stream of water coming out of the 1.75 gpm showerhead. The fixtures installed were a 2.5 gpm showerhead and hand held unit. All of the existing fixtures in the house draw less than 1.5 gpm, so I have never had this issue before.

It appears the issue lies with the water heater and its ability to heat the water. I am no electrician, but can perform basic tasks for troubleshooting. I tested the amperage draw of the water heater using an amp probe. The one circuit pulls 45-50 amps, while the other circuit pulls 1-2 amps (each circuit is 50amps)... I would imagine they should both draw about the same amps? Whatever the issue is, the water heater is capable of heating water to about 70F (ambient temp is 50F, for a total of 120F) at 1.75gpm.

Looks like I'm off to the electrician's forum.

Ronkimes,

Did you ever reach a solution? I am having the same issue, however, my shower is not a new install. I installed my Hudson Reed exposed traditional shower in August 2015. I had to install a replacement dual thermostatic cartridge (Valquest DC70 Dual Valve Thermostatic Cartridge - DC 70T20) because the original Hudson Reed cartridge failed after seven years of use. The water would not turn off. I had no issues prior to that. I installed the replacement cartridge and could only get lukewarm water. When I flipped the cartridge, I got extremely cold and extremely hot water without the ability to modulate. When I reinserted the original cartridge, I got hot water but the original problem remined that I could not turn off the water. Therefore, I don't think I have a crossover issue or a flow issue from my tankless unit. I went back to the distributor and it sent a second replacement cartridge, but it did not resolve the issue. I'm at a loss. Any suggestions?