Cartridge replacement issues

Reviewed 11 years ago by
I thought I would let everyone know my experience of replacing the thermostatic cartridge. Firstly I would advise caution and only attempt if you are reasonably DIY handy.

In my case replacing the 18 year old cartridge was fraught with problems; firstly 3 of the 4 screws holding the old cartridge in place were totally rusted, so bad that it was impossible to drill the screw heads off as the drill just wandered all over the place. Not one to give up easily I decided to weaken the plastic around the screw heads by drilling a series of holes and then breaking the surrounding plastic. It took about 1 hour to get the old cartridge off. Drilling the holes should be done with extreme caution as it is very easy to damage the surface of the valve body, any slip here would cause the vale to leak like a sieve. The next problem was removing the old washer at the back of the valve, the rubber had gone solid hard and a near impossible to remove, I fabricated a tool using an old dining fork, I cut off all the prongs bar one and bent the tip at a right angle, with a lot of patience and about 2 hours later I managed to break up the old washer and pick all the bit out with tweezers. At this point I flushed out all the old bits of debris to stop all the old rubbish going into the new valve. Getting the new washer in place was reasonably easy as was fitting the new cartridge.



Luckily I had fitted isolating valves when I installed the shower allowing me to take my time to do the job, I had almost thought about giving up and putting the newly purchased cartridge on eBay. Total replacing the valve would have meant a ripping the tiles off, in other words a whole new shower. As a result of this experience I will soon be replacing the entire bathroom because after 18 years I realise things don’t last forever but at least I have the shower back working again whilst contemplating the new one. Good luck.

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