Thread: Backwards tub/shower faucet?

Brain not running on all 3 cylinders...

Shouldn't this type of faucet start out cold and then get hot as you turn it? This one gets hotter the closer you get to the off position. How does this happen?

faucet.jpg

The mixing valve is installed upside down/ backward.

There could be several causes. here are two causes: a) plumber plumbed it with hot and cold reversed - not common but it happens; b) cartridge in wrong.

Originally Posted by Jerry Peck

There could be several causes. here are two causes: a) plumber plumbed it with hot and cold reversed - not common but it happens; b) cartridge in wrong.

To add to the "not common but happens". I inspected a 4 year old house about 7-8 years ago. Turned on the cold, cold water came out, turner on the hot and waited - hot water came out. All is good. WRONG! House had been built 4 years earlier but had not been lived in. Plumber had plumbed both sides of the tub faucet to hot. Just a cautionary bit of advice from the school of hard knocks.

Thanks, Vern. My habit is to get the hot first, then cold. If there's hot water at the sink, the tub spout should only take a minute to run hot.
I see hot and cold reversed several times a week. Maybe a local thing.
Both hot? Never seen that.
Red and blue PEX pipe has helped a lot but have you seen what happens when they run out of blue? They use all red.

Another advantage of running the tub/shower first, and running hot there first, is that the water gets hotter faster and with the tub/shower typically being next to the toilet it is easier to use find toilets supplied with hot water.

Doesn't happen often, but if the plumber connects the piping wrong and everything is hot/cold reversed, reversing the connection to the water heater corrects everything to hot/cold correctly - except that the toilets are now supplied with hot water.

John, they say the Moen faucets like the one in your pic are easy to fix, as the others have said, by reversing the cartridge.
This style of kitchen faucet, hot is back, cold is forward.
How do you like being left-handed and facing that thing every day?

So the other day, the plumber has installed it with the handle to the front. Now hot is to the right, cold is to the left, but the pipes are hooked up correctly, with a blue mark on the left and a red mark on the right.

I just describe the thing as 'Euro design' and let someone else decide if they want it changed.

John,

Down here ... hot is on the left and cold is on the right and cold starts first - except for fixtures which are identified ... in which case it only is required to operate as identified.

Red and blue is the most frequent means of identification (obviously, red is for hot and blue is cold).

Originally Posted by John Kogel

Thanks, Vern. My habit is to get the hot first, then cold. If there's hot water at the sink, the tub spout should only take a minute to run hot.
I see hot and cold reversed several times a week. Maybe a local thing.
Both hot? Never seen that.
Red and blue PEX pipe has helped a lot but have you seen what happens when they run out of blue? They use all red.

That experience taught me to run both valves wide open until the water is warm, then turn one off at a time. Doing it that way also fills the sink/tub faster to test for drain function. I really don't want to spend another Saturday afternoon as a plumbers helper. They had used all white PEX in the entire house, which I see here most often.

Originally Posted by Jerry Peck

John,

Down here ... hot is on the left and cold is on the right and cold starts first - except for fixtures which are identified ... in which case it only is required to operate as identified.

Red and blue is the most frequent means of identification (obviously, red is for hot and blue is cold).

That's "...down here in FL."

I was in Texas in the summer, checked in the motel, went to freshen up, turned on the "Cold" and it was hot! Turned on the "Hot" and it was hot! Called to front desk and they said "Sorry, but it gets that way in the Texas sun."

How do you Texas folks check this in "The Texas sun in summer?"

Here is Cali, that is a code violation. For scalding reasons, hot should be left, cold right.
Many single-handle valves are designed to be installed back-to-back and the cartridge can be flipped to accommodate this. This one looks like a Delta or a knock-off.

Originally Posted by Vern Heiler

... Turned on the cold, cold water came out, turner on the hot and waited - hot water came out. All is good. WRONG!

I once bought a new house on the gulf coast. Tested the water; hot came out of the cold handle, cold came out of the hot, in every single fixture in the house. I reported as a defect to the contractor. Turns out it was plumbed right, and I was just impatient.
The subdivision had no other occupied houses on our street. The water pipes were only a few inches below the brand new jet-black asphalt streets (no frost worries). The water from the street came in at about 120 degrees. The gas water heater was not yet lit, and the "hot" water was coming from the reservoir of room temperature water in the 50 gallon tank.
Once the houses were occupied, the flow of water was sufficient that we only got slightly warm water from the street in the middle of the day.

I have also seen hot/cold reverse when they have a common chase/stud cavity and baths are back to back. They make cartridges so they do not have to plumb over and can use the plumbing layout as is. So the cartridge can be reversed to allow for the hot pipe being on right. Easy fix in this situation.

Originally Posted by Rich Goeken

That's "...down here in FL."

I was in Texas in the summer, checked in the motel, went to freshen up, turned on the "Cold" and it was hot! Turned on the "Hot" and it was hot! Called to front desk and they said "Sorry, but it gets that way in the Texas sun."

How do you Texas folks check this in "The Texas sun in summer?"

Rich,

I had the same thing happen in a house we had in South Florida - Lennar Homes - they ran the copper water piping through the attic up near the roof and considerably above the insulation (no freeze worries down there) ... the problem was just as you describe hot water out of the cold and hot water out of the hot, with the cold hot getting cooler after a while and the hot hot getting hotter after a while.

That first winter (yeah, right, "winter" in South Florida) I went into the attic and insulated all the copper water piping with two layers of foam pipe insulation - it helped a lot.