I just bought my house and noticed there is a problem in the bathroom tub faucet and that is: the valve starts from the cold toward hot and as it goes toward the hot the water pressure increases and by the way the way it is made I do not have any access behind the wall to check how it is made. Is there any way I can fix this and have control over both water temperature's pressure?

  • So you have a mixing valve (where there is only one handle), but you want separate handles (one for hot and one for cold)? – Tester101 Apr 3 '13 at 18:53
  • I have only one handle which goes from cold(less pressure) to hot(high pressure) and correct I wand to separate them. The question is can I and how? – yeggy Apr 3 '13 at 19:39
  • I'm not sure it's "broken". When you start, you're only getting cold water from the tap (handle all the way towards cold). As you turn the handle towards hot, you start getting both hot and cold water (warm water). This is normal. – Tester101 Apr 3 '13 at 20:03
  • when I start, the water is cold with a little pressure as I turn the handle the pressure increases and the water gets warmer and warmer until it gets very hot. Now imagine a hot summer day and I decide to take a cold shower under current situation the water pressure comes like flow of urine(sorry my language). Now is there anyway to fix this can I just go buy a normal tap with two handle and replace the one or I need some plumbing to do? – yeggy Apr 3 '13 at 21:11
  • Mixer faucets have two "settings" - left-to-right for cold-hot and up-down for the pressure. Try leaving the left-to-right on the cold side and pulling the handle upwards. This should increase the pressure. – Eli Iser Apr 4 '13 at 7:18

Delta makes a line of shower valves (Monitor 17 series) that has separate Temperature and Volume controls in a single hole package. It approximates a thermostatic valve, which is a much more expensive valve.

The little arm at 2 o'clock is the temperature setting, and the larger one at 4 o'clock is the volume.

enter image description here

It would be necessary to replace both the valve body and the valve trim to use this solution.


I think what you are describing is normal. The valve starts off with cold water at low pressure, and as you move the handle, cold water pressure increases and it starts to mix hot in at low pressure. If it didn't behave this way then upon opening the slightest, you would get "full blast".

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