Toilets, Sinks, Showers, Tubs and Disposals - Valley Shower Tube Faucet Pressure

I have a 20 year old single handle Valley shower/tub faucet. All of a sudden black water came out and then clear, but since then the water pressure got worse and worse. I took the cartridge out and it was clean, even tried replacing it. Now it is even worse, only a trickle of water, hot or cold. I turned the main off and pulled the cartridge and turned the main back on and water shot out...so there is pressure. Just no pressure from the cartridge to the spigot. Need help! Thanks

Remove and clean out or possibly replace the aerator on the end of the spout and see what happens.

Since its a tub..I don't think theres an aerator. But if its not coming out the spout, is it coming out the showerhead?

Does the valve have a seperate button or lever to direct water to the shower? If no, and there is a knob on the spout, then the problem is probably internal to the valvebody somewhere.

I'm not familiar with Valley except the older multihandle types.

Water comes out of the shower head and the tub spigot with the same trickle with no heads or screens. The tub spigot has the simple knob that blocks the flow and sends water to the shower..so that is not it. Is it possible to have a blockage in the valvebody after the cartridge that affects the shower and the tub both...it seems odd? Or is it possible that either the hot or cold inlets do not have the same pressure and that would affect the amount of total water coming out? Thanks again

No...its very likely you have a blockage past the cart and before the outlet inside the valve body. The same outlet feeds the spout and shower. Blocking the spout just forces the water out the showerhead.

By chance..do you have an air compressor? You might be able to remove the shower head or spout...block the other outlet, remove the cart and blow out the obstruction by blowing air into the end of the shower arm or pipe under the spout.

Thanks,

I actually tried that!!...but will try again with a tighter seal.

Yeah, I've had it work but you need to take the spout off and go directly to the pipe. We used to use bottles of CO2 to blow out lines...higher pressure and volume. Can't say I'd recommend trying it with house piping..but as a last resort. I mean, you may have to have a plumber come in and see if they can do something before replacing the valve body.

It worked!!!!!! I put pvc cap on the shower head and another pvc cap with small hole for a tight seal on the tub stub and blew air from my compressor into it and a small piece of corroded rubber came out and that did it. It's hard to believe that a small 1/8" size piece can block and hold back all that pressure. Thanks for the advice and convincing me to try it again.

:p Next time I'll have to actually read the post?

Happens to everyone once in a while david.

cuokayo...glad you got it fixed!