Cold Shower

correa98

Our boiler is not even 3 years old and has provided us with hot showers up until this winter. We have hot water everywhere else in the house. Initially the tub faucet would not get hot water but the shower would and now neither will provide hot water. I’m not sure where to start? Plumber? Boiler repair? Making a small adjustment myself?

Jamie Hall

If it's just the tub and the shower, and not elsewhere in the house, the place to start is the tub and shower. Is it that the hot water doesn't flow at all, but cold does? Is this a mixing valve type temperature control, or two separate valves?

correa98

Thanks for your response. It is a mixing type temperature control that was installed less than 3 years ago.

EBEBRATT-Ed

This would be a Plumber's job. I am assuming the tub and shower are one and the same, not a separate tub and a separate shower. Is this correct?

I would get a thermometer, doesn't have to be a fancy one. Check the temps at different fixtures in the house, kitchen sink, bathroom sink, tub/shower etc. and see what you get. 120 would be about right

Without knowing any more information it sounds like a bad tub/shower valve. They can usually be rebuilt if they are decent quality

Larry Weingarten

Hello, On other thing to check for is a cross connection. This is where water leaks between hot and cold lines and commonly gives a luke-warm shower. Try shutting off the cold domestic supply to the boiler and then open a hot tap. It should run only a few seconds and then stop. If it keeps running, either that valve you closed is no good, or there is cold water leaking into the hot side. Do let us know what you find!

Yours, Larry

GW

changing out the cartridge is often easy, but I had one once really put me through the ringer, and I've been doing plumbing since the 80s

Gordy

Sounds like the cartridge for the tub/shower. Doesn’t seem to me to be a cross connection if everything once worked fine.

delta T

Can you post a picture of the valve? or at least tell us what brand it is? If you have a thermostatic cartridge, they start to act funny as they fail. Depending on the brand of the shower valve, and most importantly your water quality, 3 years is not necessarily a short life span. Do you happen to know if your water is particularly hard? do you have a water softener?

lostinheating

SOMETIMES ITS AS SIMPLE as cleaning the cartridge or replacing. Sounds like that's the problem