Strange leak problem in shower...

[Bookworm]

I have a single lever tub/shower valve in my bathtub. When it is turned on, water will come out of the tub spigot, but after a few seconds, will also begin slowly coming out of the showerhead also. When the gate diverter in the spigot is closed, the shower works correctly and very little water comes out of the spigot which, from what I can gather, is okay. So I replaced the cartridge, springs and seats in the valve last night, but it still does the same thing only now, when the water is turned off, it still drips out of the spigot, which it didn't do before. Can someone help me with this?

[LazyPup]

There is no problem here. That is the normal function of a tub that has the diverter on the spout.

When you turn the shower mixer on the water begings flowing through the mixing valve. On the output side of the valve there are two lines, one up to the shower head and the second line down to the spout. When the diverter in the spout is open the water takes the path of least resistance and discharges out of the spout but when the diverter is closed the water pressure holds it closed and the water is then forced to go up the riser to the showerhead.

When the mixing valve is turned off the flow through the valve stops so there is no pressure against the diverter and it drops to the open position. At that time any residual water standing in the riser up to the shower head will then drain down and out through the spout by gravity flow. This accounts for why it appears that the water is still running a few moments after the valve is turned off.

[skeezix]

I'm not sure if I misread your post or not... I read it three times... but it sounds like the shower mixer may have been installed upside down. Water should 'prefer' to go one direction... down to the tub spout. Then when the spout is closed, it will go the other direction. If water is coming out the showerhead and spout when the water is first turned on, it sounds like it could be upside down. Just a thought.

[Bookworm]

Upon further review, my original post isn't terribly clear. Allow me to clarify a bit. When the faucet is on, water comes out both the tub spigot and the shower head at the same time. When the shower is supposed to be on by itself, everything works correctly. When nothing is on, and hasn't been on for a while, the spigot still drips. Hopefully, that will clarify my problem some. Thanks for the replies I've already gotten!

[ABP]

May be right, I ran into a similar problem, if you have an acsess panel for the diverter simply look at the bracket, most will have an arrow stamped into the metal, this should point up. could be it's in upside down, like I said, I had a problem like that once, I (Stupidly) installed one upside down and had the same problem, turned it over, worked fine.

[Bookworm]

Originally Posted by ABP

May be right, I ran into a similar problem, if you have an acsess panel for the diverter simply look at the bracket, most will have an arrow stamped into the metal, this should point up. could be it's in upside down, like I said, I had a problem like that once, I (Stupidly) installed one upside down and had the same problem, turned it over, worked fine.

Okay, I'll give it a look and see if that's the case when I get home. Thanks.

[Phelps]

If you have exceedingly high water pressure in the house, the water can come out the tub spout, as well as weep out of the shower head (when you don't want it to), at the same time. I had this not all that long ago in a rental. I put a pressure gauge on the house water spigot or faucet (I have adapters) and found it to be 105 psi!!!

If your tub spout pipe is 1/2 inch, as opposed to 3/4 inch, this scenario is more likely to happen under such circumstances, I do believe. Especially if this problem never *used to* happen, but now does. *Is* this a new problem...or has this always hapened?

I don't think I have ever run into this problem, but...in case your water pressure in the house is *not* the problem, I suppose that if something internal in the diverter mechanizm slipped out of position, that when you have it set to tub spout, that somehow the gate inside the spout is not fully open and is trying to divert water, without you realizing it. If your house water pressure is *not* significantly high, then I'd say you need another divertor spout. But before taking it out of the plastic wrapper..when you have the old one off, make sure that the pipe nipple for the tub spout is not corroded or clogged inside so bad that the inside is only half or so the size opening that it should be. If the inside size of that nipple were reduced, that too could cause back pressure and let water go up the shower riser pipe.

[ABP]

Good point Phelps, theoreticly if the water pressure is too high and the spuut too small it would be like trying to divert the water on its own because all the pressure can not escape the spout! (I'll keep that one in the back of my mind)

[Phelps]

ABP,

I called up the city water department to complain and they told me that they are allowed to run 100 psi in that area so that they have enough water pressure up on the hill, in case of fire.

So what I did for an el quicko fix was I bought one of those shut off valves you can screw on your shower arm and put it befiore the shower head. That way when the lady tenant bathes, she can leave that valve off to keep water from splattering her on her head.