Shower Head Leaks

[gaugust]

I have a shower stall and the water keeps dripping from the shower head. It is a 2 handle Gerber shower. I replaced the seat and stem in both the hot and cold handles and thought that would have stopped the drip, but the shower is still dripping. Any thoughts on why the shower is still dripping and how to fix it would be appreciated.

[LazyPup]

It is quite possible that you made a very common mistake when installing the new stems, one which i have made many times myself.

We must remember that a stem is a screw device which screws outward to open the valve then screws inward to press the washer against the seat to close the valve. As the washer wears the stem just presses in a bit further to close the valve. Quite often when replacing a defective washer we simply pull the stem, replace the washer then replace the stem. This results in the new washer being pressed into the same position as the defective washer and it instantly distorts the new washer.

To prevent this from happening we must be careful to turn the stem to the full open position before screwing it into the mixer body. This keeps the washer well away from the seat until we restore the water pressure, then turn the handle just far enough to close the valve.

You may also be getting some seapage through the threads of the seat inside the valve body. To prevent that we should apply a couple wraps of teflon tape to the threads on the seat before installing it.