What is shower cartridge

What about the hot water? Is the water trickling and not coming out? Or is it not mixing hot and cold together correctly? Maybe you are not getting any hot water or no water at all. It seems the water just suddenly stopped.

This means you have a bad shower valve. Cartridges are one of several common types of faucets and are particularly common in showers. This type of shower uses holes to regulate the flow of water from your faucet or shower head.

Indicated by leaking or seeping water. The rubber rings and parts around the shower valve may need to be replaced, as these shower components are susceptible to breaking, corrosion, or dry-rot.

Why do I need a shower faucet cartridge? Ask Question. Asked 8 years, 8 months ago. Active 4 years, 4 months ago. Viewed 14k times. What's it for? Will the shower work without one? Improve this question. Enigma Enigma 1 1 gold badge 5 5 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Improve this answer. A shower cartridge is like a kitchen faucet — HerrBag. Most people know the brand of car they drive and whether their computer is made by Dell or Apple, but few can tell you off the top of their heads the brand of their shower faucet.

It's critical to figure out the brand when you need to replace a cartridge because every brand now makes its own unique replacement parts. You can't use one company's parts for another brand's products.

A stamped brand is a sure-fire shower valve cartridge identifier. If your faucet is one of the big brands, it may well be stamped with a mark identifying it. Easiest of all is when it says the brand name right on the faucet face.

But you should also look at the bottom of the faucet, on the handles or on the round plate behind the handles. If you find a brand name, go to the manufacturer's website and call the contact number for assistance. If you see no brand name anywhere, you'll need to remove the shower cartridge.

Before you take it out, remember to turn off water to the shower. If you don't know how to shut off the water valves to the shower, just close the water valve to your entire house. This is often located behind the hot water heater, but you can also use a curb key and shut it down in front of the house.

To take the shower cartridge out, loosen the screws — often located on the side of the handle — with an Allen wrench. If you can't find any visible screws, remove the handle cover to find them.