Gerber 3 faucet unit problem

[need advise]

We have a problem with the diverter- The shower gets little/ almost no pressure-Took the stem to a plumming supply They said the steam & washers were good and the seat was the problem Only when we tried to remove the old seat nothing-to the point we were wondering if a seat existed in the diverter unit. Any ideas?

[LazyPup]

There definitely is a seat in there.

One of the problems we often encounter when attempting to remove a seat is the tip of the seat wrench bottoms out on the back of the mixer body casting before the seat wrench taper is in far enough to grip the seat.

Fortunately seat wrenches are extremely cheap so my solution is to carry a second seat wrench that i have cut about 3/8" off the tip. If an ordinary seat wrench doesnt grip the seat sufficiently i used the shortened one which will get more of the taper into the seat before attempting to turn it.

You will also find that once you have the seat wrench inserted into the seat, you can tap the wrench lightly a couple times with your pliers or adjustable wrench to insure it is fully gripping the old seat, before you try turning it.

Most of the seat wrenches we find in the hardware stores are a short section of steel rod bent in a 90deg angle with a hex taper on one end and a square taper on the opposite end. Those will work ok, but often when you begin turning is the right angle portion will hit the faucett stems on either side and you must pull the seat wrench and reset it.

I prefer to have the straight designed seat wrenches that have a square shank with the hex taper on one end and the square taper on the opposite end. Once the seat wrench is inserted into the seat and taped lightly to lock it in place you turn the wrench be gripping the square shank with an adjustble wrench. This will give you a full range of rotation without the need to remove and reset the seat wrench.

Once you have the seat out, you will need to take it to your hardware to find and exact replacement. You will note that replacement seats are available in brass, monel metal and stainless steel. The brass seats cost about $1 each whereas the stainless steel may run $4 or $5. The difference is the under some hard water conditions the brass seats may form a groove at the bottom of the seat within a year or so, which means you will need to replace it again. The stainless steel seats are a lifetime product that you should never have to deal with again.

When installing your new seat you should put 3 full wraps of single density teflon tape on the threads before installing it. The Teflon will seal the threads and also provide a thread lubricant that will help to remove the seat in future if the need should arise.

NOTE: Those little blue & white rolls of white teflon tape commonly found in hardware stores is single density PTFE(teflon) tape. This is the correct tape to use on all threads up to 3/8" in diameter, therefore it is the correct tape for use on the seats. (That tape is not suitable for 1/2" or greater pipe threads.)

[SSN596]

Please clear up a point: You say the shower is very low pressure. Is this because all the water is still running out the spout? If this is the case, the metal seat may not be the problem. The back-seat on the stem is what keeps water from going to the spout in "shower mode".

If this is not the case, it may be the shower head itself. Remove the shower head and verify whether lots of water then comes out the pipe.

[Phelps]

Yes...to what everyone said.

I might add that if one is afraid of removing a seat they are uncertain can come out and has no previous cut marks in it for the tool to grab, or is not hex shape ( a REAL tip off the seat comes out), you can buy a Dremel tool-type round grinding stone that you can put in a drill and use that to grind the seat.

Extacting a stubborn seat (most are), especially the ones that have the square cut marks in them, or have no cut marks in them, can be the boogers, and you really need to carefully wrap on the tool end with a hammer once you 'feel' you are in the slots, elst you start stripping the darn thing... are not for the faint of heart who are accident-prone with plumbing (many are). Therefore, my suggestion will spare you the grief of tearing up brass inside the mixer in the wall. But if you do rush off to the hardware store or home center to buy the emory grinding stone, you have to measure the depth to the seat inside with a pen, or something, to make sure the one you get has a long enough shaft, plus allowance for some of the shaft to go in a drill. Also, those round grinding stones come in different diameters and it is easy to swear that the one you have will fit the hole, and then doesn't (been there...that's why I have 2 separate sized ones)

I've done this successfully quite a bit on really old bathtub/showers or on those faucets from the 1890's that have the cold on the right, and the hot on the left.

But first make sure that what SSN596 says, is not the case.