Expert: Sharon McCarthy - 6/28/2009

Question
When I first get in the shower, I set the temperature to where I want it.  After about 5 minutes, it gets extremely hot, so I turn it to become colder.  But it doesn't become colder until it's practically in the off position.  What could be causing such drastics issues in with the temperature lag?

Answer
Dear Roxanne,

  You didn't mention which brand of shower fixture you have. With all of the temp control units there is a cartridge inside that allows in just so much hot or cold water according to how you set it.

  It sounds like the cartridge is either not working properly or there is some debris in there blocking the cold inlet side. You'll probably have to remove the cartridge and examine it, or possibly replace it. It is odd that this happens after 5 minutes running.

  All I can suggest is getting inside the fixture and see if something may be plugging up the one side. Little particles can get into a waterline, especially if some work has been done on a main line somewhere.

  Little crumbs of PVC pipe or tiny stones can get into a line if it's been opened for some reason. Once the particles are in the line they can float around until they get to small holes in fixtures and get stuck there. This is all I can figure. Hope this helped. sharon