09-15-2018, 08:24 PM
Last Tuesday I started a one week kitchen remodel that evolved into a bath remodel as well. First day, first comment from customer; " I think I just cracked the tub up stairs". As soon as I dropped the ceiling I knew it had been leaking a long time. Jump forward to Friday night and I'm mostly finished with both projects (including a new ceiling on most of the first floor). Here's the problem; the new Kohler valve came with a pull-up tub diverter, and when it's filling the tub some water also trickles out of the shower head. Kohler customer support, although trying to be helpful, could not provide any answers; at least none that made any difference. I ran into this problem on a previous job with a Moen valve and the (expensive!) solution was to add a whole house pressure reducing valve. That wasn't an option here because "it always worked fine before". So with some advice from a Google forums search, I removed the PEX tube, adaptors and drop ear elbow, and re-piped with a 1/2" CU female adapter, 1/2" CU elbow, and 1/2' CU pipe. Problem solved! I guess that some manufactures include some sort of warning about this in the instructions now. I sometimes actually do read instructions. Like when pictures don't equal 1000 words, and usually when something doesn't work right, I'll read them just to verify that I didn't really need to read them. If Kohler had included this I could have save an hour or more on hold with their "Customer Support"!
In Summary, if the water pressure is high (or really just decent) the pipe and fittings to the tub spout should restrict the water flow as little as possible.
In Summary, if the water pressure is high (or really just decent) the pipe and fittings to the tub spout should restrict the water flow as little as possible.
Sign at N.E. Vocational School Cabinetmaking Shop 1976, "Free knowledge given daily... Bring your own container"