Bathroom Taps

Leaking or Gushing Bathroom Taps

A neighbour relates tips and context on a shower tap issue

The cartridge in a neighbour’s bathroom shower tap recently broke, resulting in a steady stream of water, which he could not turn off, from the spout (or faucet) into the tub. (In a bathroom with a shower stall but no tub, water would presumably be flowing out of the shower head.) A cartridge, by the way, is the device that controls the flow and temperature of the water when you turn the handle of the tap assembly.  Over time it gets worn, causing the tap to drip.  The drip can sometimes be stopped by repairing the cartridge’s O-ring, but sometimes it breaks entirely as it did in this case.  

The end result was a two-and-a-half week ordeal during which our neighbour had to control the water to his condo from the main supply valve while he waited for customer service at Grohe, the maker of the original Hudson Park taps, to identify the cartridge type (from a photo he sent them) and to send him a new one (for  $130.00 U.S.) (Under its warranty Grohe, it seems, will provide replacement parts at no cost to the original owner of its taps; however, our neighbour is not the original owner of his condo and did not pursue this himself.)

There are all kinds of on-line “how to” sites for repairing and replacing cartridges, but Grohe taps are, he was told, temperamental, and so he called a plumber.

(1)  If your tap starts to spew water, turn the water to your condo off at the main supply valve (photo below).  (Our friend was told that unfortunately there are no service stops for our bathroom showers.  Service stops would have allowed the plumber to cut off the water to the shower without having to keep the main supply line turned off as well, but without service stops that was impossible.)

(2)  In connection with (1) (above), you should open a tap somewhere in your condo fully before gradually turning the main water line back on (first a quarter turn, then another quarter, etc. over a minute or two until the main is fully open).  This prevents a pipe from bursting when the system fills up again with water.

(3)  When the cartridge was removed, however, there was unfortunately no part number on it, hence the necessity of sending a photo off to Grohe (as previously mentioned).  When their customer service staff got back to him, they indicated that the part number for the cartridges was 47157000.  Do keep this number handy for future reference if need be. Our neighbour provides a link to the webpage that describes the cartridge (https://www.grohe.us/en_us/pressure-balance-valve-cartridge-47157000.html) as well as the screenshot of it that illustrates this article (below).

(4)  The plumber had told our neighbour that Boone Plumbing (three outlets here in Ottawa) was the only dealer authorized by Grohe to sell their fixtures and parts, and so once he had the part number, he did in fact get in touch with Boone but found they did not have the cartridge in stock and that it would take “two to three weeks” to get it.  Accordingly, he decided to order directly from Grohe instead (as, again, mentioned above).  When the cartridge arrived at his door eight days later, he was obviously more than pleased that he did.  All that was needed now was a second visit by the plumber to restore normality!

Photo of original shower / bath taps

A photo of a typical main supply valve at Hudson Park, which is usually located close to the water heater and close to the ceiling.

A screen shot of the website page for the cartridge

Other important information about the mixer valve over the hot water heater which may require replacement if your taps make a high pitched sound.