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This was a special case of simultaneous hands-on/hand-off repair. My bath fixture was leaking. This sucked since I had a
new Moen fixture put in just a couple of years ago; kind of soon for it to be acting up.
I took off the front piece to reveal the inner workings. I consulted my home repair book and it told me to check the
cartridge unit. I pushed and pulled repeatedly but the unit would not
come apart.
I sat there for the longest time, mad, and stared at the plumbing guts. I alternated between
looking at the book and giving the fixture my best raw, uncensored Stink Eye. Before I had a chance to completely ruin
my shower, I decided to live with the slow drip and I closed it all back up.
And that's how I almost fixed it. The leak is nearly gone; just a few protracted drops per hour now. Some of you
engineering types will argue that I reseated something by doing all that yanking, but I know in my heart that my magic
Stink Eye scared the plumbing into compliance.
My magic Stink Eye plumbing services is available for $50/hour plus travel costs. You homeowners know that's a total
deal.
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Update: While the Stink Eye is incredibly powerful,
it is not always permanent. The drip eventually came back with greater
frequency. There are Moen models in which a cartridge pulling tool is supposed
to be used. While helpful, it's not required. The guy at my local plumbing store
told me to thread a screw into the end to get good purchase with a plier and
then pull firmly. The cartridge at first resisted coming out but then suddenly
let go. I put a very light coating of silicone grease on the new cartridge and
it easily slid into place. Now reassembled, the drip is gone. Or at least I hope
so.
Update 2: This morning I found that I couldn't turn the knob over to the
hot setting; I hadn't reassembled it correctly. I took it all apart again and
discovered that water was dripping from the shut-off valves. The guy at the
plumbing store had warned me not to use them because they were notorious for
leaking, but I had already used them before I received his sage advice. I went
back to the store today and asked him what to do and he told me to back them all
the way out. He also handed me two small o-rings to use if that failed (which
would require additional discombooblating). So far having them totally backed
out seems to be working. The upshot is, don't use those screws unless you live
in an apartment and have no other choice. Use your house's main water shut-off
instead. Having an obvious leak is annoying but manageable; having a silent,
secret leak behind the wall is trouble. |