Shower Valve Replacement
Your valve has an adjustable maximum that somebody was supposed to set, and most showers cannot correct a temperature change at all.
Free to homeowners — the contractor pays us for the introduction, you never do.
At a glance
Your shower valve has an adjustable stop that caps how hot it can go, and ASSE says the installer was supposed to set it. Separately, most American showers use a pressure-balancing valve, which holds the balance between hot and cold and cannot correct a temperature change.
Source: ASSE International, Adjustment of Automatic Compensating Valves to Prevent Potential Scald Hazards.
Go straight to the one that sounds like yours:
- The Limit Stop: the Adjustment Almost Nobody Knows Is ThereShower valves carry an adjustable, lockable stop that caps how hot they can go.
- Type P or Type T: Which Shower Valve You HaveASSE 1016 covers three kinds of compensating valve.
- Why the Shower Changes TemperatureSudden swings, slow drift and morning-versus-evening differences have different causes.
- Is It the Cartridge or the Whole ValveMost shower valve faults are the moving part inside rather than the body in the wall.
- What Is Actually Behind a Shower ValveWhy shower valve work is priced differently from any other fixture: the access, the tile, and the permit question.
- The Temperature We Will Not Pick for YouASSE says the maximum is mandated by local code.
- How ShowerValve Works
- Where We Route, and the Town Pages We Decided Not to BuildRouting runs on ZIP codes.
- You are never chargedContractors pay us when we route them a call. There is no cost to the homeowner, ever.
- Every figure names its sourceThe numbers on this site come from public data and the page says which, so you can check them.
- We say where we coverCalls are routed by ZIP code to independent contractors.See the coverage
- We say when not to callIf the fix is a few minutes of your own time, this site tells you that instead of selling you a visit.
Two facts explain almost everything people complain about in showers, and both are about the valve rather than the water heater.
What this site is
ShowerValve is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands, and valve work opening a wall is often a permitted alteration — ask to see the permit. We carry out no work, we sell no valves, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call. The maximum water temperature is set by your local code, not by this website.One: there is a maximum, and it is adjustable
ASSE defines a limit stop as an adjustable and lockable means of limiting how far a valve can move toward hot, and says it must be set by the installer. The maximum safe water temperature, usually 120 degrees Fahrenheit, is mandated by the local code.
It is a step that can be skipped without anything looking wrong. What it is, and why it is worth asking about by name.
Source: ASSE International, Adjustment of Automatic Compensating Valves to Prevent Potential Scald Hazards.
Two: most valves cannot see temperature at all
ASSE 1016 covers Type P (pressure-balancing), Type T (thermostatic) and Type T/P. Most American showers are Type P, which holds the balance between hot and cold when pressure changes — and has no idea how hot the hot water is.
So a shower that jumps when a toilet flushes and a shower that creeps hotter over five minutes are two different faults. Which kind you have, and which complaint is which.
Most faults are the part that moves
A shower valve is a brass body in the wall and a replaceable assembly inside it. Almost everything that goes wrong is the second one, which is work done from the front rather than through the tile.
Telling them apart is the question worth asking about any quote, because access is most of the price.
What we will not do
Pick a temperature for your household, publish instructions for adjusting a limit stop, or tell anybody to raise one. The binding maximum is your local code and your valve’s own instructions.
That refusal has its own page, along with the price and the repair-or-replace verdict we also decline to invent.
Where we come in
We connect homeowners with independent contractors who cover their area, and the contractors pay us when we route them a call. You are never charged.
The complete list
Where we route calls
Tap your state for the towns and ZIP codes we route in, and the figures behind them.
- Alabama
- Arizona
- Arkansas
- California
- Colorado
- Connecticut
- Delaware
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Georgia
- Hawaii
- Idaho
- Illinois
- Indiana
- Iowa
- Kansas
- Kentucky
- Louisiana
- Maine
- Maryland
- Massachusetts
- Michigan
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Missouri
- Montana
- Nevada
- New Hampshire
- New Jersey
- New Mexico
- New York
- North Carolina
- Ohio
- Oklahoma
- Oregon
- Pennsylvania
- Rhode Island
- South Carolina
- Tennessee
- Texas
- Utah
- Virginia
- Washington
- West Virginia
- Wisconsin
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this site is public and attributed. You can go and check any of them.
- HousingUS Census BureauAmerican Community Survey 5-year estimates — the housing figures on every town page, and the table each one comes from is named on the page.
What happens when you call
No form, no quote tool, no waiting for an email.
- You tell us what the water is doingOne short conversation. If it turns out to be something you can fix in five minutes, we will say so.
- We route the callWe match your ZIP code to an independent contractor who already covers your area — not a call center three states away.
- They quote, you decideWe do not set prices and we never charge you. The contractor pays us for the introduction.
What to do first
Four things worth doing first. They cost nothing and they can keep a small problem small.
- Shut off the water closest to the problemUnder a sink or behind a toilet there is usually a small valve on the supply line. Turning it clockwise stops that fixture without shutting off the rest of the house.
- If you cannot find it, use the mainUsually where the supply enters the building — a basement wall, a crawl space, or a covered box near the street. Then open the lowest tap in the house, which drains the standing water out of the pipes instead of out of the leak.
- Water and electricity: stay out of the roomIf water has reached an outlet, a panel or an appliance, switch that circuit off at the breaker before going near it. If you cannot do that safely, do not go in, and say so when you call.
- Photograph it before anything is movedInsurers ask for it, and a contractor can tell more from a photograph of the leak than from a description of it.
And one case where the answer is not to call us. If the water is surfacing on the street side of your meter, that is the utility's line and not yours. Report it to your water utility — they do not charge a homeowner to repair their own main.
Ask whether it is the cartridge or the body.One is work through the trim, the other opens a wall, and the answer changes everything about the job. We will route you to somebody who covers your area, worked out from your ZIP code, and you are never charged. And if trouble elsewhere in the house needs attention, bring it up when you call.
Call (888) 752-7111
