If you do get to be able to use the shutoff valves, why not replace the fitting with one that has flow and temperature control rather than using the valves for the flow control?
Be careful not to force anything using brute force. Most likely there is rust and/or mineral deposit built up on the valve stem and threads causing the knob to freeze in place. Make sure to completely turn off the water supply first then slightly loosen the packing nut (the one closest to the knob) and firmly jiggle the knob to loosen it. You might need to use some penetrating oil if it’s really stuck in place. Clean and oil the valve and threads and don’t forget to re-tighten the nut when done.
(Emphasis mine)
Many people appreciate aesthetic form on mundane items even if it mildly complicates use. The problems arise when hotel designers spec them out for general use. The trendy design isn’t itself “bad”.
(Former plumbing salesperson)
Because I’m not really au fait with home plumbing repair. Simply turning a couple knobs I can (usually) do. But if I were to replace the whole fitting, well, I have no idea what sort of new fitting to buy (i.e., which ones will fit), what sort of tools and materials are required to disassemble the old one and install the new one, what sort of precautions are necessary, etc. I could pay a plumber to do the work for me, but that involves additional expenses and the possibility that they do shoddy or overcharged work that I won’t be able to detect. I might actually go for that route, despite the disadvantages, if we decide that the existing faucet annoys us enough.
Kind of correct, but not really.
All hot water tanks I’ve ever seen (in NA, Europe and Asia for the past 30 years) control the temp by a simple thermostat dial on the unit itself. That’s usually set at about 50C (or 120F). I’ve lived at a place that had “hot water on-demand” system and that had a digital touch pad. There is no mixing done after the tank except at each faucet or machine. I’ve never heard of the screw you mention. Normally the water that comes out of the tank is at 100% of the temperature you set and flows through it’s own pipe to the end use at that temp.
There is an outflow valve at the hot water tank or on-demand unit, but they are set to max flow and only control the flow out, nothing to do with the temp. I can’t imagine a scenario that you’d want to reduce the hot water flow directly at your tank as that affects everything that uses hot water in the house. You could very easily end up needing an hour to fill your clothes washer with hot water.
Usually in most NA home installations, there are hot & cold pipe valves right before the faucet. They allow you to shut the water off when changing the faucet, but reducing the cold water flow there might be an option for the OP.
**@ psychonaut
**
Just thought of something else for you to try: see if you can figure out the brand and model of the faucet and check if it has a mixing valve built in.
I was thinking about a Grohe shower unit we installed in one of our homes and I could easily see someone becoming similarly frustrated by it. It had a hot and cold mixing valve built into the unit (hidden behind a wall plate). The idea was you’d “pre-set” the water mix (of hot and cold) to the exact temp you wanted and you’d get that temp as soon as you pulled the handle. However, it only had a limited temperature range outside of that. To change it you needed to pop the wallplate off and adjust a master screw.
If yours has a similar valve and it’s set too cold it might be the problem. A long shot, but maybe…
Huh. When I’ve encountered the ball, it’s always been a two axis situation: you turn it to adjust the temperature, and you move it up and down to adjust the flow.
That said, if you replace the ball with a handle, then it’s what I’ve encountered in many showers. And, until this thread, I was going to say that this made sense, as there’s little need to adjust the water flow in a shower. But I guess some people actually have shower heads with too much pressure? Huh.
Still, I think I’d be more inclined to get something to adjust the pressure than want to have to fiddle with it in the shower, adding another thing to get adjusted just right. Even if I had a choice, I’d have the water on full blast in the shower, and set the pressure somewhere else.
As for wasting water–that’s one reason I have one of those showerheads with a hose. Not only can you take it down, but many allow you to adjust the water and turn it off. And I find the most wasted water in the shower is during the times when I’m scrubbing up and thus not using the water (except in the winter, when I use the hot water to keep me warm.)
As I mentioned in my OP, this wouldn’t be a solution for us. We do need to get cold water from the tap as we fill up the ferret water dish in the bathroom. We leave the water dish for them on the tiled bathroom floor, where it’s not so catastrophic if they spill or dig in it. We could fill up the dish in the kitchen instead, but that increases the chances of them getting into the kitchen while we are bringing the dish out. (They like to follow us around, but they’re not allowed in the kitchen, and it’s impossible to get them out once they’re in as they immediately dive under the dishwasher.)
If we permanently changed the bathroom mixer so that there was always some hot water in the mix, that would mean the ferrets would be drinking water from the boiler, which I’ve always been told is a no-no. (Though maybe conventional wisdom has since changed and this is now considered safe?) At any rate, they probably prefer nice cold water, at least in the summer.
I had a close look at the hot water tank in the basement just to satisfy my curiosity. There is certainly a thermostat at the bottom of the tank (which I turned up a little higher while I was down there). But there is also one of these at the top of the tank. I was mistaken in referring to the control as a screw, it’s actually a big blue knob. And it does claim to be a “mixing valve”. One of its three connections comes directly out of the top of the tank, while the other two go off to some distant parts of the house. I presume one of them must be the cold water input, and the third is the hot water delivered to the house.
FWIW, the house is in a major subdivision that is about ten years old, so this is all presumably standard building code here in Ontario.
On the subject of Pathological Taps, here is an example from my sister’s house. There are two levers that swivel sideways for hot & cold, but the red & blue dots that tell you which is which are on the *underside *of the levers, so you have to bend double to see them. Having established that, you find that the two levers move in opposite directions to turn on the water.
I think I’m familiar with the faucet design in the OP. If it’s what i’m thinking of, the water flow can be regulated by moving the golf ball up and down (or forward and back depending on the angle.) When the water starts coming out, try wiggling the knob to see if the gush becomes more manageable.
Your post references the OP but given your suggestion it’s not clear to me that you’ve actually read it all the way through…
It wasn’t clear to me from the OP what sequence of push-pull-tilt-rotate had been tried. It’s important to get the water running first, then try the tilt to adjust pressure.
Ah, I see—well, apologies if I wasn’t clear. Yes, we’ve tried manipulating the faucet in various directions and on various axes once the water is already running.
Interesting - I installed a new tank in city of Toronto about 4 years ago and in Niagara 2 years ago. Neither has one of these.
I googled, and from what I could tell, they are not mandatory in Ontario, but that’s not to say they aren’t in some municipalities.
There does seem to be some complaining about them in that installers charge a couple hundred dollars to install them and put pressure on customers when they’re not legally required. The comment seems to be “If I’m worried about scalding, I’ll just turn the tank temperature down”.
If you had an old-fashioned on-demand instant gas hot water service, you couldn’t get a small amount of hot water out of it anyway. The flame only came on when there was sufficient flow to stop it burning itself out.
I know the kind. They’re terrible. Very common in hotel showers. And auto-faucets and paper towel dispensers are the bane of my existence. Such a waste of engineering and design talent, for what? To save a nickel on cold water and paper? Or to blow smoke up some CEO’s ass so he thinks he has “state of the art facilities”?
Actually the worst faucet design is the kind where the faucet handle is like a big button you have to push down, and you can only wash one hand at a time, and whichever one you wash first is going to get all germy again while you wash the second. I’d rather have one of those big rollers with a moist, used cloth towel on it than a useless faucet like that.
You know what was great? Those big, circular sinks with a bar you operated with your feet to turn on the water. And urinals that went all the way to the floor. Those were the days.