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Call me a ditz, but I can't seem to turn the red handle enough to turn off the water. These are located under my master bathtub (garden type) as well as near my washing machine and I can't turn any of them enough to close them. Is there a trick to it? Perhaps that white part that looks like a screwdriver would fit in is the answer?




I have a leaking tub faucet and would like to be able to turn the water off to the tub until I can get it repaired.

Hi

If it won't turn one way try turning it the other way. It only requires a 1/4 turn.

Harry

Hi & welcome. If you have the white (PVC plastic style) a 1/4 turn should do it, I have seen problems with the grey plastic type. If nessary you may have to shut the water off at the main valve. Greg

The cold valve turns about 1/8 turn and doesn't shut off the water. The hot valve won't turn at all.

Hi, save yourself a future bigger problem and replace both valves. What you are describing tells me that they (the valves) are not seating themselves properly due to age, water minerals, corrosion, etc. Due as Greg described. Shut the main. Replace both valves. Also buy yourself 4 couplings of the same diameter as the pipe in case you do not have enuf play in the pipe to pull directly into the new valves. And a 1 foot piece of PVC (it really should be CPVC) that you are working with, but stay with what you have. Hacksaw, PVC primer and glue and you will be happy with your new work. You did it yourself for less than $20. Hope this helped.
-Bob

You may want to think about going to a Brass ball valve rather than plastic. It would take a couple of pipe adapters but it is a simple job. Greg

I turned off the main wather shutoff and removed the cartridge and ran to Lowe's. Of course the mobile home supply store in the area was closed for the holiday. They didn't have anything close, so I went down the street to Home Depot...bupkus. The handi-helper at Home Depot suggested I just change the O-rings for the time being, but....they only had one of the two I needed. Back to Lowe's to get the O-rings. I put the O-rings on and stopped the dripping when the water's off, but I still have water coming from behind the faucet when the water is turned on.

I'll have to live with this until I can get to the mobile home supply store (which of course is only open 8-5 M-F...tough for a single working woman).

If a new cartridge doesn't work I guess I'll have to replace the faucet, which opens a whole other can of worms because like someone else's post I read on here, I have a garden style tub, but the faucet's mounted to the surround wall (garden tub/shower combo). The access panel at the bottom of the tub is great to get to the pipes and drain, but the faucet is about 24 inches above the small opening in the actual wall. There's no way my arm can reach that far, and besides, the access panel opening is about 10 inches from the cabinet so there's no room to maneuver either.

To make matters worse, the faucet wall is the back wall to the home. Am I better off trying to go in from the outside, or create an access panel in the tub surround? What would be the best way to keep an access panel in the tub surround dry?

I know this is a long post, forgive me. I'm trying my best to leave a plumber out of the situation.