When a single-handle shower drips day and night, the part behind the handle is almost always the answer
Location: Cascade View, Everett, WA
Service: Shower cartridge and tub spout replacement
Technicians: Connor & Logan
In January a homeowner in Cascade View, on the south side of Everett near the mall, called about a hall-bath shower that had been dripping constantly for weeks, and a damaged tub spout in the master bath. Connor and Logan took the call and had both bathrooms sorted in one visit.
What We Did
A single-handle Moen shower valve controls temperature and flow with one cartridge, a brass-and-plastic cylinder that slides into the valve body and turns with the handle. When its seals wear, water gets past it no matter where the handle sits, and the shower drips around the clock. The valve body in the wall is usually fine, which is what makes this a repair rather than a replacement.
Connor and Logan pulled the handle and the escutcheon in the hall bath, drew the old cartridge out of the valve body, and fitted a new Moen 1225 cartridge, the standard part for this generation of valve. Then they ran the shower hot and cold, shut it off, and watched the spout for the drip that did not come.
In the master bath the tub spout had been cut into at some point by someone trying to get it off, and a spout that has been scored will never seal again at the slip fit. They replaced it with a matching chrome diverter spout and checked that the diverter sent water up to the shower head without leaking back at the wall.
Why It Matters
- A constant drip is the cartridge, not the handle. Tightening the handle on a single-handle valve does nothing, because the seal is inside the cartridge. Replacing it is a short job when the right cartridge is on the truck.
- The Moen 1225 is everywhere. Houses built from the 1980s through the 2000s across Everett's south end use this valve, so a drip like this one is the most common shower repair we make.
- A scored spout will not reseal. A tub spout that has been cut or pried leaks behind the wall at the slip fit, and replacing it costs far less than the drywall it saves.
- Check the pressure while you are there. A cartridge that fails early is telling you something about the house, and a pressure reading answers it. Our water pressure and PRV page explains what the number means.
Why Cascade View
Cascade View and the neighborhoods around the Everett Mall were built out from the 1980s on, which puts their original single-handle valves at the age where the cartridges give up together. It is the kind of call a plumber who carries the common Moen cartridges finishes in one visit. Our shop in Mukilteo is a short run out the Speedway and across on 128th Street, and we are in south Everett most days.
A Shower That Drips With the Handle Off? Call and tell us the brand on the handle if you can see it. If it is a single-handle Moen, we can usually tell you which cartridge it takes before we arrive. Related: faucet and valve repair · plumbing in Everett · a faucet leak repair in Mukilteo · water pressure and PRVs