Why Does My Shower Scorch Me?

Do you ever fly out your shower because it turned your skin as red hot as a chewy red hot?  If this happens to you more than you would like to admit, jump on into this week’s blog post because we are about to change your life.  Well, our first tip might not help most of you, but you should get a chuckle out of it.  And, sometimes, all we need is a good heart chuckle.  So step right up because it’s laughin’ and learnin’ time here at Go Green Plumbing.

1. You Can’t Always Blame The Shower

You step into your shower, all ready for a soothing moment of blissful relaxation, then this happens:

Warning: some fireworks may be hot.

As the title suggests, you can’t always blame the shower.  You can, however, usually blame your roommates.  So make sure that you’re not just getting pranked every time your shower burns you.  That’s step one–continue on to find out other common causes of a scalding shower.

2. Did You Lose Your Cool?

Do a check around the house for cold water.  If every other faucet is shooting out hot, fiery water, then begins the hunt.  Unless you know where you shutoff valves are and thus ruined this fun little scavenger hunt I was about to send you on.  Either way, check to make sure a valve hasn’t been shut off accidentally (or perhaps prank-cidentally).  If that’s the case, then BAM! problem solved.  If not, it’s time to get friendly with your pressure balancing valves.

Rhum-boom-boom-boom
Ole-Ole-Ole-Ole
Ole-Ole-Ole-Ole
Feelin’ Hot Hot Hot!

3. Keep Your Balance

A cartridge in a pressure balancing valve is just like Superman, except its Kryptonite is corrosion and mineral buildup.  Also, it can’t fly, it can’t shoot lasers out of its eyes, nor does it have eyes, or a mouth, or a butt.  It does, however, have a diaphragm.  And Superman has a diaphragm, so there you go: the same.  Anyways, when a cartridge needs to be replaced, how do you know which one to buy?  Check out step 4 to find out!

Check out that sexy diaphragm.

4. You Can’t Just Blow Into It Like An NES/SNES Video Game Cartridge

I’ve tried.  Just blowing into shower cartridge won’t work magic like it did in the days of Super Mario Bros. 3.  You can dream though, and I will support your dreams with encouraging words and no money.  Remove the old cartridge and bring it along with you to purchase the exact replacement–then you won’t have to make 43 trips back and forth because you bought the wrong one 42 times.  Once you have the cartridge, check out this video for majestic instructional know-how on how to replace it yourself!

This makes me uncomfortable.

If you need a plumber, have any questions or just want to let us know about more similarities that Superman and a shower cartridge share, be sure to call or text us at 289-244-9843, because at Go Green Plumbing, we are always happy to help.