[kutra]

Hi:

I have a Moen Monticello faucet in my bathroom. The right-hand side handle that delivers cold water works fine. When I turn the left-hand side handle slowly fom 0 to 45 degrees, hot water starts flowing as usual. But if I turn more than 45 degrees, I can hear a thud/click and the water flow stops. Then, immediately after, even when the handle is between 0 to 45 degrees, the water will not flow. But after a few hours, I can repeat this exercise: Turn 45 degrees-hot water-turn more-hear click-no water-turn handle to 0 degrees-turn 45 degrees-no water-wait few-hours-REPEAT. Note that I have two sinks next to each other in the same bathroom, and this problem is only with one sink.

We noticed this the first time after we came back from a 2-month vacation. We had shut down the main water supply while we were gone. It seemed to work fine for a 1-2 days after getting back, and then just before/during we had the Polar Vortex cold front, I started noticing this problem. At the same time, my Moen showerhead (same bathroom) seemed to have low pressure and wasn't giving out sufficiently hot water. I adjusted the water pressure and thought maybe the really really cold temperatures had something to do with it. But a few days after the outside temperature returned to normal, I did not see any problems with the Moen showerhead. Only the bathroom faucet is giving problems as described above.

Please advise. Thanks.

K

[hkstroud]

You have some debris that partially blocking the hot side valve. Tuning up the volume causes the debris to completely block the valve.

Turn off hot water at the valve under the sink. Remove the hot handle. Remove valve stem. Place a cup or cloth over the hot side, turn on the hot water briefly to flush out the debris. Reinstall the valve stem and handle,

[kutra]

Thanks. I will try this out.

[kutra]

Harold:

Tried the flushing/back flushing but this did not solve the problem. Do you think the problem is with the hardware itself?

That is, if it was a piece of crud blocking the passage, why would I consistently hear a thud/click when I turn the handle exactly at 45 degrees? Also, what explains that the hot water starts flowing again after a few hours but not right away after hearing the thud/click?

[hkstroud]

Pipes do not get blocked, only valves. If flushing the hot valve at the faucet did not clear the blockage, it must be at the stop valve under the sink.

Turn off the water. Since you are working with the hot side, you can turn off the water to the house or you can just close the cold water input to the water heater.

Under the sink, remove the hot water supply tubing from the stop valve. Remove the stop valve from the piping. That valve most likely is a compression fit and should be easily removed. Clean or replace. I would replace. Stop valves are not expensive.


From your description, what you are most likely to find blocking that valve is a piece of solder. Sometimes when soldering pipe, solder can sometimes run inside the pipe. When excess solder hits a cold pipe, it does not stick. It can lay there for years, then due to water flow move to the next valve. When you open the faucet completely the increased flow causes the solder (or what ever it is) to try to go through the valve, but of course it can't. When you close the faucet, the flow stops and it eventually fall back down and you have water again.

Let me know how you make out.

[kutra]

My apologies for returning to this very old thread. The problem (described in my OP) did not go away despite cleaning the stop valve. But a few days later, the left-hand side hot water faucet started working, and I forgot to update this thread.

Anyway, fast forward to 22 months and this problem started happening again yesterday. So I tried doing the flushing out solution but there was no hot water coming at all. Didn't want to replace the stop valve as cleaning it last time hadn't helped. So I put on my deerstalker and started sleuthing.

I decided to see if the water was making it past the stop valve and through the metal braided pipe. I turned on the stop valve and no water came out from the metal braided pipe. So I removed the metal braided pipe to see if it was clogged but it wasn't clogged! Then I tried to see if water was making it past the stop valve, and it was. And that's how I realized the problem had to do with the metal braided pipe!

And as I twisted and cursed at the metal braided pipe, I saw a sticker on it that said, "Watts FloodSafe Automatic Water Shutoff". So I googled that name and voilà, a bunch of problems with that specific pipe/feature showed up. So apparently, if the water enters the pipe at a higher pressure than expected, the pipe shuts off and won't let the water through. Which is what was happening!

I replaced that fancy good-for-nothing FloodSafe pipe with a regular plain-jane metal braided pipe and water started flowing as normal. Life is good again!

Posting this in case anyone has a problem that water isn't flowing through the faucet/pipe.. .

[hkstroud]

Kuta,

Thanks for posting. Yes that is a problem with the flood safe supply tubes. Certain conditions makes the supply tube think a pipe has burst and it shuts down. Not worth the trouble they cause, in my opinion. It is indeed rare that pipe burst beyond the supply tube.