Hi Everyone, been awhile since I've been here, but this one's got me really puzzled and I'm hoping for some help... Its my bath faucet. It's a two-handled Price Pfister Treviso model. Hot water just stopped flowing one day. I did the usual and assured water pressure on hot side throughout (entirely through the faucet as I turned on the water with the cartridge removed just to be sure) - In fact pressure is quite high frankly - so problem is isolated in the faucet, no question. Replaced cartridge - didn't fix it. Still no flow. Hot water flows momentarily followed by a thud sound, rather like a solenoid. Called PF customer service. I offered a video showing the problem including sound. They had no way of receiving my video. Customer service rep insisted that it was the cartridge even though I had just replaced one.

Now here's where it gets interesting. Realizing these are cheap plastic cartridges, I wondered if my 'rather high' water pressure might be deep-sixing the cartridge the very first use. But then I noticed that if I turned on the cold water and had some flowing, the hot water would flow!

Now I wondered if there's some kind of anti-scald feature in the design? And it sure is acting like that. But it never did that before. We could indeed run JUST the hot water if we chose to. Now it seems almost miraculously that I have an anti-scald feature where there was none before! Anyone have an idea what's going on here? Is this normal? Is it due to the high pressure? Are faucets really smart? There is no obvious anti-scald feature anywhere. I plumbed this myself back in 2010. In fact I have the same Treviso faucets in two other sinks and I can run just the hot side on those.

I chill at the thought of attempting to explain this to PF customer service (friendly but not speaking the greatest English quite frankly)

Thank You for reading this long post.

You said "bath faucet". Do you mean a bathtub faucet or do you mean a lavatory faucet in your bathroom?
What kind of pipes do you have?

It would appear to be a sink faucet, but I'm unsure as well, Harold!!

Need more info. jforce...


Mark

If it is a wide-spread sink faucet, I suggest you get under the sink and check water supplies for kinks - especially the 1/4" ones that connect stems with spout. Usually, hot water side is more prone to kinks. Also, there is this "snap on" device that attaches these two supplies to the spout. Remove it, make sure it is clean of debris and reinstall it.

Milo

Sorry, it's a double handled lavatory sink faucet.

Lavatory faucet. I have polybutylene plastic pipes. More info - I gutted the room 4-5 years ago, tore out the old vanity, replaced everything, toilet, pedestal sink, sink plumbing right down to the stubouts. New floor, everything. First thing I checked was the hot side pressure. As I wrote in original post, I even removed the cartridge and made sure there was hot water coming out of the faucet. It wasn't a trickle either. When cartridge is inserted and I turn on the handle I hear a 'thunk'. Something is causing the flow to shut off.

Hello massplumber... you helped me with my basement plumbing project several years back. Great to see you are still here helping. It is indeed a sink faucet. I will check 1/4" lines as was suggested. Thought I was in the clear when I turned on the hot water with cartridge entirely removed and a tremendous amount of water shot out of the faucet, but I'll check it again. The crazy thing is this little thunk that I hear. And as I wrote, when I turn on the cold flow, and have a certain amount of flow, hot water does indeed flow out of the faucet - mixed with cold water of course. Its very obvious too. This behaves like an anti-scald feature.

Do you have flood safe supply lines?

thought Mark ask this question earlier but something seems to have happened to his post?

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I did Harold, but after thinking about it more, and especially after jforce posted back I removed the post. I'm thinking that he has a problem with the cartridge... I'm thinking he needs to try another cartridge.

Jforce, there is no two handle anti.-scald lavatory faucets (except commercially). I believe you have a bad cartridge. Could it be excess pressure issue... maybe, but I seriously doubt it? Could it be a kinked hose or a flood safe connector... maybe, but a kinked hose would not just fix itself when you removed the cartridge or turned on the cold water, right?

Replace the cartridge with an exact match.

Also - and just in case - make sure you have connected supply line to the supply inlet of the stem - not into the OUTLET that should go the spout.

Have seen that one before so I think it is necessary to mention it, too

Milo

Well, if there is no flood safe supply tubes involved here I would reverse the hot and cold supply tubes.

If symptoms remain on the hot side the problem is in the faucet.

If the symptoms move from hot to cold then the problem is in the hot stop valve.

I suspect debris in hot stop valve.

Note that jforce has replace the cartridge once.

Certainly worth trying, Harold! Good idea...

Thanks for the answers everybody... I will check to see if the supply lines are floodsafe(r) type. Check out this video I've attached. It shows the issue quite well I think...
https://youtu.be/XRNy9J1zYbY