I have an old Moen Shower Mixer in a tight space. Unfortunately, instead of replacing the carthridge, I cut the hot & cold, & shower fittings to take the manifold or mixer out. When I went to Home Depot to get one, the new Moen mixer and other brands were about 3/4" wider than the old one measured from the opening of the cold to the hot side so there is not enough space for the copper cold and hot lines that come in laterally on each side of the mixer to assemble them before soldering due to the tight space. One solution is to get a mixer that is about the same width measured from the cold to hot opening from Moen but they may not make it anymore. Is there any place where they sell old shower mixers, whether Moen or not?

Call 1-800 BUYMOEN and can talk to them about this.

Otherwise you can presolder a couple STREET 90s into the new valve and offset back in UNDER the new valve where you can hook it up to pipes and sweat the final connections... see picture below.

Attached Images

 

Home Depot and other stores now carry Temperature and Pressure controlled valves. It is the Law. These valves are little bigger than the old ones.

I still see the old valves here and there. You could go to the No Name Store down the block. They may have it. Or when you see a plumber in your area, ask him. He will know where to get those.

Since Moen valve bodies don't wear out why not simply reinstall your old Moen valve body and buy a new cartridge for it? Be a lot easier then soldering up a offset to fit a new valve. If you want to dress it up a bit you could purchase a trim kit and install a new face plate and knob. Good luck in what ever you decide, Tom

Thank You for the suggestion and the diagram. I understand what you are saying. What is a STREET 90's? Is it a 90 degree elbow that can be screwed into the hot & cold inlets? Do you recommend soldering once its screwed in? Or is it a more a straight 90 degree bend with a screw in? Obviously, this is not my trade.

A street 90 has a socket fit on one end and a slip joint on the other side (see picture). If the new valve you choose has sweat connections you would install the street side of the fitting (the slip joint side) directly into the valve and then solder pipes/fittings together. You would do all the soldering out of the wall if you can except for the last couple of joints, of course!

If your valve has threads on the inside of the valve (female threads) then you will need to pre-solder some male adapters (screws into female) onto copper pipe, let them cool and then wrap some teflon tape around the adapters and screw them in place... rest remains same.

If your valve has threads on outside of valve (male threads) then you can pre-solder female adapters and let cool before installing them onto valve OR you may be able to solder street 90s into these as well. Here, some valves that come with male threads also allow the valve to have solder connections under the male threads... so dry fit a piece of copper in and see if it fits... if it does, then need to sand clean and then flux/solder the street 90s in place here and then pipe as normal.

Let me know if you have any more questions...

MARK

Attached Images

 

I'd go with Tom's suggestion except that you don't need to buy a new cartridge, they are guaranteed for life, free.

I agree with every one, the best way is as Tom and Bob say use the old valve body, call Moen customer service at 800-882-0116 for any technical questions and ask them to send you the cartridge for free, Moen parts are life time guaranteed, good luck.

John

Hello Mark:

I appreciate your explanations in a way that I can understand. What you have described was the way I was planning to connect the copper lines to the hot and cold, using the Street 90's slipping into a socket and a male thread on the other end which would then be threaded into the female valve. Since I have a small space, the whole set up was too wide.
I ended up finding a brass elbow with a male thread to go into the valve and a socket on the other end of the elbow into which the extended copper pipe would be fitted into. Guess what? The brass elbow took up less space then the above set up which I found in a small but packed hardware store. The only concern I had was I did put the teflon on the male thread which went into the female valve, but I wondered when I soldered, what would happen to the teflon wrap? Your way with doing the presolder would prevent any melting of the teflon. This is another one for "next time". So far, no leak.
Thank you for sharing your tips. It makes a lot of sense.

Glad you are up and running Handy07... ;)

Thanks for updating me...

MARK

Hi Mark,

Congratulation you saved another life, Thanks.

Regards,
John

Hey John...

Actually... I liked Tom's idea best myself... :) Cheapest/fastest and that is always the goal!

Just glad H07 is all set!

Have good night!