Any plumbers in the house?
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I was walking through my buddies new house last weekend, and saw this in the master shower. Why would this loop be used?
Makes no sense.
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My guess, they bought the wrong valve and did not have a cap for it so they looped it to go to the shower head, I'm also guessing that valve is for a tub as it has two outlets, one for faucet and other for shower head.
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@solo said:
My guess, they bought the wrong valve and did not have a cap for it so they looped it to go to the shower head, I'm also guessing that valve is for a tub as it has two outlets, one for faucet and other for shower head.
It's a shower, but two heads. One in the wall and the other from the ceiling. Makes sense about accommodating the wrong valve, or, perhaps even varying the installation options. Maybe that's a 3-head valve?
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Actually, that's 1 cold in, 1 hot in, and 1 (via a loop) out. The wrong valve makes make more sense.
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It's HW in, CW in, HCW out via two 'head' outlets - one to a wall-head, the other to a ceiling-head.
If you loop them together you get the same output from BOTH heads whatever valve setting you choose ?! {assuming that somewhere above the picture they split to the two heads?}
Shouldn't the 2 HCW outlets be directed to the 2 heads quite separately [wall and ceiling]?
Then as you adjust the valve more or less HCW gets directed to either the wall or the ceiling outlet from 0% to 100% ?? -
@TIG - yes, I would expect the two outputs to be directed to two different heads. Perhaps they just plumbed it wrong. If they do split at another valve later up the line, then it seems like they used the wrong valve altogether at this looped valve.
I'll be back up there this Friday, and I'll look again closer to see where the HCW output line goes, and also follow the ceiling and wall head lines backwards.
As fancy as they get with blue for cold lines and red for hot lines, I'm surprised they don't have a color for mixed hot and cold.
What is this type of system called? Are these PEX lines? It's some type of whole-house distribution system. Is this the norm these days, or just high-end?
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In the UK we have gray/white [or rarely-brown] plastic pipes for all 'internal-water' and 'water-heating' [blue-epdf for 'mains' water [or yellow for gas] when underground] - but copper pipes are also used [and have the same 'banding']. Pipes are tagged with colored bands of tape - blue=cold, red=hot, nothing/red+blue for mixed... for gas it's a yellow band - but then it's always a metal pipe - copper or steel... These 'bandings' aren't mandatory in housing - just very sensible - but it is in 'commercial/public premises'... - for example a compressed-air pipe in a hospital has to have a 'salmon-pink' band - pipe tags can also show flow direction -> and written warnings like 'gas'... [ http://www.bes.co.uk/products/217.asp ]
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@unknownuser said:
@TIG - yes, I would expect the two outputs to be directed to two different heads. Perhaps they just plumbed it wrong. If they do split at another valve later up the line, then it seems like they used the wrong valve altogether at this looped valve.
Looks like a diverter valve above the mixing valve....so yes it likely is plumbed wrong.
A diverter valve.......performs as it suggests
9:00 output left should go to wall shwr head
3:00 output right should go to ceil shwr head/or hand held...or vice/verse (3:00/9:00)
IOW.....should not loop/double back to same shwr head.@unknownuser said:
I'll be back up there this Friday, and I'll look again closer to see where the HCW output line goes, and also follow the ceiling and wall head lines backwards.
As fancy as they get with blue for cold lines and red for hot lines, I'm surprised they don't have a color for mixed hot and cold.
Pix of the entire circuit would help......and........sorry....but it appears 2 colors may be one too many already....:~)
@unknownuser said:
What is this type of system called? Are these PEX lines? It's some type of whole-house distribution system. Is this the norm these days, or just high-end?
Yes it is PEX and the norm......nothing sexy about it!
Best,
Charlie -
This is probably way off the mark, but the first thing that came to mind was a shock absorber. Sometimes opening and shutting valves can create a kickback. In copper piping systems, the plumber traditionally installs a vertical dead end leg to accumulate air as a compressible medium to stop "water hammer". Just as likely, the air can be siphoned off or reabsorbed in the water flow. Ideally, this leg would be accessible and have a removable cap to "recharge" the chamber, but few are.
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