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I moved into a condo two days ago, and found that while the rest of the plumbing in the house has hot water, the shower when turned to hot just has a cool trickle emanating from the tap. The cold water there works just fine (in fact very well, it's downright freezing). As I'm told that it's a condo unit issue (and hence the building won't fix it) and my landlord hasn't answered his phone in the last two days, is there anything that I can attempt to rectify this issue and not freeze myself every morning having a shower?

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Do you rent, or do you own this condo unit? –  BMitch Apr 17 '13 at 21:00
I rent the unit –  canadiancreed Apr 17 '13 at 21:12
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2 Answers

up vote 5 down vote accepted

Sounds like there is something wrong with the plumbing in the shower wall or more than likely the shower valve or stem system. If you are renting this isn't your responsibility. Not sure of your state's laws but if there is an issue like this in most states you can give the owner 2 notices and a reasonable amount of time and they have to pay for your plumber.

Again if you are renting I would not fix this yourself no matter your confidence level. Because mitigating damages will be on you.

Put something in writing to the owner. Tell them it is the second form of contact. Give them a date a few days out and say if it isn't fixed by that date you will hire a plumber to fix it.

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Turned out it was something to do with the tap system, where the centre part of it wasnt' calibrated to ever deliver hot water. –  canadiancreed Apr 21 '13 at 17:18
Just so others know - it sounds like canadiancreed is describing a shower valve that wasn't calibrated/installed right. –  DMoore Apr 21 '13 at 17:47
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check shower head by removing it with a wrench first. turn on water and check for flow. if still no luck, turn off water for home and check shower valve by removing either the stem or maybe a cartridge if it's a single handle shower valve :)

remember if you have hot water issue through the whole condo, then you need to check on the hot water heater and see if it's in good shape or not!

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-1 since the shower head should be ruled out by the cold water flow, the hot water heater is ruled out by the hot water in the rest of the condo, and the shower valve is a duplicate of DMoore's answer below. –  BMitch Apr 21 '13 at 2:03
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