Shower is single lever on/off and hot/cold. Turn on and all the way up is supposed to be hot. However, the water is never really hot enough (luke wrm). Its as if the lever is not set to have the hot water in flow full power, or the hot water in is not opened up enough. Please help! It is definately not a hot water problem...the bath sink next to shower is piping hot water all the time.

 

Many single-handle shower mixers have a hot limit, usually limiting the throw of the handle. If you can identify the mixer (Delta or Moen or whatever) you could go to the mfg's website & find instructions for adjusting it. Or, if you're handy, you could take off the handle & have a look; it shouldn't be too hard to see what's stopping the handle from turning more towards the hot side. Make changes in small increments & remember where you started.

 

Unfortunately, the small adjuster was already let out to max the hot water flow...so no more adjustments could be made to get more hot water. Is my only option now to replace the valve completely?

 

Is THIS an issue?: Water volume in the hot setting is not near as good as what it is in the cold setting?

If so.....what are your plumbing pipes made out of? Galvanized or pvc or plastic?

Did your problem suddenly happen? Or has it gradually got worse over time?

Have you turned off the main water valve for any reason lately? This can be awful on older galvanized water piped houses as this can then cause rust chunks to break off and clog up orifice holes in single handle shower mixer valve cartridges.

IF your hot water pipe is not clogged up, then the issue is most likely inside a replaceable cartridge in the mixer valve. You would not need to replace the entire mixer valve; just the cartridge. If it is a Moen, these are guaranteed for life. You take the old cartridge in to a retailer and they give you a new one on exchange, for free.

 

Do you know the make (and perhaps the model) of the mixer? If it's a pressure-balanced mixer, there may be debris in the balancing spool. Most mixers would be adjustable/repairable.