u/DE-Jeeper

This is a pic from Google Maps of the Denver Water campus at Quebec and 11th. I had posted previously about their excessive water usage along 11th.

I noticed large water “canons” shooting water along Quebec towards the center of this area. It is behind a berm and I have always thought it was a retention pond or something.

Does anyone know what this brown area is?

Our shower handle had been wobbly for a while and finally broke off Friday morning. The valve was also leaking, so I had to turn the water off. We tried everything but could not get the cartridge out, so we called our plumber. In the meantime, I filled a 30 gallon bucket with water from our neighbor’s hose so we could flush the toilets.

The plumber showed up at 10:00 last night, looked at the shower valve and said we’d need a new valve installed; there’s no way we’d find a cartridge for a 20 year old Moen. He gave us a quote of $1,400 which included a whole new hole in the wall, valve and the other stuff. We said we’d let them know today since he couldn’t do anything until Monday.

I pondered the issue further. The cartridge could be turned inside the valve but I couldn’t get enough purchase on the exposed plastic to pull it out. I mimicked what the commercial tool that was (Ona) available only for less money. I went to Ace and bought a fender washer that was the same diameter as the cartridge, drilled four tiny holes in it, put a nut between the washer and the cartridge and screwed the washer into the cartridge. I then threaded a bolt into the nut, applied some leverage and out came the old cartridge. It was a standard Moen 1222 and cost $72 at Ace.

I cleaned up the muck inside the valve including removing a large piece of rubber that had separated from the cartridge and was partially blocking the hot water side. It took two minutes to remove that, grease the cartridge, insert it and put the retainer back in place. My wife turned the water on and there were no leaks. It is all back together now and I called the plumber to cancel Monday.

Had some DX4 wheels installed and then cut the platform down by 11”, 6” from one end and 5” from the other. Not the easiest install but it’s done.