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Blowing Air Through a Shower Valve
9K views
Feb 27, 2025
http://go.askthebuilder.com/NewsletterSignup founder Tim Carter shows a cool apparatus to blow air through tub and shower valves when winterizing a home. Discover how to winterize your home water pipes and water features: http://www.askthebuilder.com/winterizing-partial-and-full-house-closure/ http://www.askthebuilder.com/outdoor-fountains/
View Video Transcript
0:04
hi I'm Tim Carter from asthe builder.com
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and I want to show you how to get water
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small water droplets out of a tub or
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shower faucet that has a modern
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cartridge so that when you winterize a
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home you don't come back in the
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springtime and find out that the faucet
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cartridge has been blown up by water
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that expanded inside that valve let's
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take a look at this here's a neat little
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Gizmo that I made out of some clear
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plastic tubing and some parts from a
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hardware store the business end is just
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right here this is a simple shraer valve
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you know you'll see this on your car
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tires or a bicycle tire and this allows
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you to get air you know into your tires
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well in this case it just allows you to
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get air inside this plastic
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tubing and the other end of the plastic
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tubing is just a half inch female
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coupling and this attaches to the little
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goose neck
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that comes out of the wall where your
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shower head is I'll explain how this all
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works right
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now the first thing you have to do is go
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turn off the water in your house and
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hopefully down by the water shut off
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valve the plumber installed a boiler
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drain on the house side of the valve if
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not you have to find the lowest fixture
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in the house once the water's off open
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up the valves both hot and cold water on
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that fixture or open up the bo boiler
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drain now you have to go around the
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entire house and open up every single
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valve both hot and cold water you have
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to flush every toilet you have to go
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outside and open up every single hose
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bib you basically have to open up all of
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the the fixtures and what happens is
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Water by gravity should start flowing
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down those pipes and exiting that lowest
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fixture or through the boiler drain if
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you do have a boiler drain make sure you
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attach a garden hose to it and and it
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direct that water to a floor
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drain once the water's out of the system
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there's still going to be some small
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amounts of water possibly in the faucet
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cartridges in your tubs and showers go
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upstairs or go to those rooms take off
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the shower head and make sure that if
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it's a tub shower combo you have the
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diverter in the up position so that you
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know so that the uh air you know is is
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so that you can blow out the water
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through the valve that's very very
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important if you just have a shower only
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it's going to be very simple but
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understand that
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there's a little diverter that that
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causes the water to either go out of the
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tub spigot or out of the shower head so
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you have to make sure that you're
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blocking the tub spigot so that the um
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you know so that we can get air down
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through the uh shower head arm you know
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that shower arm that comes out of the
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wall and through and into the piping
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system really important that should make
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perfect
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sense you go ahead and you take off the
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shower head attach the halfin female
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coupling you know to the that shower arm
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that's sticking out of the wall you
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don't have to use any pipe sealant you
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don't have to use any Teflon tape just
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hand tighten it attach the other end the
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shraer valve to your bicycle pump turn
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the shower valve to the hot position and
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pump the pump a couple of times turn the
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shower valve to the cold position you
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know pump the bicycle pump a couple of
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times maybe three or four and then
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adjust the valve to the center uh you
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know to uh like the warm position and
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pump the pump three or four times again
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after doing all that you should have
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blown you know air and you should have
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have gotten any of those water droplets
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out of that faucet cartridge and it's
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really that simple you know just uh you
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know just make sure that you've got air
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you know if you if you meet resistance
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if you have a tub shower combo and
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you're pumping and and you just and the
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pumps really really hard uh that tells
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you that you haven't got the divert
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you've got the diverter in the wrong
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position and you're not getting any air
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going through the faucet uh you you'll
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be able to tell believe me it's really
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really simple this should prevents you
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from having any Frozen cartridges so
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that in the springtime when you come
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back you're going to be able to take a
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shower and not have to replace your
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faucet cartridge I'm Tim Carter for sthe
4:10
builder.com I hope you enjoyed that
4:13
video and found something helpful and
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4:16
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4:19
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4:21
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4:34
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4:38
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4:40
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[Music]
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