Moen 1222 Positemp valve issues - no cold water
Plumbing Help - Moen 1222 cartridge, no "cold" water from shower
Moen 1222 Cartridge Design Changed in 2022: No More Pure Cold Water
Is this a Moen 1222 shower cartridge?
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I’ve been fighting this for about a week and thought I would see what the experts think, I have a shower with a 1222 cartridge in it that will NOT give only cold water. From the moment it is turned just an 1/8 of a turn (just enough to get water flowing) - it’s coming out warm, I suspect at least a 50/50 ratio of hot to cold and then only gets hotter from there. Is this normal for a Moen 1222 to be so hot water preferential ? I’ve tried 3 official cartridges and 1 danco for grins. They all have the same behavior, if I flip the cartridge over then I can get cold but all the controls are backwards.
This seems like a bad design on Moen’s part to me, but I wanted to confirm if this is the standard behavior.
TL;DR: Moen confirmed they changed their 1222 cartridge in 2022 for “enhanced shower shock protection” which resulted in never having purely cold water go through it. It will always have a mix of hot water so you can never get a fully cold output in the cold position.
I have been struggling with my Moen faucet for months and months on end with 4 different replacement cartridges from Moen customer support and nobody was able to help me. My issue was that turning on from the 6 o clock to 5 o clock position I was getting lukewarm water, then in the 4 o clock position it was slightly cold, then in the 3:30 position it got hot. Tried turning cartridge upside down and everything and it didn’t work. Moen kept thinking it was the cartridge issue and sent 3 replacements and they all had the same issue so they sent a valve. I had to get a contractor to break our new tile to replace the valve and it still didn’t work. Then replaced with a brand new system and new valve and cartridge and still didn’t work. Wasted so much time and money. Moen claimed it was the installer’s fault, not the valve or cartridge that’s causing the issue.
Then I randomly pulled the cartridge from a super old version of the Moen faucet to test and that one worked completely fine. I emailed back Moen to tell them that it’s the cartridge causing the issue and only the newer ones, THEN they finally told me “yeah, we made changes to it in 2022”. See the attached email.
On one hand, finally feels good to know the reason. On the other hand, it sucks that they think this is an “enhancement” and think my lack of cold water is “perceived”. Mind you, the ground water temp here is really cold, not like I’m living in Texas or anything, so that’s BS. Basically Moen is saying “it’s not a bug, it’s a feature”.
If you want cold showers, don’t get a Moen product using the 1222 cartridge post-2022.
I tried changing my cartridge and saw this little white piece in the pipe still. Few questions.
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Is the white plastic supposed to be in there?
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If not how can I get it out? Or do I have to replace the entire manifold?
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Can anyone ID the cartridge I pulled out?
Extra info:
House was built in 1984.
Shower handle plate says Moen.
The cartridge I pulled out had a plastic piece on the front I destroyed when pulling it out. Has “H/C” written at the top of it. Handle was a turn only, no pull out. Doesn’t look like a 1222 to me but it might if I can take that plastic out of the pipe.
Background: we have Navien tankless hot water and a dedicated hot water loop. (Not using the cold as part of the loop). Recently the master shower, with a Moen 1222 shower cartridge, started to get cooler water every couple of minutes. The shower might start at 117° and in six minutes it would be down to 97° (at this point, the handle is at the 9 o’clock position, indicating 100% hot water) I
replaced the cartridge, but the same thing happens. Interestingly, if we go to the sink in that bathroom and turn on the hot water, cold water comes out, but the shower starts to get hot as you would expect if everything was working normally.
When I replaced the cartridge, I did flush the valve.
When the shower is producing cooler and cooler water, if you go to any other faucet in the house, the hot water comes out at the expected temperature. Also, I have varied the testing by setting the Navien at 130°, 125°, and 120°. All temperatures produce the same results. I have called Moen for support, but they were not very helpful. I have also talked to a couple plumbers and they were not able to offer additional assistance.
Any suggestions as to what might be causing this would be sincerely appreciated!