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Newly-minted homeowner here, and although I can fix quite a few of the snafus around the house, this plumbing hiccup has me rather nervous.

We have a shower with generic hot, cold and diverter pieces, with no name on the bathtub spout, either. Is the valve “seat” (I’m not versed in the jargon) behind the tile where the stem fits on universal?

I ask because the hot water valve is leaking, and it’s coming out behind the faucet handle, not from the spout itself. My fear is shutting off the main water, removing the stem, and trying to find a new replacement with no brand name available. And if I am unable to find one, and if the stem to seat interface is damaged, I might not be able to reinstall the old one and turn the water on without water damage inside the wall.

Main question is, can I just pull all three stems and replace them with new, brand-name parts, or…? TIA!!!

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  • Pictures, please. There should be separate shutoffs for the fixture or bathroom, so turning the main supply off is overkill. The shutoffs may be integrated into the valve bodies, in the wall behind an access panel, in the basement below the bathroom, buried in the wall or nonexistent. So it goes.
    – HABO
    Commented Sep 2 at 17:42
  • Many hardware stores and Home Depot, etc. have a variety of name-brand and generic parts as well as books of compatibility lists. There are hundreds of different possibilities, but fortunately a lot are covered by a handful of parts. But there is no way to know for sure until you bring parts in to the store for lookup/comparison.
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Sep 2 at 18:12

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Is the valve “seat”... universal?

  • Not in most of the world. Plumbing faucets, valves, spigots, fixtures, etc. are brand/model specific/proprietary; there are many different brands/models. The exception perhaps might be in countries with state control of industry.

can I just pull all three stems and replace them with new... parts...?

  • Maybe. Bath/shower fixtures, historically, have been purchased and installed from local distributers, making the need for replacement parts for those fixtures a common regional need. So, it is more likely than not that others in your region have had need of replacement parts and that a good local plumbing supply shop (not necessarily a "big box" store) will have what you need. That being said, the recent preponderance of cheap globally sourced fixtures has led to situations where some valves (and their parts) are unidentifiable and unobtainable; however, many of these are copies of legacy equipment and sometimes the same parts work for both.

Bottom line is that you need to pull the valves apart and start hunting for information and parts. While you worry, you have an active leak in the wall; start fixing the problem. Worst case scenario is complete valve change-out, which is not the end of the world (even if you have never personally done it).

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