What is a Pressure Balance Valve?
Pressure balance valves automatically adjust to compensate for changes in temperature due to water pressure fluctuations, such as when a toilet is flushed.When the balance between cold and hot water flowing out of the showerhead changes, the valve adjusts to maintain the desired temperature at +/- 3 degrees. It prevents hot water scalding or cold-water shock due to pressure fluctuations.
Have you ever taken a shower that was perfectly adjusted for the right temperature, only to have someone somewhere else in the house turn on a tap or flush the toilet and completely mess up your perfect temperature shower? If you have, you may wish to head to your local plumbing supplier and inquire about a pressure balance valve. A pressure balance valve is a sophisticated plumbing device that reacts to changes in the pressure of the delivery water. Typically, both hot and cold water sources are fed into a pressure balance valve, and its job is to ensure that the volume of water that leaves the pressure balance valve is a constant mix of these two sources, even if the delivery pressure of the two sources changes. This is very important to keep the temperature of your shower constant even when the supply is not. Drastic changes in water temperature in the shower can be dangerous. There have been cases of the water temperature changing from normal to scalding hot and causing minor burns
” A shower mixing valve that automatically maintains balance between incoming hot and cold water supplied by immediately regulating fluctuations in pressure. As a result the outlet temperature remains constant, though the outlet pressure may drop. Also known as an anti-scald valve. We hope that we have helped you on this page with Speakman ADA compliant showers, and thank you for helping make PlumbingSupply.com the most famous Internet plumbing supplier.
