hansgrohe94282000 3/4-Inch Thermostatic Cartridge, Small, Brass

When our very hard water caused the original thermostatic cartridge to limit the amount of hot water too much, I discovered that I had to change it out. Mine has an all-brass body, and a certain length. When I removed it (more on that in a moment) I discovered that the new replacement Grohe part is NOT an exact match! Uh-oh… but wait: it IS shorter than the original brass one by a good half of an inch, but the parts that matter, like O-rings and openings, all match exactly. I just kept my faith in the over-engineered Grohe tech people and installed it. IT WORKS JUST FINE! and, the plastic body should accumulate less scale too.About the installation: what I found after struggling to remove all the trim parts to expose the valve body was that there are two very convenient petcocks in there to shut off the water flow from the hoist to the valve. THATS SO COOL! I did NOT have to shut off the water to the whole house! Plus, it makes flushing any debris out of the valve when opened so simple. A bucket and a 4mm wrench, and I’m done! I smeared a thin coating of silicone grease all over the metal and plastic parts, carefully avoiding the intake screens on the cartridge, plus on the threads and stems of the valves and handles. This SHOULD make things much easier next time. Also I bought two cartridges, one NEW (around $70! Ouch)and one “used, in new condition“, certified by Amazon (around $30! ) and they are truly identical. Try that and save $40!

Hard water eventually ruined the original cartridge purchased sometime during 2003 or 2004 for a major remodeling project. Water flow had dropped and the cartridge could not hold a consistent temperature. The temperature would drop during your shower as if the hot water was running out.Replacing the cartridge is a super easy repair, particularly if you've done any sort of valve stem replacement in the past. I used a little plumbing grease because I had it on hand, but I can see how people have had success without it.The one problem I had was that the screw to hold the original "adapter for handle" part in place was not long enough. The cartridge was still usable, but the knob could be pulled off. After a week of trying to figure out how to either file a piece down, or otherwise drill out the middle of the adapter so that it would seat more deeply, I finally decided to order a replacement "adapter for handle" part. The part number is 97108000. It looks like it is available on Amazon, but the provider doesn't include a photo to verify that it's the right part. I bought it from another source for about the same amount of money.My guess is that there was a relatively minor design change at some point that made my original adapter incompatible. If you're having a plumber replace an older cartridge, it's a no-brainer to buy a new adapter up-front. For $20 you might avoid a return trip charge. You can always return it if you don't need it.

As stated in the title, so far so good. I like these types of shower valves, but the Hansgrohe brand is a little difficult to deal with. It took me a while to find the right part number. I think other folks ran into the same thing. Was it a TB1 or TB2? Turns out it was a TB3. I didn’t find out until I finally got the handle off. It also turns out to be the less expensive one. Note that the picture in this product is inaccurate as you do not see any brass on the cartridge at all. In fact, it appears to be all black PVC, at least on the outside.Where I live, the water is very hard, and even though we have a water softener system, the minerals still build up on our fixtures, this particular shower being the worst. I squirted CLR in it for weeks, still couldn’t take the handle off. I finally removed the set screw, turn the handle in the ‘up’ position and put a nitrile glove on it and secured it with a rubber band closest to the wall. I then filled it up with CLR and left it like that for at least 24 hours. I added CLR twice in that time period. Removed the glove, rinsed and wiped it off, and still had to use a flat head screw driver to force it off, but it did finally pop off. Replacing the cartridge only took a few minutes. I also put a little silicone grease on the O-rings to help slide better.Note that I soaked the handle in CLR for at least a day after I finally was able to pry it off. When I removed the handle from the CLR bath to rinse it off, the fluid in the container was black. I also found out that the thermostatic knob was finally able to work properly since now I have to push it in to go beyond 100 degrees. Something that never worked in the past 10 years.My lesson learned is that every few months, I will remove the handle to clean off the mineral build up. Had I not been able to remove that handle, the plumber would have gone through the backside of the wall to cut the copper tubes and install a different shower valve… something to keep in mind. Note that just to replace the cartridge, it probably would have cost $350.00 just to have the plumber on site, not including the cost of the cartridge. So at the very least, I saved $300.00 by doing it myself. Who knows how much it would’ve cost to replace the entire valve from the back of the wall.Edit - I initially gave this product 4 stars. I was under the impression that if your shower is leaking, this is the part to replace. Well looking at the pics, it’s obvious that it needed to be replaced, but this is not the cause of the leak. In order to fix the leak, you have to replace the ‘other’ cartridge… the one that the thermostatic cartridge fits into.Frankly, if you’re going to replace one for whatever reason, I would automatically replace both. Unfortunately, you don’t see this stuff on the internet, or YouTube.

PRO: Easy to install. Seems to be working...Ill give it a few mos for a post-run review.CON: False and deceptively "packaging" in so many ways. Is this legal? (See picture) This is consistent with other reviews that this part is not metal/brass