Inaccessible kinked water hose

[chriscowles]

Help?

The kinked hose in the picture is the outflow from the Showermiser in my Rockwood Mini-Lite 2507S. It's at the back of the corner shower.

From the Showermiser valve near the shower faucet down to the kink, it's PEX. There's a 90 at the top through the wall of the shower.

I can't remove the shower fixture, or don't know how. It appears to have been assembled before installation in the trailer.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a non-destructive way to straighten the kink?

The photo of the shower fixture is to illustrate there being no way to detach it from the front that I can see. If I could, I might be able to rotate the PEX elbow enough to reduce the stress on the kink at the bottom.

The mostly useless other photo is simply to show the attachment at the rest of the fixture are rigid and there's no way for me to access them, that I know of.

[simiHal]

The four screws in the corners won’t allow you to pull the unit loose from the wall?

[chriscowles]

No. There are 6 and they're already out in the picture. The weird photos are me trying to see behind the fixture with my phone camera by having detached it from the wall.

I gather that the faucet was attached to the bracket/plate, the plate was attached to the shower surround, then the plumbing was attached from the back side through holes in the wall.

If someone knows how to detach the faucet I can get behind the plate and turn the PEX.

[phillyg]

A bit hard to understand from the photos but I'll take a stab at it. What's on the other side of the shower control? If it's a wall and there's access behind, like in the bedroom, perhaps a neatly cut hole that can be covered with an access plate. After cutting the hole, you should be able to disconnect the plastic hose at the shower control end, add some fittings and an additional length of pipe, and push it up inside the wall to allow the kink to relax.

[chriscowles]

Originally Posted by phillyg

A bit hard to understand from the photos but I'll take a stab at it. What's on the other side of the shower control? If it's a wall and there's access behind, like in the bedroom, perhaps a neatly cut hole that can be covered with an access plate. After cutting the hole, you should be able to disconnect the plastic hose at the shower control end, add some fittings and an additional length of pipe, and push it up inside the wall to allow the kink to relax.

Thanks for your suggestion. Unfortunately, the other side of the shower is the exterior fiberglass wall of the trailer. YouTube videos I found for servicing the faucet all involved rear access through a hatch. One had a hatch cut in the exterior wall by the manufacturer. Not so, in my case. The floorplan below shows the newer design with a rectangular shower. The shower valve would be accessible from inside the linen closet. My 2020 has a corner shower with the valve in the rear corner of the trailer.

In correspondence with Rockwood I was told the faucets are "installed from the front, so should come out from the front" using an "up and out" movement. Having been told that I was willing to pull on the plumbing more than I was willing to, without more information. I did that. It did NOT work sufficiently to replace the shower valve, had that been the goal, but it was enough to detach the plastic elbow for the Showermiser. It was a REAL tight fit and I got some scratches from the plastic wall, but it worked.

Being able to pull the PEX out of the wall a little, I got a grip on the elbow and spun it within the PEX. I would not do that if it were under pressure but it's only the discharge line for the diverter valve. It usually has 0 pressure and, when operating, has very low pressure, so a leak is very unlikely. Getting the thing back in place was a struggle, but it worked. The elbow at the bottom of the PEX, below the shower floor, is no longer visible. Having been pulled up, it's jammed somewhere between the shower and the exterior wall. But it now flows freely with no evidence of a leak on the floor or at the fixture.

I don't think they'll change anything but Rockwood really should consider a different approach. The shower valves cannot be serviced as currently installed, at least where the valve is against an exterior wall with no access panel. If I ever buy a different trailer (unlikely) the design of the plumbing installation won't be a determining factor but I will give it more consideration.