ebemis
Senior Member
OK here goes... fingers crossed my story & share might help someone else ;-)
My "adventure" began in our first year of ownership when we discovered slow water leaks (drips every few minutes) at Flex Nylon Hose fittings when camping in cold weather or with very cold supply water. Bear in mind, this was NOT camping in freezing conditions, simply anything above those levels and below roughly 50 degrees ambient. We discovered each & every "union/joint" that FR made of the Flexible Nylon reinforced hose to a PEX connector with the same PEX cinch rings used on the PEX pipe side were slowly dripping water when conditions were cold. I have several previous posts on this topic so if you have been around here awhile you might recall some of them.
Our last camping trip in early January, still in sunny Florida, was during a cold snap and overnight temps were low 40's warming during the day into the mid 50's.... this i call PERFECT camping weather.... HOWEVER our sad ROO considered it offensive and decided it would begin dripping again this time at the Shower Nylon Hose connection points BEHIND the rear storage area & under the back of the shower. YES these are JUST far enough to make it impossible to reach with hands/tools and get hose clamps on to stop the leaks. Here is a picture I managed to get, I was able to slide a small rubberized storage bowl under the leak just so I could catch the drips, you can see an active one coming out below the blue/cold water T fitting. The T itself was NOT cracked or damaged, this is simply that Flex Poly Hose which SHOULD be mounted to a BARBED connector and held with a hose clamp instead of stuck onto a PEX connector and pinched with the PEX cinch clamps.
While I could get fingers to throw that bowl in there and also stick a towel to soak up the water, I could not get enough reach in there to get tools to break those cinch rings off or even slide a screw type clamp beside it so... I just turned water on & off as needed and did my best to monitor the leak and dry as needed to complete our camping week. Those hose connections/joints are at the lowest point behind the back corner of our shower....yup all the way at the bottom & behind that back wall where the shower valve is mounted... which BTW was ALSO leaking as the hot water supply on the back of the wall valve was not tight enough and additional dripping was present there... UGH! :-(
LONG story short, well sort of! While I'm not afraid to tear into things, I was slightly intimidated by the prospects of actually removing the shower stall assembly. I CAN tell anyone that might be in the same place to NOT WORRY AT ALL as it really was relatively easy and straight forward to remove and reinstall that assembly. Here is the saga with tips that MIGHT hopefully help anyone who comes across similar situations.
My glass shower doors took a bit for me to figure out how to remove as I hadn't ever looked that close at their mounts. I saw what looked like push buttons on the bottom wheel assembly and thought that would allow me to remove them but I think those are just intentional teasers! ;-) In BOTH the top and bottom rail there are small passageways cut into the track to offer a point for the wheels to slide out of the track. On top there are small stops on the inside raceway that need to be removed, no such animal on the bottom so the groove is easy to reach;
DON'T remove the screws that hold the wheels to the black plastic mounts... that's more trouble than its worth and they are simply there to allow you to change the elevation of the glass on the upper wheel racks. If you look close, the plastic cover is missing in the wheel picture from the top, you can see two small C-Clips that are usually covered and hidden but ride in a small groove (no threads) at the top of the mounting/adjusting screw
.
ANYWAY... once you get the doors off, unscrew the retaining/connecting screws at top corners of the head rail. On mine, these were at either end close to the wall and just tied to top rail to the side rails. Once unscrewed you can easily lift and remove the head rail. The side glass panels simply slide into rubberized seals inside the tracks of the wall rails and bottom rail so you can easily/carefully just pull them out of place and set them aside.
The side rails are screwed to the wall and here was my tricky part as I tried not to murder (bend the crap out of) the aluminum rails & surfaces.... at the BOTTOM of the side wall rails, you will see a small black pin head, it just remains in place on the bottom rail and the side wall rails have V/U shaped grooves that slide OVER the pin allowing the rail itself to make a solid connection to the bottom track/rail. I had to stand on the bottom rail while rocking the wall side rails back & forth enough times that I could break them free from that mating point with the bottom rail. FR apparently blew a huge BLOB of silicone into that joint so it took some patience before I could finally break the wall side rails free from the bottom track/rail. Once they were out, the bottom rail lifted off the shower pan/base really easily, I found it odd that FR didn't use ANY sealant between the bottom slide/rail and the shower pan. We never really ever used our shower as such and would have been surprised if we did and it did NOT leak water all over our floor!! :-(
Once I had the door assembly parts out, I removed the shower valve assembly & the mounting posts for the shower hose & head. Getting the valve face/panel off the hoses is a challenge as there is virtually NO PLAY/EXTRA hose behind the showere wall to be able to pull that valve assembly forward, which means you can barely reach behind to unscrew the connectors. This is something rectified (for the most part) in my fix that was applied, more on that later. The wall panel of the shower is held in place by a line of foam double faced tape at top & botton and a series of white automotive style trim clips. Using an auto Trim Clip Removal tool allowed me to remove those push pins relatively easily, although the ones on the left (internal wall) came out very easily and the ones in the right (extrenal wall) took a little more encouragement to get removed. My setup had a zip tie loop holding the hose bundle in place, hot/cold & the shower miser recirc all in one bundle tied to back corner a foot and a half or so above the shower pan. Once you remove the front maintenance panel on the face of the shower pan, you will see the drain plumbing connections which are easily reached and loosened. There are two small square head screws holding the shower pan to the floor and once removed you can easily pop/work around your cabinets to get that floor pan out of its location. The wooden platform that was below my pan was not anchored in anyway and came out even easier than the pan.
.
BINGO once those pieces are out of the way, I hope you find better conditions than I did! ;-) I was VERY HAPPY to have such simple/easy access to the joints in need of attention, but rather bummed to discover that during the build there was no effort made to insert/reinstall any insulation around the floor penetrations for all the wires and supply sides :-(
More to follow as I just reached an image limit (10 pictures) and need to start a follow up thread....
My "adventure" began in our first year of ownership when we discovered slow water leaks (drips every few minutes) at Flex Nylon Hose fittings when camping in cold weather or with very cold supply water. Bear in mind, this was NOT camping in freezing conditions, simply anything above those levels and below roughly 50 degrees ambient. We discovered each & every "union/joint" that FR made of the Flexible Nylon reinforced hose to a PEX connector with the same PEX cinch rings used on the PEX pipe side were slowly dripping water when conditions were cold. I have several previous posts on this topic so if you have been around here awhile you might recall some of them.
Our last camping trip in early January, still in sunny Florida, was during a cold snap and overnight temps were low 40's warming during the day into the mid 50's.... this i call PERFECT camping weather.... HOWEVER our sad ROO considered it offensive and decided it would begin dripping again this time at the Shower Nylon Hose connection points BEHIND the rear storage area & under the back of the shower. YES these are JUST far enough to make it impossible to reach with hands/tools and get hose clamps on to stop the leaks. Here is a picture I managed to get, I was able to slide a small rubberized storage bowl under the leak just so I could catch the drips, you can see an active one coming out below the blue/cold water T fitting. The T itself was NOT cracked or damaged, this is simply that Flex Poly Hose which SHOULD be mounted to a BARBED connector and held with a hose clamp instead of stuck onto a PEX connector and pinched with the PEX cinch clamps.
While I could get fingers to throw that bowl in there and also stick a towel to soak up the water, I could not get enough reach in there to get tools to break those cinch rings off or even slide a screw type clamp beside it so... I just turned water on & off as needed and did my best to monitor the leak and dry as needed to complete our camping week. Those hose connections/joints are at the lowest point behind the back corner of our shower....yup all the way at the bottom & behind that back wall where the shower valve is mounted... which BTW was ALSO leaking as the hot water supply on the back of the wall valve was not tight enough and additional dripping was present there... UGH! :-(
LONG story short, well sort of! While I'm not afraid to tear into things, I was slightly intimidated by the prospects of actually removing the shower stall assembly. I CAN tell anyone that might be in the same place to NOT WORRY AT ALL as it really was relatively easy and straight forward to remove and reinstall that assembly. Here is the saga with tips that MIGHT hopefully help anyone who comes across similar situations.
My glass shower doors took a bit for me to figure out how to remove as I hadn't ever looked that close at their mounts. I saw what looked like push buttons on the bottom wheel assembly and thought that would allow me to remove them but I think those are just intentional teasers! ;-) In BOTH the top and bottom rail there are small passageways cut into the track to offer a point for the wheels to slide out of the track. On top there are small stops on the inside raceway that need to be removed, no such animal on the bottom so the groove is easy to reach;
DON'T remove the screws that hold the wheels to the black plastic mounts... that's more trouble than its worth and they are simply there to allow you to change the elevation of the glass on the upper wheel racks. If you look close, the plastic cover is missing in the wheel picture from the top, you can see two small C-Clips that are usually covered and hidden but ride in a small groove (no threads) at the top of the mounting/adjusting screw
ANYWAY... once you get the doors off, unscrew the retaining/connecting screws at top corners of the head rail. On mine, these were at either end close to the wall and just tied to top rail to the side rails. Once unscrewed you can easily lift and remove the head rail. The side glass panels simply slide into rubberized seals inside the tracks of the wall rails and bottom rail so you can easily/carefully just pull them out of place and set them aside.
The side rails are screwed to the wall and here was my tricky part as I tried not to murder (bend the crap out of) the aluminum rails & surfaces.... at the BOTTOM of the side wall rails, you will see a small black pin head, it just remains in place on the bottom rail and the side wall rails have V/U shaped grooves that slide OVER the pin allowing the rail itself to make a solid connection to the bottom track/rail. I had to stand on the bottom rail while rocking the wall side rails back & forth enough times that I could break them free from that mating point with the bottom rail. FR apparently blew a huge BLOB of silicone into that joint so it took some patience before I could finally break the wall side rails free from the bottom track/rail. Once they were out, the bottom rail lifted off the shower pan/base really easily, I found it odd that FR didn't use ANY sealant between the bottom slide/rail and the shower pan. We never really ever used our shower as such and would have been surprised if we did and it did NOT leak water all over our floor!! :-(
Once I had the door assembly parts out, I removed the shower valve assembly & the mounting posts for the shower hose & head. Getting the valve face/panel off the hoses is a challenge as there is virtually NO PLAY/EXTRA hose behind the showere wall to be able to pull that valve assembly forward, which means you can barely reach behind to unscrew the connectors. This is something rectified (for the most part) in my fix that was applied, more on that later. The wall panel of the shower is held in place by a line of foam double faced tape at top & botton and a series of white automotive style trim clips. Using an auto Trim Clip Removal tool allowed me to remove those push pins relatively easily, although the ones on the left (internal wall) came out very easily and the ones in the right (extrenal wall) took a little more encouragement to get removed. My setup had a zip tie loop holding the hose bundle in place, hot/cold & the shower miser recirc all in one bundle tied to back corner a foot and a half or so above the shower pan. Once you remove the front maintenance panel on the face of the shower pan, you will see the drain plumbing connections which are easily reached and loosened. There are two small square head screws holding the shower pan to the floor and once removed you can easily pop/work around your cabinets to get that floor pan out of its location. The wooden platform that was below my pan was not anchored in anyway and came out even easier than the pan.
BINGO once those pieces are out of the way, I hope you find better conditions than I did! ;-) I was VERY HAPPY to have such simple/easy access to the joints in need of attention, but rather bummed to discover that during the build there was no effort made to insert/reinstall any insulation around the floor penetrations for all the wires and supply sides :-(
More to follow as I just reached an image limit (10 pictures) and need to start a follow up thread....
