MOD Did the Ventana shower valve upgrade this afternoon

[Rich W.]

This job was really a lot easier than I anticipated although I did have to modify the Newmar mount/adapter plate (I think I‘ve read about that), which is needed because the coach doesn’t exactly have residential framing. And naturally there is very little room to work in the shower wall cutout, which of course you wouldn’t encounter in the rough-in plumbing for which this valve intended. But other than that I spent about two hours leisurely doing a one hour job, it works very nicely, and is a major improvement over the cheap OE valve. Pics show the mount mod and other self explanatory stuff. I used a chrome trim kit because the brushed nickel version was over twice the price, although now I wish I’d spent the extra $26 - the job is worth it and I might just change that too.

Modified wall mount - new shower valve threaded mounting holes are about 1/2” higher than the OE valve and clocked a few degrees off:

Mount before I clearanced it:


Chrome trim - you can see how it all sits higher and I had some clean-up to do - you shouldn’t need to use caulking on this, but maybe the OE trim plate would leak. The new one has a foam seal which is perfectly adequate.

My replacement choice - there is a wide variety of alternatives

this thing is solid, robust, and weighs about three times more than the OE valve

Cheap OE valve

Really?

 

[Richpatty]

Neal did this upgrade back in 2017…which is when I first met him back on that other forum…. I thought it was a great idea and followed his lead.

You will be happy with the update!

 

[Rich W.]

Neal did this upgrade back in 2017…which is when I first met him back on that other forum…. I thought it was a great idea and followed his lead.

You will be happy with the update!

I am - it works very well and will eliminate the scalding hazard - I would think the liability of that would be enough to convince Newmar to spend the extra 50 bucks to install a decent valve.

And yes I recall seeing that on that other forum a few years ago - just took me a while to make it this far down the list.