Moen Shower Installation, the Dummy Way

Moen Shower Valve Parts

There's a joke about a lawyer and a plumber who meet at a block party. The lawyer's amazed at how much the plumber charges per hour, and says that he doesn't charge that much. The punch line goes something like, "Neither did I when I was a lawyer!" If you've ever done your own plumbing, you probably understand why plumbers charge so much (who else spends all that time up to his or her elbows in sewage?). Some people, though, think plumbers just play with Tinker Toys®; people like eHow's Dianne Christensen-Herman (Christensen-Hermance at some sites or sometimes just Hermance), who made her own little joke out of "How to Install Moen Shower Faucet"¹ at HomeSteady.com.

The trick here is that there are a boatload of possible answers to that question, based on several questions, such as:

• Is this is a new install, a remodel, or repair of a leaking valve?
• Is this really installation, or merely replacing the trim?
• Is this a tub-shower combination or shower only?
• Is there already a Moen valve and shower trim in place?

Christensen-Herman, however, never even mentions any of those questions: instead, she blithely exclaims that

"It is possible to install a new Moen shower faucet yourself with a few basic materials, rather than hiring a plumbing professional..."

...which we will allow to be possible if you're a competent DIYer, which Dianne (a "professional journalist") has proven on multiple occasions using several names she is not. Not to put too fine a point on it, but she proves it again today, by simply boiling down the instructions to Turn off the hot and cold water supply valves. Insert the new faucet assembly into the opening on the faucet valve where the old one was. Push the U-shaped clip onto the faucet assembly. Set the stainless steel sleeve over the faucet. Hold the faucet handle against the grooves on the faucet and tighten the single screw with a hex wrench or Phillips screwdriver. Push the plastic cap into place over the screw.

Christensen-Herman (etc.) is pretty sure that's all you have to do. Heck, as far as Dianne's concerned, you don't even have to take off the old trim! Since it's Moen, a new trim can be fit to an existing valve, but you'll need to know which valve is in the wall and which trim you have.

In reality, Dianne, there's more to it than those four steps: what you've described, sort of, is replacing the shower trim (a word you omitted). That's not what the OQ asked; he or she asked how to install a Moen shower. Dianne's (partial) instructions will only work if this is a shower trim replacement and there's a Moen valve in place -- and it may not work then without an adapter.
No, we think people like Christen-Hermance should leave questions like this to someone who has at least done it once -- and preferably to someone who knows the difference between a "faucet assembly" and a shower trim. That pretty much leaves out our Dumbass of the Day, we suspect.

¹ The original has been deleted by Leaf Group, but can still be accessed using the Wayback machine at archive.org. Its URL was   ehow.com/how_6617492_install-moen-shower-faucet.html

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