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I need to identify these 1950 or so dual knob shower valves.

old 50s shower valves

isherwood
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Kenny
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    A local plumbing store will probably be the best place to ask. Exact replacements probably not available any more, but they can find stuff that will work. The reason you want to know would help also. Leaks are different from replacement pieces. – crip659 Aug 29 '23 at 21:29
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    And for "local" - look around for a non-big-box store that looks like it was around when the house was built. Where I live there is a local small chain of 4 or 5 stores across the city that carries that sort of stuff. – Jon Custer Aug 30 '23 at 12:28

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If you can't figure it out otherwise, removing the stem/cartridge from the wall will allow you to identify a matching replacement.

  • Shut off water upstream
  • Remove the silver escutcheon, hopefully revealing outer hex flats.
  • Use a wrench to unscrew the cartridge unit from the wall.
  • Determine measurements for cartridge: length, and number of "teeth"/splines around end of shaft that holds handle. This may be called "broach".
  • Look up replacement based on the measurements in a shower faucet cartridge identification guide (manufacturers of replacement stems, plumbing supply stores, and others have such guides in store and online for the replacements they supply).

Example stem (in this case a Kohler one):

enter image description here

Armand
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