​We hope this quick article will be a helpful resource for you and your team. Our goal here is to give you more information to help with the identifications of a cartridge.

If you still get stumped, you can always email or text a free parts identification request to:

• helpdesk@barrywalter.com
• 970-867-3858​

We hope this quick guide proves to be helpful to you and your team. As always, please do not hesitate to reach out to us with any questions!

The original concept for The Plumber’s Index was to provide the plumber with a subscription to an ever-updating catalog of stems. All the stems in the index were drawn to scale by hand on draft paper. This allowed for my grandfather to put in key areas of identification. Subscribers paid an initial fee of $10 for the first year and $5 every year after that. As more parts were identified and drawn, they were added to the subscriber’s index.

Serving the contract professional by eliminating the headache of trying to identify parts, Lauren’s index provided drawings of 87 supply valve stems and 34 diverters. The index was laid out over 12 sections that included over 40 manufacturers, ranging from American Radiator and Standard Sanitary Corp to Stephen A Young. Parts were classified with a manufacturer in each section and identified with three key points of a part: the seat retainer, the male lead thread of the stem, and the female lead thread (either in the body, in the gland or with a renewable seat in a barrel).
​

This cataloging innovation led to a feature in the 1955 January edition of Domestic Engineering, entitled Concealed Fittings Sleuth. 

Fast forward to today, where we have print catalogs with thousands of parts drawn and cataloged and we are constantly update our website with new parts.

Instead of draft paper and a pencil, we employ state of the art technology like Solid Works and AutoCad to allow us to draw the part to dimension, reveal the concealed, identifying attributes of the stem unit, and place the units on paper to scale – just like my grandfather did so long ago.
​

Our CAD Operator is employed full time to remain engaged in drawing and cataloging the constant flow of new parts. (For a demonstration of the process of rendering a part, please reference the video below).
​

 Ours starts with an incredibly talented man and a desire to serve others.

My grandfather, Lauren D. Walter, worked for several plumbing supply houses in the Los Angeles area after serving in the navy as a machinist during World War II. While manning the counter at Hirsch Pipe and Supply in the early 50s, he recognized the struggle of the plumbing professional to identify the concealed valves that needed to be replaced. To save them time, he developed the first stem guide.

After moving on to P&M Mfg., he saw the need for making parts that were no longer available. He convinced his boss to provide an engine lathe for him. When a plumber would bring in a part that they couldn’t supply, he would take it to his garage at home and he would duplicate the part from that sample. He would make a part for the plumber and several for P&M’s stock; He would hang on to the original stem unit the plumber gave him for his reference sample to make again when needed. As he added to his repertoire of completed jobs, the size of the samples that he collected grew. Lauren didn’t just ask for the stems and stem units, he asked for the valve bodies that were torn out of walls to use for testing the parts. Years of gathering samples garnered a virtual museum of plumbing parts and fixtures.

This “side job” was soon also done by the whole family as part of their chores. Over time, my grandfather left P&M and started making replacement plumbing parts full time.

​My father, Barry Sr., grew up working in his father’s business; just like most sons, he said he was never going to work for his father. After years of working for the phone company, he left to work for his father. Senior started working on the machines and eventually worked into more management positions.

There was no operation that he couldn’t automate or make more efficient by standardizing the operation. Indexed tables and air-fed slides; as a small boy, it was amazing to watch. Grandfather also knew instinctively the areas in the market that needed to be filled and how to best serve his customers. What he lacked was the business acumen.

Over time, he took on partner after partner. After his retirement and selling the majority of the company to his last partner, the company closed its doors.

I was in high school at the time. My brother Lauren was 5 years younger than I and my mother was pregnant with my brother Franklin. I remember talking to my father about what he was going to do as he took me to school. I remember being really worried about the situation, but I also remember my father’s words and what he believed to be his future. He was going to buy the assets of the company.

He wasn’t as interested in the machinery or the inventory; he wanted those samples that had been collected over the 35 years of my grandfather’s time identifying and machining parts. He saw the future of machining in CNC equipment; not the screw machines or other automatic machines, but computer machines that could hold tighter tolerances and run unattended.

My father and my mother took a second mortgage out on their house and borrowed money to buy the assets of the company. Barry E. Walter, Sr. Co. was born. Senior started small, vowed to not take on partners and strove to be a good steward by managing the growth of the company.

Just like my grandfather, my father possesses the same foundational skills of entrepreneurship, design, engineering, and building. He has provided the foresight to see the need for replacement ceramic units to provide our customers with these hard-to-find replacements. Over the years, he too has built machines to automate the jobs that need to be done; machines like rotary tables with induction heating elements to solder retainers on stems. He also possessed the shrewd business skills that my grandfather lacked.

Just like my father before me, I also said that I would never work for my father. After I graduated college, I worked in my field of study but quickly found out that it wasn’t something I enjoyed. When I was working 2 full-time jobs, the reasoning I used to not work for my father – working a lot of hours – seemed insensible.

I went to work for my parents in 1994. I originally protested about moving back to the Los Angeles area after being away from it, but my parents had already decided to move to Colorado – the cost of doing business in CA proving to be onerous.

I went to work for the company, originally running our multi-spindle screw machines. I too, over time, worked my way into my former management position of COO, to the position I hold now; CEO. My brother Lauren also followed me over time and also after working for years on the machines, learning part knowledge, and gathering the operational skills that we both lead the company with now.

It is a large part of why we are still here and still strong thirty+ years later. My parents’ four boys are now working in the business. Lauren, Franklin, Nathaniel, and I know the skill set, drive, determination, and principles of what we do have gotten us here. It is our vision to take this foundation of what got us here and build on that with the leadership that is needed to grow and strengthen us going forward.

It is our plan, with our mission and core values in place, to better engage with our customers and grow our relationships. Making superior quality plumbing parts here in America matters. Supporting small businesses is vital. Serving our customers and team members makes a positive impact. As we continue to partner with you, our customers, we hope that you feel the same as we do.

​-Barry Walter, Jr, CEO

Feel Free to Right Click and Save this image or download the PDF version below:

Enjoy!

It would be imperfect to do so. The use of the stems and cartridges vary with the installation type. Historically, stems were described by the thread direction used, which changed depending on the handle type and whether the faucet was on a deck or a wall.​

​When it comes to two-handle faucets and valves, round and cross handles are used when the valves turn the same direction. In this case, the valves and handles will turn off clockwise, regardless of whether stems or cartridges are on a deck, slant-back, or wall.

The stems turn off in opposing directions only if lever handles are involved in the install. The orientation of the on/off operation in this situation is dependent on if the fixture is on a deck, a wall, or a slant back.

When lever handles are used on a deck, they should be rotated in towards the user to turn the water on and pushed away from the user to turn the water off. Thus, the hot side (on the left) should turn off clockwise, and the cold side (on the right) should turn off counter-clockwise.

However, when the faucet or valve is installed on a slant back or onto a wall, lever handles should operate inversely. The reason for this is due to gravity. Decorative, heavier levers might unintentionally turn the water on if installed and operated the same as the deck stems. To avoid this, the water turns on when the handles are turned upwards and the water is shut off when the handles  are rotated downwards.

This means that now the hot side (on the left), turns off counter-clockwise and the cold side (on the right) turns off clockwise.

It is for these reasons that we do not use the terms “hot” and “cold”
in our part IDs.
​

So, how do you identify right hand and left hand threads? Quite simply!
Reference the picture below. If the thread on the stem is going up and to the right, it is a right hand stem. If the thread on the stem is going up and to the left, it is a left hand stem.

In the case of ceramic units, there are no internal stem threads. We have chosen to use the numbering system we use for typical compression units:

• Clockwise off = unit ends in the number 1
• Counter-clockwise off = unit ends in the number 2

This means, on a deck with lever handles:

• The cartridge ending in the number 1 would be on the left side for the hot.
• The cartridge ending in the number 2 would be on the right side for the cold.

When moving to a wall using lever handles:

• The cartridge ending in a 1 would be on the right side for cold
• The cartridge ending in a 2 would be on the left side for the hot.