Replacement cartridge for "Lifetime" brand sink

[Robert Green]

I have a Lifetime brand sink - which makes for awful search problems in Google in the way that LyfeTyme would not - almost all plumbing pages have the word "Lifetime" in them somewhere.

The cold side had started to leak and since I had only the word "Lifetime" and the old cartridge (which has no marks or identification that I can see) to go by, I went to the local plumbing supply house and found what was visually the most similar cartridge, a Streamway PF 141228PK. The Streamway worked for a while, but the hot side is leaking and I can't seem to find a replacement now (sink is way old) at the same store or even on-line - wait - I haven't searched on the UPC code yet - 054374130115 - Nada!!! Zero results. Crap.

Where's the best place to search on-line for something like this? Google left me high and dry on the product number.

I know that at $5 each that it's cheap enough to replace the whole cartridge with all new O-rings but it looks like the hot side O ring that sits under the head of the brass faucet stem has flattened out. Is it foolish to try to just redo the O ring and not just drop in the whole cartridge? The old one's not cracked and I realize now that the one I pulled has fewer O-rings than the new one, and seems to have slots for them, but the new one is of a very different design. I'll try to take pictures. It will be a lot easier to explain

This is a very old house, to be sold as a 'needs to be gutted' fixer upper - The plumbing to the tailpiece all hangs off a galvanized to copper junction crusted with calcium that I know will spring a leak if I torque it around too much. I'm not much of a plumber, but I can do the basics. I've just learned from experience that old plumbing fails along predictable paths from predictable causes. One of them is not locking pipes feeding the appliance you're working on down hard with pipe straps before accidentally making them

8 foot long levers to pry apart old joints that could last forever if not molested.

Yeah, I *should* replace all galvanized pipe but that's about 200X the work of finding a new cartridge or rejuvenating an old one. I only need it to last until the real estate market recovers. (-:

-- Bobby G.

[David Nebenzahl]

On 3/18/2011 2:04 PM Robert Green spake thus:

Sorry, can't help you myself, but I can suggest a place to try. One of my favorite home-repair businesses in Bezerkely, The Sink Factory, is an invaluable resource for just this sort of thing. Even if you're not in the area, you might try asking them; the owner and his other couple employees are very knowledgeable about such stuff, as they deal exclusively with water-carrying fixtures of various types and their attendant valves, faucets, etc.

[hrhofmann]

If you can get some good pictures, then send them to a large plumbing supply house, they might recognize the manufacturer.

[Robert Green]

If you can get some good pictures, then send them to a large plumbing supply house, they might recognize the manufacturer.

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Good idea, thanks Bob!

-- Bobby G.

[Robert Green]

I may give them a shout. Someone locally has suggested a plumbing supply house in the business district that's been in the same place for 50 years and is known for have NOS (new old stock) parts up the yin-yang. I've spent enough effort on this that I could have pulled the whole damn thing and replaced it, but with all the old piping, I'd rather not go that route unless I totally dead end. Complicating things even further, the two valves (hot cold) that were in the sink to begin with don't match. So I have no idea what the original part might have been, only that they worked for over a decade without a problem. I'm surprised the HOT side failed first, but I suppose that could be because the cold side got more use.

I've yet to contact Streamway with the part number and UPC. They may have them or know who does.

Thanks for your input!

-- Bobby G.