Anyone mended an Insinkerator Boiling Water Tap?

[Andrew Mawson]

Insinkerator 'under sink' boiling tank and tap above that provides filtered cold, and boiling hot water for tea making etc. JUST out of warranty the tap part has started to let by. Cold mains enters the brushed stainless steel tap unit, which at the press of one of two levers either puts cold through a filter to the spout, or cold into the hot tank to displace boiling through the spout.

Hot tap has started 'letting by' to quite an extent so it's had to be turned off. Bumph that came with it says operate it back and forth 8-10 times to clear any muck from the seal - no effect :(

Manufacturer claims it's a sealed unit - replacement approx £299 !!!!!!!!!!!! and that's just the tap unit !

Andrew

[Capitol]

AIUI, short life is a feature of Insinkerator units. Whatwas the warranty period?

[Andrew Mawson]

2 years

[Capitol]

Wonder if the EU rules think it should be longer? Ask Trading Standards?

[Andrew Mawson]

Follow Up in case any hapless fellow with similar problems finds this in the future :

Insinkerator no real help in support, claiming tap unit is a 'sealed unit' . At nearly £300 for a replacement I decided that if it was put together by man, then surely this man could pull it apart :)

Sure enough, looking very carefully at the ring surrounding the operating levers, it has just a faint hex shape milled into it @ 19 mm A/F. Very careful application of a spanner with sharp edges allowed me to unscrew it and remove the lever & pivot, and a shroud that determines the position of the lever pivot. This reveals the head of a white plastic 'mushroom' shape that proved to be a tiny spool valve - the mushroom pulls out and is attached to the end of the spool. The mushroom head rests on a compression spring pushing it up into the 'open' state, but with the lever in position and at rest it is closed.

Two microscopic 'o rings' on the spool - should be changed but as I didn't have any I just cleaned everything up, and re-assembled - so far so good :) Bit of a b****r getting the screwed collar back on as the spring has to be compressed.

Early days, but I think it's fixed for now.

Andrew

[Freddie]

replying to Andrew Mawson, Freddie wrote: Hi Andrew , Thanks for taking the trouble to highlight the typical corporate stitchups ,and of course the remedy which I followed almost to a T but only got to the nylon Mushroom cap and then decided to free that with WD40 and a silicon release agent by rocol. Now I foolishly followed a orevious chaps advice and done it with the water still on and youve guessed it went of f like a geyser,had to quickly remove the Filter,any way compressing the piston repeatedly for a few minutes freed up the valve then I rebuilt it ,noting the shim under the lever assembly,I replaced the valve with a 19mm multi point socket first inserting it and turning anti c/w tilI felt it drop in then reversed turn to cw , no swearing here. Kind regards Freddie of Thrapston UK