No Cold Water coming from Mixer Taps on Bath

[Victoria]

Hi Could someone help. I have a cold water tap on a mixer tap on the bath which has increasingly become stiff so that now I only get a trickle of water sometimes nothing at all. The hot water on the mixer taps runs fine and all the other cold taps in the house also run fine which makes me think it is a washer or something on the one cold tap.

I and my partner are DIY novices but if someone could give us a step by step idiots guide from removing the taps to investigating and solving the problem I would very much appreciate it.

Or if you think this is a job only for the professionals please let me know. Look forward to hearing from you. Kind Regards Victoria

[Alex]

It is possible that the washer or jumper has become detached from the valve,shut of hot water and cold remove tap valve and renew washer.It may be a push on or it may have a small brass nut holding the washer in place,insuring you have the correct size washer will help.

[Set Square]

This is basically correct, but you may need slightly more detailed instructions if you haven't done it before.

Do you have a website on which you could post a picture of the tap? [Not all taps are equal when it comes to taking them apart!]

Do you know how to turn off your hot water?

-- Cheers, Set Square ______ Please reply to newsgroup. Reply address is invalid.

[Owain]

"Victoria" wrote | Could someone help. I have a cold water tap on a mixer tap on | the bath which has increasingly become stiff so that now I | only get a trickle of water sometimes nothing at all. The hot | water on the mixer taps runs fine and all the other cold taps | in the house also run fine which makes me think it is a washer | or something on the one cold tap. | I and my partner are DIY novices but if someone could give us | a step by step idiots guide from removing the taps to | investigating and solving the problem I would very much | appreciate it.

I posted this back in August. For 'hot' read 'cold' in your application.

The hot tap washer is stuck on its seating. What usually happens is that the O-ring seals in the spiral mechanism fail due to scale abrasion, letting water into the spiral. This causes the taps to become difficult to turn on or off, increases wear in the spiral, and may cause either leakage at the spindle at the top, or the tap will not open at all.

If you go to

(or a competitor who is currently trading) and search for "tap reviver" you will get what you need - replacement innards. You can usually re-use the old handles if you want them to match.

You need to turn off the water to the tap first.

The following are instructions for changing the washer, but show the inside of a tap clearly.

[Christian McArdle]

Alternatively, you could just replace the entire lot with a proper ceramic cartridge tap. I have never fixed a tap washer in my life (unless you count replacing gland packing on outside taps and stopcocks).

The reason that washer type taps seize up is to provide a reminder that you haven't replaced it with a decent ceramic tap yet.

Christian.

[Set Square]

Can you replace just the innards with ceramic - or does it mean a whole new tap?

[Christian McArdle]

Not that I know of, although I wouldn't be surprised if someone has designed a drop in replacement. However, part of the fun of replacing with a ceramic cartridge tap is that you can avoid the horrible 1950s plastic knobs.

Christian.

[Set Square]

I could do with replacing my bath and basin mixer taps with something using ceramics and/or single lever - or *anything* other than smooth plastic knobs which you can't grip with soapy hands!

The basin tap is the sort which uses a single hole. The bath tap uses two holes - but has a sort of "bridge" leading to a single outlet pipe.

I can find plenty of chrome taps - but mine need to have an antique gold finish to match the other bathroom fittings. Anyone know where I can get some?

[Christian McArdle]

A 2 hole gold plated bath mixer must surely be really easy to source, if a little expensive. I take it you want a nice looking "telephone" shower spray type? These generally look better than non-shower spray mixers. They're useful even if you already have a shower, as they are excellent for cleaning the bath down and look nice.

A quick search shows

a bath/shower mixer in antique gold for 75 quid (69 with the less nice looking showerhead) and a monobloc basin mixer for 55. Obviously, a monobloc is never going to look particularly traditional, but at least it should match the mixer.

Christian.

[Christian McArdle]

need to check first.

Christian.

[Set Square]

Many thanks for the link. Not sure they *quite* fit the bill - but they're the best I've seen so far.

[Victoria]

Hi Thanks for your help. I know where the cold water stop c*ck is in the house but not the hot. Didn't realise you had to turn both off. I have a combi boiler so would the one stop c*ck turn all the water off? Thanks Victoria

[Set Square]

Yes, in fact you don't actually need to turn off the hot anyway - I must have been having a mental aberration when I wrote that!