I have one of those lift-and-twist type kitchen taps which is reluctant to do either (though lifting requires far more force than twisting from the hot position to the cold). Is there any way of freeing it up without first cutting off the water to it? For some reason, one feed has a turn valve in it but the other does not.
Many thanks.
As this is a kitchen tap, the cold feed will be from the mains. There's probably a stop c*ck under the sink, and hence somebody cheap didn't bother with a valve on that supply to the tap. Just guessing.
There's not a lot of serviceable bits inside a single handle tap. I suppose the mechanism might just need greasing. If the ceramic cartridges need replacing, that's going to set you back a good chunk of the cost of a new tap.
I'd get a replacement tap in stock before removing the old one. From somewhere that allows returns.
Thanks for that. I just found a YouTube video on disassembling this sort of tap: assuming that what it shows is typical, it looks as though the tilt and twist mechanism is a sealed (plastic?) unit with no obvious access for lubrication.
I'm in a temporary rented place with extremely hard water, which is presumably the source of the problem. I might either live with it or try to get the landlord to sort it out.
... is the right answer.
Tim
Yes. I don't think your landlord will necessarily be happy if you do this for him.
+1
But being DIY, wondering how one might get descaler to the internals unobtrusively....
Take out the cartridge, dunk it in descaler?
Cartridges aren't that expensive though, contrary to what was said earlier. If you do an image search for "single tap mixer cartridge" you'll see hundreds of cartridges and links to eBay for replacements. Last one I bought was under a tenner IIRC.
Tim
The ones I have been looking at are more like £30 a pair, so maybe my view is a bit jaundiced. I'm not a great fan of ceramic disc taps. I prefer washers that cost a few pence to replace, but I'm obviously a dinosaur.
Tim, thanks for that. Unfortunately it turns out that I don't have an Allen key of the right size to release the tap's innards, so it might have to be a job for the landlord after all.
One curious thing is that it's only at the hot end of the rotation that the tilt mechanism becomes almost completely seized up solid (even when the water itself is running cold); the cold end is much freer.
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