The mineral issue affects the internal parts of the faucet, like the O-rings which seal the neck where it swivels. Where I live, a new faucet's only easy to move for the first few months and it's downhill from there.
I suppose limeaway would temporarily help but ruin the faucet finish. How about a razor utility knife.
dependability
The minerals build up INSIDE the thing, Art. If you felt like disassembling it every couple of months, you could dissolve the minerals by soaking in vinegar and scrubbing with a toothbrush.
Missed "internal" in your previous post. My bad!
disassembling
Have to add my $0.01 here.
Remodeling my kitchen: I bought a Delta faucet, without much research. It's a gooseneck, with a separate controller handle. The controller has
4 copper tubes protruding from its bottom, to which the faucet, sprayer, hot, and cold supplies connect. The interntal connections, to faucet and sprayer, are by "Quick connect" proprietary snap-up connections. Tres complicated.So I plug it in. Leaks *all over* from somewhere inside the controller. Bring the controller back to Lowe's, exchange for another. The second one worked. Happy enough ...
Until today, when I swapped the faucet over to the new sink. Now, the quick-connects leak all over. It's going back to Lowe's. The replacement will not be a Delta.
JSH
Thanks Julie, I heard a similar story about Delta from a fellow at Home Depot. He was pretty angry and was there buying a replacement for his relatively new, leaky faucet. I was there replacing my two year old, leaky, poorly working Price-Pfister. :)
Not to be a stick in the mud, but my parents bought Moen for their kitchen, bathroom sink and bathtub. All 3 faucets have had problems and needed to have parts replaced since 1998. The kitchen faucet was one with one with the faucet and pull-out sprayer in one. One of the parts was faulty and it had a slow leak which destroyed their new sink cabinet less than a year after they purchased it. Now, Moen was very helpful, they did send out new parts for everything that was broken and also offered to pay for the sink cabinet (although my dad just repaired it at his own cost) as it was known by Moen that these faucets had a faulty part. They also sent out new parts for the bathroom sink and tub that were worn out. But that being said, it is still work to take everything apart and install the new parts. When the kitchen faucet went, they replaced it with a Delta and have not had any problems with it thus far (since '99).
From this experience when we did our house last year we decided to not go with Moen and bought Delta for our kitchen, tub, and bathroom sink. So far so good, but this is only a year's experience. For our shower we purchased Grohe which we are also happy with (but darn expensive!). We have friends that are happy with their Blanco stuff. Thus Grohe and Blanco are 2 other lines you may wish to check out.
Thanks, I've seen those lines listed but haven't received any feedback on them prior to yours.
I forgot to mention we own a Blanco silgranit sink that we absolutely love and the quality is superb. Perhaps their faucets are built with the same attention to detail. Not sure where you are located, but here in Canada, their sink selection appears to be much greater than what they offer in the U.S., I am not sure if this is the same for their faucets.
I'd stay away from American Standard at all costs. They advertize a lifetime warranty on their finish, but they don't stand behind it. I bought two of their faucets when I remodelled my baths, took meticulous care of them, but within two years both developed a black tarnish. American standard refused to honor their warranty and said the damage was due to "some sort of chemical."
I bought a moen faucet for the kitchen. It has worked flawlessly so far, and the finish has not tarnished a bit in three years.
Sundeep
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