Replacing kitchen faucet

[notospam2000]

We have an el cheapo kitchen faucet that came with the house (6 years old). It's a stainless steel one piece with a handle to adjust hot/ cold. It also has a plastic sprayer that's very confused. Never worked as it was intended for. Anyway, these days if we lift the handle, it's coming off. Does it mean we have to replace the faucet or can we replace any part within that will fix it? The faucet still works. We have to be careful not to pull it too hard.

Since I'm a newbie I want to find out how easy/hard it is to replace a kitchen faucet. We have replaced cartridges in our bath tubs before. Is replacing a kitchen faucet considerably more complicated than replacing a cartridge? Should the old faucet be thrown away in the trash or will any freecycler have any use for it?

Sorry for naive questions.

Thanks.

[DerbyDad03]

Not sure what you mean by "lift the handle" but if it's something like the faucet shown here:

then look for a set screw on the bottom of the handle, like where the red dot in the picture is. If the set screw is still there, try tightening it, perhaps with an allen wrench.

If your faucet isn't anything like the one in the picture, find one on the net, post the link and we'll see what we can do.

[notospam2000]

OP here. Thanks for your reply. Here's a link for the faucet.

[Oren]

Step 1 on this page has a link for the illustrated parts list.

The top cap will lift off.

-- Oren

"I don't have anything against work. I just figure, why deprive somebody who really loves it."

[Rick Blaine]

Generally, it's pretty easy. A few things to watch out for:

- If you do not have shutoff valves under the sink for both hot & cold, you'll need to find the master water shutoff valve for the house. This valve typically does not get used much and can be fragile.

- Clearance between the sink and the back wall under the countertop can be tight. This can make getting a wrench up there difficult.

- Some faucets require the use of a sleeve type wrench.

-- "Tell me what I should do, Annie." "Stay. Here. Forever." - Life On Mars

[hallerb]

I just finished relacing my bathroom faucet, the trouble with these jobs is access, and having to do so much by feel only

mine had a burst bubble in the flexible line and replacing the fixture was easier than just the lines. The hardware that holds everything in place was all rusty, its been in 10 years.

I might save the faucet its a delta and never had a problem but today I didnt want to mess around.........

[mm]

Going by the exploded view there, it looks like it would be about 1000 times easier to repair the faucet than to replace it.

The screw is probably lying right there under the cap -- put it in if necessary and tighten it -- and the cap probably comes right off with a non-serrated steak knife.

Plug the sink drain first.