Basin tap innards

[Roger Mills]

I need to replace the innards of the two-handle basin mixer tap in my bathroom. Despite taking them apart and cleaning and lubricating them, they still bind from time to time.

The current innards are the multi-turn type, with washers which wind down onto a seat. I am contemplating replacing them with quarter-turn ceramic cartridges. As most people will know, these screw in in the same way as standard innards, and have a rubber seal at the end which permanently presses against a seat in the tap body. As far as I can see, the dimensions are compatible. I've tried an old ceramic cartridge in one side of the tap, and it seems to work ok - apart from having the wrong spline so that the handle won't fit.

Does anyone know of any just cause or impediment why I shouldn't be able to do this provided that I buy cartridges with the right splines to fit my handles, and provided they have an upper thread for screwing a shroud on, which I need? This one

looks as if it should be ok.

Ideally I'd like to hear from anyone who has done this successfully -

*or* unsuccessfully.

[Chris Hogg]

Why are you so concerned about fitting the old shroud and handle. The nice (IMO) thing about quarter-turn taps is that they have a lever handle, which makes turning them on and off very easy, shows you immediately how far open the tap is by the position of the lever, and avoids mistakenly trying to screw down the tap thinking it's an ordinary multi-turn job.

I replaced our kitchen sink taps with quarter-turn lever-handled ones a couple of years ago, something like these

Just unscrewed the old tap innards and screwed these in; perfect!

[Roger Mills]

Problem is that the taps are Victorian style, with heads like these -

- except that they have an antique gold rather than chrome finish. All the lever ones seem to be chrome and - apart from the finish - that style wouldn't fit with the rest of the stuff in the bathroom.

That's good to know - thanks. The blurb which you cite implies that they can be used to replace conventional valves - although it doesn't say so explicitly.

[GB]

I haven't done what you are trying, but the other way around. Replaced a ceramic tap mechanism with a screw type. That works very well.

Tap magician carry a very large range of ceramic cartridges.

[Chris Hogg]

Yes, they replace the old tap mechanism entirely. The coloured washer you can see on the bottom of the ceramic taps makes contact with the face of the old tap body that the original tap washer used to make contact with. You just unscrew the old tap mechanism as if you were going to change the washer, but screw in the ceramic tap in its place.

I'd second GB's suggestion of the Tap Magician:

I see they do half-turn taps as well as quarter-turn ones, which you make think a more appropriate style.

[Roger Mills]

Thanks - I'll have a look.