Ceramic tap problem

[Bob Minchin]

A year or so back I got fed up with our very hard water causing our conventional basin & bath taps becoming very stiff due to scale build up in the operating threads and requiring an annual strip down and descale/grease. I bought some 1/4 turn ceramic taps from Screwfix and all but one (hot, basin tap) are fine. This one is obviously dripping very very slowly and leaving a scale tell tale in the basin. Today I stripped the tap down to component level and the ceramic discs look unblemished and have a high gloss on the working surfaces and no signs of scale build up inside the tap head body. The internal O ring is resilient and applies gentle pressure on the discs when assembled.

Do these taps sometimes drip? My hot water system is low pressure with a header tank so only about 8' head. Do these taps need higher pressure to seal reliably?

TIA

Bob

[Gio]

Hi Bob, We have had ceramic taps fitted to our Kitchen and utility room since 1994 and they have been exceptional in that they get a lot of use and have worked well with no leaks. -(soft water area) Like you my h/w has a low head height but that has not caused a problem or lead to leaks even though the cold water is mains pressure fed. I could not comment on the Screwfix taps but would imagine they would work as well as a Lidl unit we bought last year.

Gio

[Bob Minchin]

Thanks Gio, Sounds like they are working for you as i would expect them to for me. cheers

Bob

[Peter Parry]

With a German set we have I've found the ceramic bits last well but the cartridge assembly has a brass outer casing and that wore down at the tap end. The result was that the silicon rubber pressure pad wasn't exerting enough pressure on the ceramic bits and a slight leakage occurred. The solution was to machine a couple of stainless steel washers to go at the opposite end to the ceramic discs to get the spacing right again and reduce wear on the brass.

As you have hard water, when you dismantle the cartridge let the ceramic bits soak in descaler before reassembly in case a bit of scale build up has taken place.