My downstairs toilet hot tap is dripping from the joint nut, but space is so restricted that I can't get any purchase with a spanner or mole grips to undo it:
Do you have a basin wrench like this?
You can get a spanner in there on a slight angle by doing an impression of a vet. Give it a try. You could also get adjustable pliers in although maybe not mole grips. I doubt there is a washer inside by the joint.
There is (or should be, it may have disintegrated) a fibre washer in there. They often leak, as they rely on swelling with damp to seal. I wonder if a suitably sized o rin g would be more effective.
I find a basin wrench quite effective. Like a spanner with the ends bent halfway up extended forks.
That way lies a broken sink, if you try to undo the nut as suggested above. TMH gave you good advice, use a basin/sink wrench, it's intended for the job.
Sadly, that shows a distinct lack of knowledge or understanding about tap connectors. There is/should be a fibre washer which is located over the spigot of the tap connector, the spigot fits inside the threaded pillar of the tap, and the fibre washer is compressed against the end of the pillar when you tighten up the nut on the tap connector.
Bear in mind that different makes of tap spanners might be slimmer - or bulkier. Best to see a selection and decide. You can easily crack the basin if you apply pressure with the wrench jammed against the china.
I have a set of 'crows feet' spanners which fit my socket set. Best thing ever for getting at this sort of thing. Any decent tool shop should stock them.
I followed your advice a couple of weeks ago, and used long flexibles on the bath I fitted.All went well. Or so I thought. I was there again yesterday, and got a complaint that the water for the hot taps was running slowly. Check the downstairs sink - running fine, the 2 hot taps I'd replaced (bath and sink) were both running slowly. Strange. Both iso vales open etc. Thoughts turned to maybe an anti-scald measure in the new taps. OK, he was just going out to Halfords, with Screwfix just down the road, so I asked him to get some full bore iso valves, as the iso valves I had fitted may be constricting the flow.
So when he came back, new 'full bore' valves were fitted. No difference at all. OK, go to take off the tap unions, to see if it is the taps constricting the flow. It was when I was on my back looking up that I saw the flexi connector had a slight kink in it. It can't be that. It was. I shortened the copper pipe by an inch, and the kink was gone. Next onto the 22mm pipe on the bath. Again, a slight kink, right at the top of its bend. Loosened off the compression joint, and twisted it round slightly, and the kink was gone. Bugger. Such a simple fault that wasnt noticed until an hour of investigating had passed. What made it worse was that it was only the hot taps that were running slowly - both cold taps were running fine, with no kinks at all in the flexi pipes, so I concluded it must have been a fault with the hot feed.
Ha well, more experience if such a thing happens again. Alan.
Why are these washer fibre and not rubber? I made the mistake of tightening one up too much on a shower, and it split into 2 'O' s, and obviously leaked everywhere when I turned on the water. On inspecting a new one, they are pretty flimsy things.
I'd have thought a rubber waasher would be better. Alan.
Traditionally fibre washers were used for hot-water taps and rubber for cold.
So it wasn't the washer that was faulty, it was the way it was installed..... :-)
I can only guess that rubber may perish/deriorate quicker at the higher temperature. Personally I've never had any probs with fibre washers, I wonder perhaps if yer average DIYer is prone to overtightening plumbing fittings - 'Just give it that last crack, make sure it's good and tight'.
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