How to remove handle on bathroom sink tap?

[J. Tailor]

Hello,

Here's a picture of a bathroom sink tap. I think it's by Pegler.

(Delete the hyphen in tiny-pic above, needed to get past local anti-spam uribl.com, sorry.)

I'm struggling to find out how to remove the headgear. Pulling the handle hasn't worked, although I'm wary of using too much force in case that's the wrong thing. There's no retaining screw visible. It's not obvious that the end cap pops off where the gold rings start. Can anyone suggest what to try and the level of force to use?

I want to get to the innards because it's dripping... It's quarter-turn on a typical domestic combi-boiler installation, the output is divided; hot water comes out the left half of the spout, cold the right half.

The hot side of the tap has started to drip. The frequency has slowly increased, I'd say it's now faster than a drip a second, although it varies a little through the day. Sometimes the tap will start a high-pitched whistling. That can continue for about a minute and will then be replaced by a fast noisy vibration in the tap and pipework as if it's some kind of water hammer. It can be quelled by twisting and holding the handle in the off direction, even though it's already fully off, but if you let go the whistling/hammering noise returns instantly.

So instead I have to heat up the body of the tap where the handle joins it by turning the tap on for a bit, the handle then becomes stiffer to turn, presumably due to expansion somewhere, and when returned to off the noises will have stopped and the dripping will have slowed. The dripping soon returns to normal as the tap cools. Obviously, a dripping hot tap and a combi boiler is a bad combination, the boiler is firing up every twenty minutes.

This is my first faulty ceramic disc tap. Is this typical of a failing cartridge? Can I temporarily swap the hot and cold cartridges to check the fault also moves, even though that means the taps will need to be turned the other way to normal?

Thanks, Jack.

[Jim K]

expect the handles will come off by pulling in line - axially

We have similar tho seperate upright bathroom taps with no grub screws or other visible means and that's how ours come off - i.e. for us straight up with a fair bit of wiggling! For you straight out but sideways IYSWIM.

ISTR there can be a lot of agro getting the proper cermaic cartridge to replace the faulty one as there are loads of subtly different sizes/ specs/fitments etc. Usual advise is go to (posss several) plumbers merchants armed with what you take off and ensure you buy the correct "hand" replacement (else as you note the tap will work fine but "backwards" when fixed).

There's a UK shop website with pics etc with loads of different cartridges for sale - if you can be certain what you want.....

Cheers Jim K

[Scott M]

Just to add my 2p, I'd be expecting the silver caps to unscrew at the gold section. (The top is then held to the cartridge by a grubscrew.)

A left hand cartridge can easily be converted into a right hand cartridge by realigning the discs inside. Did this myself recently.

[Jim K]

sounds interesting - can you describe plse?

Cheers Jim K

[J. Tailor]

Right, I've tried that a bit but will give it a bit more wiggle welly. Thanks.

Will do. That also suggests I can swap existing hot and cold and make sure the drip swaps too.

Jack.

[J. Tailor]

This had occurred to me, but nothing happened when I gave it a quick try. Do you think the join is such so the cap is the silver bit, or does the cap have any of the gold rings too?

I can see what looks like a join where silver meets gold, and can get the blade of a knife to sit in the groove, but working it round doesn't widen the groove, just removes some limescale, so perhaps you're right and it unscrews rather than pops off. I'll purloin some Marigolds and see if the extra grip helps.

Thanks, Jack.

[J. Tailor]

No matter. The Marigolds and the extra welly paid off. Yes, I am still on topic. The whole handle pulled off with quite a bit of wiggle, as Jim K suggested. It has Pegler imprinted on the inside of the handle which confirms what I suspected.

Thanks to both of you for the help. Onwards now to the next stumbling block. :-) No doubt I will return.

Thanks, Jack.

[Scott M]

Ooh, now you're asking me something. It was one of those "know it's possible, do it, forget it" things! IIRC, the ceramic disc that rotates can be realigned by 90 degrees. This then makes, of the pattern of holes in the discs, what was open, closed and vice-versa. It becomes fairly obvious when you've got it in bits.

[The Medway Handyman]

I wos going to say they unscrew cos I've come across them before!

The cartridge may be in a recess so you might nee a box spanner or socket. When you go to your 'real' plumbers merchant take the cartridge, top/handle and the securing screw - they vary.

[Jim K]

just goes to show ;>)

Cheers Jim K

[John]

Try this:

[Jim K]

Jim K

[Scott M]

Far too often in life I end up thinking "They'd never be so daft as to do *this* *that* way." And, of course, they are!

[Jim K]

KISS applies sometimes!

Jim K

[Scott M]

I think they actually apply MIOS - Make It Overly Simple! :-)