loose kitchem mixer tap

[therustyone]

I replaced the kitchen mixer tap, now fixed by a horshoe shaped metal flange on a threaded rod, about 4mm and a nut on a stainless steel sink and 25mm worktop. This fixing is strong enough to stop the whole unit rotating on the sink top because the tap nozzle is a very stiff to swing around when it's cold. It has a nylon seal for the base of the nozzle. The old tap had a threaded pillar and big nut, approx 1.5" diam which was more secure, also the previous nozzle wasn't so stiff.

Any ideas apart from freeing up the nozzle seal by sanding it down a bit ?

thanks

rusty

[John Rumm]

Getting the awkward fixing nut tight enough usually does the trick. I find a set of these helps enormously:

[Andy Cap]

I think there should also be a rubber washer between the horseshoe washer and the sink. There is also this bracket that will add stability to a large tap on a flimsy SS sink.

[John]

Don't even think about sanding anything - get some Silicone Grease.

[Simon Stroud]

I have fitted one of those on my new (Franke) tap and (Franke) sink.

It looks like it would fit other makes as well because there is nothing unusual about the thin tails and washer/plate that hold the Franke tap in place.

The tap brace was extremely difficult to fit over the pipe tails but once fitted the whole assembly is rock solid. Hopefully it will be long lasting - the tap brace actually fixes under the worktop using double sided sticky pad. This is 3M VHB type so pretty much the best you can get, but ideally I'd have liked to slip in a couple of screws as well. The problem is, at least with my 1.5 bowl sink, it's a right old pain to get your hand up the back of one of the bowls, so popping a couple of screws through the tap brace into the worktop is not easy!

Regards, Simon.

[therustyone]

Andy's brace fitting looks ideal, though it's a tad expensive. It would have to fix on the underside of the worktop which is more than an inch below the base of the mixer tap. The worktop has a 35mm approx circular hole for the H&C pipes which lines up with the hole in the sink, I don't particularly want to take the 1.5 sink unit off the worktop to do a proper job nearer the tap as its nearly 20 years old and the whole lot is due for replacement.

rusty