Progress?

[Jeff Layman]

How to fix a dripping tap:

[alan_m]

:)

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

I personally feel that there is a law of nature we have not yet fully appreciated that goes around slackening off taps and valves when you are not looking According to my neighbour, this is particularly active when the weather is below freezing on outside taps. grin. Brian

[Chris Hogg]

Is that fair? All you really need are replacements for the two alumina pieces, the white bits, which are the equivalent of the rubber washer.

[Jeff Layman]

You might have to replace the rubber "O" rings too.

In my case the whole fixture was (a) loose, in that you could push back the top of the tap and it would move the ceramic valve stem about 1mm, and (b) went past the 90° quarter turn by 10° or 15°. I had dismantled it and cleaned the ceramic inserts carefully after soaking in citric acid (we have hard/very hard water here), and reassembled it but it made no difference.

It just reminded me of a somewhat similar problem concerning the replacement of a bath tap "washer" I'd posted about here in June last year. (see

) It required a "washer" like these: , although I'd been able to cut a single rubber washer to fit.

More "progress"...

[Michael Chare]

But how long do each type last? So far I have only had to change the old ones, but I know that getting the right size bits to repair the new type will be difficult as there is a wide selection of sizes.

[Jeff Layman]

Indeed. Although some comments are quite old, at

the one and two star reviews often point to sizing issues with the ceramic disc replacements.

That was the main reason I went with the complete replacement, although there are quite a few different sizes of those too - including the number of splines! If you look at some of the specialist sites, there appears to be an often bewildering range of replacement units.

[Fredxx]

You need to add this to the LHS

Plus the obligatory cursing because the tap has gotten stiff and still drips.

[brian]

In message <sml7mq$1mn$ [e-mail], Jeff Layman [e-mail] writes

The old ones also needed a bit of greased packing string under the collar to stop the spindle leaking . The engineering term is " stuffing box" m'lud.

Brian

[Andrew]

You forgot a seat cutter to reinstate a nice flat surface for that old tap washer to sit onto.

[John Brown]

Andrew [e-mail] wrote

You hardly ever need to use one if you don?t let it drip for a long time before replacing the washer.

[Steve Walker]

Not always necessary though.

I had a leaky bath tap when I bought this house. Opened it up and the washer was cut almost through ... with a nice metal shard (looked brass) trapped across the seat. The seat itself was fine.

[Jeff Layman]

Never needed one in goodness know how many years, even for leather washers.

[The Natural Philosopher]

My brand new tap ripped through its first washer in a year, and the second in 6 months.

There was a flaw in the brass casting. Took me ages to cut past it

[The Natural Philosopher]

Depends on whether or not you have hard water

[Andrew]

You obviously don't live in Epsom where taps and kettles have a very short life.

[Steve Walker]

You should try here - 20 year old kettles look like new. I remember carrying out titrations in school, which showed that our water is almost as soft as distilled water!

[John Brown]

Andrew [e-mail] wrote

Still means your original is only true for some.

[Brian]

ROTFL.

I was told, although I?m not saying I believe it, modern taps will never need to be repaired in terms of curing drips.

I?ve not had one start to drip, yet?

[The Natural Philosopher]

I had one on the original kitchen tap in what house was here before I built this one.

The seven years I lived there till I tore it down, it still dripped. Ceramic thing, limescale.

That house was covered in limescale. driving force behind the water softener in the new one