I'm refurbishing a quarter turn mixer tap which I saved when ripping out a kitchen, for use in another kitchen. AFAICR, the 1/4 turn valves were fine, but I just took them apart and cleaned them anyway. They have a rubber sleeve which sits in the tap body where the valve seat would be on a conventional tap, and seals against the bottom of the ceramic insert. One of these is slightly deformed due to having got badly position when the tap was originally assembled, although it didn't leak. It might do now of course -- are these standard items available from anywhere? Should the ceramic parts be lubricated with anything?
The other problem with the mixer was it had started to leak from the spigot swivel. Using one hell of a lot of force, I managed to pull the spigot off, and the two O-rings need replacing. Any suggestions where I might buy a very small quantity of O-rings of very specific sizes (they're different of course)? I looked in my O-ring stock of various odds and ends collected over the years, and I don't have any with thick enough cross section. Also what about lubricating these? Is silicone grease as used with push-fit plumbing OK?
BTW, the name stamped on the valve body is Tantofex -- don't know if they made just the valve body ot the whole tap.