Every now and then, when I turn on my kitchen faucet, no water comes out. It’s the kind where there’s one lever that you push up to get water, down to turn water off, left to get it hotter, and right to get it colder. So I turn it off and rotate it around a bit, and eventually it works, and I get full water flow. Then it’s fine for a while, and eventually fails in the same way again.
Kind of irritating, but I can live with it. However, is it about to break completely on me? Can I repair it, or do I just need to replace the faucet? What’s going on inside it?
I don’t know - I presume it’s builder installed, and I’m not the original owner. If I start to take it apart, will the be evidence of brand and model somewhere?
Usually, on this type of faucet cartridge, there is a “U” shape clip attached to the cartridge that opens/closes the water flow with movement of the handle lever. The faucet must be partially dismantled to locate and inspect it. However, when going that far, you may as well replace the entire cartridge but only if you believe the entire faucet is valuable enough to repair instead of replacing.
If it’s a quality faucet, the brand name should be displayed on the exterior of the unit but if it’s an inexpensive builders grade unit, I would opt to replace the entire faucet if it’s more than 5 years old. There is no way to determine how long the existing faucet will function.
I have a similar tap on my kitchen sink and I hate the blasted thing. My limited knowledge of plumbing (from a relation who was a plumber) tells me that the innards of the tap are at risk of far more wear and tear than a normal two taps/one spout system, due to the sideways and up and down movement (as opposed to the twist to turn on and off movement on a normal tap)
It did go through a phase where if I turned it to the right it wouldn’t lift up, I had to turn it left, then twist it to the right.
First chance I get, it’s gone and is getting replaced .
If you buy a new one, go to a plumbing supply rather than a big box and ask for their advice. Many so-called high end fixtures are now made with plastic innards that are prone to breaking and nearly impossible to replace.
The evidence should be on the outside of the fixture. Sometimes it is just the brand label rather than the full name. If necessary take the cartridge out, take it with you to the hardware store. See if they have anytthing like it. If you are having problems with it now and remove it there is a good chance it will have to be repaired before putting it backin. So be prepaired to replace the fixture completely.
What ever you do do not purchase any off brand fixture unless it is really cheap.
I’ve got a similar kitchen faucet - Moen, if I recall. It was dribbling from the base, so I got a new cartridge for it. Start taking it apart, but it was more complicated than I expected, so I decided to put it back together while I still could. (In retrospect, I was probably just one step away from exposing the cartridge.)
When I got it back together, it was no longer leaking and hasn’t since. At least I’ve got the spare cartridge now for any future problems.
I’m having a real pain getting the faucet out of my sink. There’s one nut that I can’t seem to get to turn without rotating the whole assembly it’s connected to. I suspect I need to cut through this - is a Dremel the right tool for that?
There must be a curse on Dopers’ faucets. There was another thread a few months ago and now mine is showing symptoms of failure: sometimes the flow is very poor.
Can’t you grasp you whole assembly with a pair of channel locks or vice grips while you rotate the nut, or can you not reach that far? Perhaps someone can help you to hold the assembly while you turn the nut.
This may not be relevant in your case, but a build-up of air at a high point in the hot-water pipework can form an airlock and cause the water not to flow to the tap.
When this has happened to me in the past, I used the following method to refill the hot-water line with water.
With a separate hot and cold water tap, I would connect a flexible pipe between the two taps and turn them both on. The water from the cold tap would flow back up the hot-water line, quickly forcing the air back into the tank with a satisfying bubbling sound.
With a combined hot/cold water faucet, the same effect can be achieved simply by blocking the outlet with your finger and turning it on to the mid position, again forcing the cold water up the hot-water line.