The house we just bought has one of the arched kitchen faucets with the pull out sprayer head. The filters in the nozzle are clogged, and so the water flow is horrible for the regular setting, and almost too much on the spray setting. We have great pressure everywhere else, and when the head is removed.
We are on a well so I’m sure it’s sediment in there. We replaced the water line filters and they were filthy. I did do a 24 hr vinegar soak in the hope that it was just mineral buildup but that made virtually no difference.
I bought a “universal” replacement head, but that didn’t fit - even with the various adapters that came with it- because the threads on my unit are very fine and everything else I can find has coarser threads.
So, my question is:
Can I (easily) replace the whole retractable waterline so that I can get a head that fits correctly? I have no idea what model this thing is, I can’t see a brand on it anywhere and could see nothing like it at either Lowe’s or HD. We are out in the middle of nowhere, SC, and those are the most likely places the previous owner would have shopped.
Any thoughts? I’m semi-handy, and my husband and I have a pretty good tool collection but we’ve never done under-sink plumbing work.
If you can remove the head, can you backwash it to flush out the sediment? You may need to get creative to find a way of blowing either water or air in from the nozzle head.
And depending on how hard your water is, you may try soaking it in Lime-Away or CLR. They are likely going to work better than normal vinegar to remove heavy scale.
You may find a replacement either at a small local hardware store or online. Lowe’s or HD are pretty poor when it comes to replacement parts.
I would also give CLR a try.
But honestly, I would replace the whole shebang.
It is likely the entire fixture is getting ready to have problems. In addition to rust and scale, wells can sometimes pull up sand. CLR won’t help that. It is something you can easily do yourselves, though usually a bit of a PIA. You can buy a new fixture for less than $100 at either of those stores.
OR you could get some Teflon tape and try and make the universal head fit. That will probably be only a temporary fix.
I’ve done both of these things.
A plumber will generally use higher quality fixtures.
Are you sure you properly cleaned the faucet head? Just soaking it in vinegar isn’t going to do much. You need to disassemble the parts and clean them with a wire brush or pick to make sure to get all the scaling off. You could also just buy a replacement inlet screen or aerator if that’s the only problem.
If the water runs fine with no leaks and such, it doesn’t make much sense to change the entire hose. It’s just a matter a finding a faucet head that fits. But if you want to replace everything with a hose and head set, it’s fairly easy to do. Just find the connection to the mains underneath the sink and disconnect it with a wrench. Don’t forget to shut off all water valves! If there’s a weight attached to the hose to retract it back into place, detach that as well. Just make sure that the replacement hose and head that you buy will seat properly with the faucet.
I’d love to take it apart, but there’s no way to do that that I can see. I did take the most surface diffuser screen off but whatever’s clogging it is deeper in and I can’t get to it. Nothing unscrews or pries out.
I don’t think scale is the problem, really. nothing else had serious deposits and the water here is pretty soft. I’m sure it’s sand/sediment and CLR etc won’t do anything there.
Maybe I’ll have another shot at finding a good plumbing supply place. I’m not having much luck looking online.
I also have an arched kitchen faucet with pull out sprayer and just cleaned my nozzle. For me it was easy because I knew it’s a Delta and also have the small plastic tool needed to unscrew the nozzle to clean the filter screen. If you know the make of the faucet, go to the manufacturer’s site for either a manual or ideas to remove the nozzle.
It should be possible to unscrew the nozzle without the plastic tool. My tool has 2 prongs allowing it to grip the nozzle and unscrew counter clockwise. A close inspection of your nozzle may allow you to substitute needle nose pliers or something similar to grip and unscrew it. With your well water, you’ll probable see sediment buildup behind the filter screen.
Amazon has a universal removal tool below that may work:
I’d just replace the whole thing. Normally I won’t mess with the plumbing or electricity, but this job is ridiculously easy. The biggest problem is usually just access; can you physically get under the sink to get at the stuff underneath? If you can, it’s mostly just a matter of swapping out a couple of nuts and hoses.
Ditto on how simple it is to replace. I did it about 4 weeks ago, with a very nice faucet under $100 - better quality than what I was replacing. It took about an hour, including emptying out and refilling the cabinet. I only needed a pliers to knock loose the old stuck-on nut under the sink.
Ditto. And that basin wrench will save you a lot of stress and swearing. I don’t know how it was until I was in my 30s that I discovered those things …
I had a somewhat similar issue last year, where my sprayer developed a very small leak, but it was not interchangable with the universal sprayers that are commonly available. I lucked out and managed to find the brand of the faucet/sprayer, and had to look online and buy a replacement sprayer even though there was just one part in the sprayer that needed attention. There just wasn’t a good way to get at the single part of the sprayer that needed attention.
If you still can’t find the brand of the sprayer to replace that, I’m with the others that it may unfortunately be much less hassle to replace everything with a new faucet/sprayer set.
a couple things (coming from someone who installs a few faucets each year - 15 to 25 a year I’d guess)
1stly, check the flow without the head on. might be hard to gauge the flow without a point of reference, and it’s ‘different’ (non aereated) flow, so try using the time it takes to fill a container if it’s not obvious.
if you find the fill time to be the same, next go to your supply lines to back flush the faucet. you’ll have to turn one supply off at its shut off, disconnect its line to the faucet, and turn the faucet on. the pressure from the other side should blow out anything trapped in the faucet.
do that for each side. you’ll want a helper because it’ll come out the sink side too. it’s helpful also to get ahold of each supply line and open the shut off for a second to check flow out the supply line and to flush anything in the line out.
the faucet companies won’t warranty a faucet plugged with sediment, but they will warranty internal parts and mail you the parts for free. that’s something good to know if you’ve got time. you’ll need to find the model number of the faucet. it’s sometimes on a sticker on the underneath side. they’ll also warranty one that’s got a finish problems I believe, so check your finish over fairly well.
saying that faucets are easy to change is typically, but not always accurate. you can definitely run into things that make the job a pain in the ass (rusted fittings, deep dish sinks without having the right tools to get into the tight spots, someone overtightened the shit out of things, shut offs that don’t shut off and need replaced, shut offs that leak after being disturbed, chipped board counter tops flaking apart due to water getting where it shouldn’t have, you needing new supply lines but not knowing they have 4 different sizes possible on the shut off end (3/8 compression is the most likely if you have to guess), . . … I could seriously go on for awhile). anyway, sometimes not just a walk in the park.
delta makes good, field repairable faucets. look to them first