As per this thread, our kitchen faucets keep dying. We’ve lived here for 14 years and this is the fourth replacement - and most of them were good faucets from a well-known manufacturer.
One of them basically froze in place - it could not be moved from one side to the other. The others just sprung leaks. We’ve never had this kind of problem in any other house (including the one I grew up in which had water so hard you could stub your toes on it).
A housemate who has fish has tested the water from her bathroom faucet and it’s not especially hard. The house we used to live in, 1.7 miles away, got its water from the same supply and we had no issues there in 12 years.
So what else could we be looking for? Something funky just in the lines that feed the kitchen faucet?
I don’t think we’re especially brutal with the faucets - and the part I’d expect to fail due to wear and tear would be the hose from the sprayer head (it’s one of those with a built-in sprayer in the main unit, versus a separate one that comes up in a different part of the sink).
Without the failed unit and a microscope, I don’t know what a stranger could tell you.
I remodeled a 1918 house (the previous owner had upgraded to copper plumbing, bless her).
I installed Delta 522’s in the baths and a Delta in the sink. About 1985-86.
Do not use the polished brass from delta - it is a cheap brass wash over their very good bright chrome. Brass and chrome should plate very well, but the 522 failed.
The bathtub/shower were never a problem, not even a cosmetic problem.
IOW: I love Delta faucets on Kohler fixtures.
Back to OP:
For a frequently-used faucet to freeze, I think we can rule out sediment build-up.
If this occurs only on the kitchen faucet, there is probably something you do with it that is so common you are not even aware of it, and that “something” is eating faucets.
I am assuming you have removed the aerator (?) on the nozzle and tested flow without it.
If the flow reduces gradually, build-up on it may be the problem.
Things like sediment buildup - that’s the kind of suggestion I was looking for. I’m wondering now - when we turned off the water to the sink, then turned it off a little while later, what came on was really brown. I’ve seen that kind of thing when we’ve turned off the whole house’s water supply, but this seemed a bit extreme.
I wonder if some kind of in-line water filter might be useful?
ugg…Moen:mad: cartridges too fancy for their own good. I also think that chinese metal and products leave something to be desired. Our california hard water just eats our fixtures up. That and the chlorine.
Filter should help you with water quality, at least sediments and stuff. Water line pressure or flow changes can dislodge gunk from the pipes, even affecting whole neighborhoods.
My city treats its municipal water with lime rather than with chlorine, and the result is that most faucets, fixtures, and hot water heaters have short life spans due to buildup and calcification. I’m on my third kitchen faucet in 8 years. You might check to see if there are similarly quirky things going on where you live.
IMO as a DIY dude …
If you’re getting brown gunk from a faucet after turning off the angle cock in the cabinet under the sink then turning it back on you’ve got massive corrosion in that valve or the lines leading from it to the faucet. Which corroded junk builds up in the faucet innards until it jams or clogs.
If “turned off the water to the sink” means some valve further upstream, then the problem is that valve or downstream to it.
Changing the faucet won’t help. Neither will a whole-house water filter. You need to change the corroded plumbing.
Any sort of inline water filter you might place in the feed to the sink will be unsatisfactory. You’d need one for hot and one for cold. And those things flow water at about 2x the rate of the drinking water dispenser in your fridge. OK for that use but nowhere near enough flow rate for a kitchen sink you use for filling pots and washing dishes.
The brown water was after turning it off at the feeder valve just under the sink. Of course, when we’ve had to turn off water for the whole house, all the sinks spit brownish water for a minute.
I think - but am not certain - that most of the household plumbing is PVC - which I thought wouldn’t corrode. Certainly the immediate feeders are some kind of metal, and my husband is planning on changing out the sink’s valves while he’s at it (he’s done that before), as we’ve had trouble getting it to turn the kitchen water completely off.
Sediment builds in plumbing pipes, and generally sits there til you turn off the water, drop pressure then turn it back on, then it stirs up that sediment.