She complained the flow from the hot at the kitchen sink mixer had suddenly reduced yesterday, after dinner. Its a normal tap with conventional washer, rather than a quarter turn cartridge type.
Isolated the hot supply, removed the tap, fitted a new washer, cleaned it all up and all seemed fine. Re-installed, same problem, then I realised there was supposed to be some sort of circlip (a thicker squared type) on the spindle, to make it open up as the tap is turned on - but it was missing, no where to be seen. Nowhere in sight and it could not have escaped with the tap handle/top in place, it was too close fitting, yet it must have been absent before I began pulling it apart.
As luck would have it, I had a 'tap refurb kit' in stock, in my garage, which was a perfect match for the original, so I just fitted that.
Best guess so far, is that the circlip was absent when I installed it 10 years ago and pressure has been able to push it up. I had no reason to remove the top to install it, or since then apart from yesterday.
Isolated the hot supply, removed the tap, fitted a new washer, cleaned it all up and all seemed fine. Re-installed, same problem, then I realised there was supposed to be some sort of circlip (a thicker squared type) on the spindle, to make it open up as the tap is turned on - but it was missing, no where to be seen. Nowhere in sight and it could not have escaped with the tap handle/top in place, it was too close fitting, yet it must have been absent before I began pulling it apart.
As luck would have it, I had a 'tap refurb kit' in stock, in my garage, which was a perfect match for the original, so I just fitted that.
Best guess so far, is that the circlip was absent when I installed it 10 years ago and pressure has been able to push it up. I had no reason to remove the top to install it, or since then apart from yesterday.
