Lever taps stiff to operate

Hi there, new to the forum and would like some advice on the following problem please:
I have a lever tap on the bathroom sink and also on the bath. Both are quite stiff to operate, and the one on the sink also makes a noise when you operate it. It sounds a bit like an old door with hinges that need oiling, if that make sense. It is also quite jerky. I have removed the top of the tap to take a look, and also slightly slackened the brass nut that holds the "workings" in place. This seemed to make matters better for a bit, but now back to square one. It also seems to be worse when the tap has been running with hot water for a while.
The taps are only about 18 months old. Any ideas gratefully received!

Turn water off, dismantle completely, grease with silicone grease, change washer, reassemble and it'll be better than new.
If it's a quarter turn type with a ceramic insert stuffed in 18 months; tough, need to buy better taps!

ChrisR said:

Turn water off, dismantle completely, grease with silicone grease, change washer, reassemble and it'll be better than new.
If it's a quarter turn type with a ceramic insert stuffed in 18 months; tough, need to buy better taps!

Click to expand...

It's a lever mixer, that's all I know! 1/4 turn, don't know if it's ceramic disc or not. Still worth trying the grease?

Finally got round to sorting this. When I removed the cartridges, I found that they worked perfectly. So I carefully dismantled the top ball joint, cleaned and packed with the grease, reassembled the whole thing, but didn't fully tighten the nut/ring that holds the cartridge in place. The taps now work like new!
Thanks

Sorry to resurrect this thread, but I have just found it.

I have just learnt a valuable lesson or, rather, two. Don't spray WD40 into your tap!

I did that with a single-lever mixer tap in our bathroom, thinking it would make it a little easier and smoother to operate. It didn't. It became much stiffer and, like the OP's, jerky and sounding like a rusty hinge.

My wife wasn't exactly pleased, but didn't threaten divorce; she is used to me fiddling with things to make them 'better'.

Not to be deterred, I managed to remove the cartridge from the tap and completely dismantle it. I cleaned it as best I could in cold water and enjoyed an educational hour trying to put it back together again: why don't the thin rubber seals go back into their cut-outs? They did eventually with the aid of a narrow screwdriver.

Anyway, the tap now works as well as it ever did. Like the OP, I didn't fully tighten the nut that holds the cartridge in place. Perhaps, now that I am an 'expert', I'll dismantle it again and coat it in silicone grease - where can I get it?

The two valuable lessons:
- don't use WD40
- make sure you put the discs back the right way round!