how to lubricate a monobloc tap

[ashdale]

The reason I had to tighten up a monobloc tap in a previous post is that the mixer spout is rather stiff in the housing and continually moving it out of the way of the plug and then back again caused the whole unit to loosen!

Yes, I know now to hold the the unit in place with one hand before moving the spout away with the other hand. But is there a way I can lubricate the joint? (There may be other users, like guests.) I suspect that as I'm in a hard water area, there could be limescale blocking the joint. Should I trickle limescale remover liquid down the spout? Or WD40? Or anything else?

 

[Burnerman]

I would take the spout off (usually a small allen screw around the back), carefully prise the 'o' rings away and clean the grooves with some wire wool.....then reassemble using some silicone grease (or vaseline at a push).
John

 

[Dave54]

I would take the spout off (usually a small allen screw around the back), carefully prise the 'o' rings away and clean the grooves with some wire wool.....then reassemble using some silicone grease (or vaseline at a push).
John

That's what I did with mine when it went exactly the same. A bit of a judicious internal polish and replaced the o rings as well. The quality of the machining in there was less than stellar and the o rings were getting damaged.

 

[mattylad]

I thought vaseline was harmful to rubber?

Being petrolium based it starts to deteriorate it.

 

[Burnerman]

I thought vaseline was harmful to rubber?

Being petrolium based it starts to deteriorate it.

Probably matty, but it does depend on what type of rubber it is. Chances are, the wear on the tap will nack the seals anyway!
John

 

[Dave54]

One of the snags with o ring kits, or at least the cheapie eBay ones like mine. They don't say what they're made of. The ones in the kit I got feel and look like they might be nitrile rubber which is reasonable oil resistant.
Good reason for getting the right rings for anything critical or difficult to get at though.
As Burner man says the ones in my tap were getting ripped by the roughness inside.