Removed Screw, Mixer Tap Head Still Stuck

[Ian McD]

I've been trying to take apart this tap to fix it. (The details of the issue aren't important, but I've noticed them below.)

The tap

• Ian McD
• 29 Sep 2017

You can see, below the tap, the plastic cover over, and the Alum key I used to unscrew the...

(Does anyone recognise the make? I didn't keep my original notes, and knowing the make & model would help.)

I've been using this YouTube video about taking taps apart. I have removed the cover for the screw hole, and found the right alum key to remove the screw. It certainly fellt like I managed to remove the screw, and I think it looks like it too:

Hole in tap, showing (hopefully) removed screw

• Ian McD
• 29 Sep 2017

Shining a light into the hole in the tap head.

• Ian McD
• 29 Sep 2017

This should help explain why I think I've successfully removed the screw. Not only did it feel...

According to the advice in the YT video, the top should simply lift off. Instead, it is as fixed to the rest of the tap as it was before; and I can't see anything else to unscrew.

Do you know? Is this a different model with an idiosyncratic way of taking it apart? Or is it just calcified shut with the hard water?

(Why: My mixer tap has slowly progressed from sometimes leaking to letting all the water through. Before, you could close it by turning the handle in a square: from cold off to cold on to hot on to hot off et cetera. I assume some small part, whether a mechanism or a washer, needs fixing.)

 

[footprints]

I would think it is scale, try a kitchen scale remover like Viacal spray squirted into the hole.

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/default.aspx?id=252675391

Also try pushing the handle up then wedge a bit of wood between the spout and the underside edge of the handle where it pivots on the tap and try pushing down to try and lever the top off.

 

[oldbuffer]

Footprints is right. Provided you have removed the grub screw it will pull off with the right amount of force.

You will need to replace the internal cartridge, which will be made of plastic / nylon.

 

[Ian McD]

Thanks footprints - you were right. The collar needed a descale soak too. And you're right too, OldBuffer - the cartridge is crumbling as I try to pull it out!

 

[Ian McD]

Even with descaler, the off-white centre component of the cartridge stays firm (the one with the three holes) whilst the green plastic crumbles around it. Is it time for brute force (perhaps assisted by WD40) or is there a simpler method?

 

[AGAS]

typical bathstore tap

 

[oilboffin]

Yup +1

 

[Ian McD]

So out and reassembled, it seems to be a KCG 40mm cartridge. (It says "KCG" and "(7)" on it), matching this 40mm KCG cartridge from MGM. Except that the cartridge is 64mm high, and mine is 78mm high, and I haven't been able to find a 78mm version. Where should I be looking? Is there a technical term I should be searching for other than height? Have I put it together the wrong way?

And given KCG let me down in the first place, what's a good make?

 

[dilalio]

That mixer is bloody ugly anyway!

Bristan
Hansgrohe
Vado
Crosswater
Ideal standard

Any brand that has some history!

 

[AGAS]

Do yourself a favour and buy a new one

 

[Hot&Cold]

Seen them taps before,there obsolete now and were made by fugly1 ltd.

Search 'hart sanitary 76'

they are usually compatible with fugly1's