Replacing sink washer without draining system

[Kimberley88]

Then if things go wrong you only have 100 gallons to train off, a lot better than the reservoir.

Best take precautions ...

 

[Gasguru]

Turn of immersion heater if in use.

Turn on another hot tap, go up to cold storage cistern.

Stick arm in and feel which is the feed to the cylinder - take care not to get thumb sucked into pipe!.

Turn off other tap.

Trim an old carrot to size and jam in pipe (fresh don't seal so well).

Unless pipework to cistern is very old scaled up steel this will normally seal well.

Grip tap body with large spanner, grips etc to prevent swivelling before undoing valve.

G

 

[chrishutt]

Trim an old carrot to size and jam in pipe

Aparently parsnips work better .

 

[Gasguru]

Normal or organic?

 

[chrishutt]

Organic of course. You don't want pesticide residues getting into water supply.

 

[ChrisR]

Proved again today that the rubber cone things don't work where there are internal splines in the tank connector. Do they make waterproof cordless drills?

 

[kevplumb]

buy some carrots tight a*se

 

[homertimpson]

My mate came over on Sunday to help me with the job - turned the tap on and nothing came out as expected.
However, he pulled and pushed the tap handle half a dozen times and lo and behold the water flow is back to normal!!

When pulling at the cold tap there is no movement - the hot moves only a fraction - and by that I mean you can 'feel' it 'move' an absolute fraction.

When the hot water is flowing, and you push down ever so slightly on the hot tap, the water all but stops.

I tried taking the red cover off to tighten the screw below - but the damn thing wouldn't budge. Seems like I'll have to gouch it out [and no doubt damage the tap at the same time?].

I move house next week and need to sort this before I go - I just know that if I leave it as is, the thing will work fine for the next 10 days and 'freeze' again within days of the new buyers moving in.

Homer

 

[ChrisR]

SOunds like they've jammed up with limescale. You have to take the tops off to get at the bits anyway , but then you could just swap the tap tops for new mechanism + tops, which are quite cheap. They get call tap revivers, tap swops, etc. ABout a fiver for a pair.

 

[homertimpson]

Cracked it eventually!!

The little stopper eventually came off with a fine screwdriver after several attempts. On removing the tap head a little circlip thingy fell out - this apparently acts as spacer in some way ?? to prevent the tap spindle from going down too far??

Anyway, it was pretty loose when I tried to put it back in place - so I gingerly tightened it with those special clamps I have, [my teeth], and put it back in position.

Tap now works perfectly as before.

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice - I shall return

Regards

Homer

 

[Nige F]

Cracked it eventually!!

a little circlip thingy fell out - this apparently acts as spacer in some way ?? to prevent the tap spindle from going down too far?? Yes indeed

Anyway, it was pretty loose when I tried to put it back in place - so I gingerly tightened it Fine..............Tap now works perfectly as before. Good

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice - I shall return You will when the circlip falls in 2 Just a matter of time

Homer

 

[homertimpson]

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice - I shall return You will when the circlip falls in 2 Just a matter of time

Please let it last at least one more week - I move home on Thursday