Two little TAP questions for Christmas Eve !!

[electricalkid]

Merry Crimbo one and all. My kitchen tap is not behaving itself. Its a monobloc with swivel arm (don't know make) Fault one, when running either hot or cold some water seeps out from the swivel arm joint, is this easy to fix ? there is a small grub screw at the back of the tap which if I can find a small enough screwdriver and then get it to turn should presumably let me yank off the swivel arm, what am I likely to see is the trouble ?? and the second fault is that when running the hot only the tap doesn't flow properly, seems to jump and no water comes out until I turn it almost fully on, in other words there is no control over the water flow. Am I right in thinking that this is a fault with the inner mechanism (dirty/grungie) - if I take the tap top off and unscrew the thingymajig and lift it out (having first drained down the system) what fault am I likely to find, is this fixable or is it poss to just buy the replacement tap innerds. Thought about replacing the tap in total but having squinted underneath I would have one hell of a job getting the old tap off, and don't really want to take the kitchen sink and waste out. Any help would be appreciated, before you all get totally bladdered on your Xmas Babycham

 

[Agile]

If you unscrew the small grub screw you will probably find you can twist the arm and get it off, possibly only at one rotational point though.

You will probably see two rubber"O" rings and you will need to replace then. Just to make things difficult for you they will probably be different sizes. I have a large and expensive kit of different sizes but I think that B&Q may have a little pack of a few sizes, probably not the ones you need though!

The jumping water delivery may be more difficult to fix and is caused by worn internal bits. Sometimes a little PTFE tape will take up the wear and stop the problem.

Tony Glazier

 

[keego]

When you take off the swivel arm you will find two O rings, replace them & give them a good smear of silicone grease & that should sort that problem. As for the other one, if it has two tap heads on the mixer then it's a straight forward replacement, B&Q sell replacement tap heads for a couple of quid each.

 

[keego]

Beat me to it, I really must learn to type faster.

 

[electricalkid]

thanks guys, and Merry Xmas !!

 

[electricalkid]

Sods law or what !! - just back from B&Q got a new tap innerders (value) fits a treat, but now the original tap top doesn't fit over the spleens of the value, neither does the little screw fit in the top of the valve - talk about one step forward two back - oh well, perhaps thats the last of the bad luck for this year and things will get better in 2006 !!!