Tap dripping, ceramic washers, how much can you polish them?

[earthman]

Some months ago I did have our kitchen mixer tap inserts apart and tried the tooth paste on a flat sheet of glass trick, it did work but now the taps are dripping/filling up a jug overnight.

My question is, can you over polish/wear these away too much? If I have them apart again, can I make it worse in other words?

I did try getting new inserts last time, no luck in finding a match,.....we do plan on revamping the whole kitchen area in a few months so not really worth spending money on inserts even if I found ones to fit.

I've just noticed this kit on ebay, maybe worth a go for £1.89?.....will they fit all inserts though??

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Valve-Ta...-Gasket-Part-Insert-1-2-UK-/253309752911?var=

 

[brightspark]

screwfix do a few types of inserts under a tenner I think got some for ours

 

[Brad93]

I tried lapping them multiple times in the end I just got new ones.

 

[earthman]

screwfix do a few types of inserts under a tenner I think got some for ours

I did try them last time and another local plumbing shop, no joy.

 

[brightspark]

it might be an ebay job about 25 quid for a decent mixer tap complete

 

[Kayos]

Swap the cartridge or buy a new tap

Ceramic discs wear for fun

 

[earthman]

The whole inserts in taps thing seems a step backwards from using a rubber washer to me.

If the ceramic discs/parts in that ebay link fit ALL inserts then it's probably worth adding them to your toolbox?

 

[brightspark]

ceramic disks are quarter full turn .rubber washers are slow and need a few turns of tap to get full pressure

 

[DAPPH]

Forget Screw Fix , B&Q etc they only do the cheap 8 spline sink cartridges & the bigger cheap bath tap sized units ……... they only do some of the range of taps they sell . My kitchen taps are 18 splines IIRC.

Try :- www.tapmagician.co.uk

Go on their website , interrogate it or ring them , the people on the end of the phone are fantastic . No one anywhere I tried had the type of cartridges , they were all after selling me new taps . There were some ID letters & numbers on the units but no one could help . So I spent several hours going over internets plumbing sites till I came across Tap magician
IIRC Ceramic taps can be 1/8 , 1/4 or 1/2 turns to get full flow .

On ringing www.tapmagician.co.uk , the lass on the phone walked me through things whilst I was on the computer, in matter of seconds we'd found my unusual taps . I chose to buy complete new cartridges & the repair kits ( About £15 for every thing ) for my unique £ 250 plus kitchen extra long neck mono block tap set & a set of repair kits for the removed cartridges , so I have them handy for future times . We have soft Welsh water , strangely it was the hot water cartridge that got killed ... possibly due to hard mineral scale in the hot water system breaking free when we had a new boiler a few months earlier .

The repaired & greased tap cartridges were put in a heavy duty heat seal vac pack bag a with the label for them then vac packed & sealed up & then sealed in yet another bag and stored in the plumbing drawer of the mancupboard .

 

[Brad93]

I did try them last time and another local plumbing shop, no joy.

I had to get mine off the internet. Older model taps from Howdens.

You need a vernier to get the measurements right.

 

[Brad93]

Forget Screw Fix B&Q etc they only do the cheap 8 spline sink cartridges & the bigger bath tap sized units ……... they only do some of the range of taps they sell . My kitchen taps are 18 splines IIRC.

Try :- www.tapmagician.co.uk

Go on their website , interrogate it or ring them , the people on the end of the phone are fantastic . No one anywhere I tried had the type of cartridges they were all after selling me new taps .

The lass on the phone walked me through things whilst I was on the computer. in matter of seconds we'd found my taps . I chose to buy complete new cartridges for my unique £ 200 plus kitchen extra long neck mono block tap set & a set of repair kits for the removed cartridges . so I have them handy for future times . We have soft water , strangely it was the hot water cartridge that got killed ... possibly due to hard mineral scale in the hot water system .

That’s the website I used.

 

[earthman]

How do you know if you have high or low pressure where you live? Wife is looking at new kitchen taps in Screwfix catalog, not all taps can handle the pressure then??

 

[Brad93]

How do you know if you have high or low pressure where you live? Wife is looking at new kitchen taps in Screwfix catalog, not all taps can handle the pressure then??

Can be up to 8bar if I remember correctly. That’s a lot of pressure.

 

[brightspark]

turn the tap on full if you get squirted good style its high pressure if it pees out its low if you fit a high pressure tap on low pressure hardly anything will come out

 

[Alan Reynolds]

Bought a very expensive mixer tap for the kitchen at Wickes with a 5 year guarantee. It started leaking so I contacted the manufacturer. 'We only give a one year warranty' said the manufacturer. Well it's just under a year says I. 'It doesn't cover the taps or O rings' they say. So it covers gubber all then says I. I went back to Wickes and now it's over a year and they say it's out of warranty. I'd saved the website page from when I bought the tap which said 5 years, although it now said 1 year on the new page. I got a complete brand new tap assembly so I now have a complete spare unit if i replace the insert worth just under £300.00.

 

[earthman]

All these guarantees and warranties ain't worth a light hey.

 

[cheb]

FWIW I installed a Pegler 1/4 turn mixer tap over 30 years ago. It doesn't drip and when the swivel joint started leaking I phoned Pegler and they send me new O rings FOC.

They'll get repeat business from me.

 

[WorkshopChris]

How do you know if you have high or low pressure where you live? Wife is looking at new kitchen taps in Screwfix catalog, not all taps can handle the pressure then??

The high /low is normally taken as mains water fed = high or tank fed = low.

 

[earthman]

The high /low is normally taken as mains water fed = high or tank fed = low.

Thanks, would that be like an eco house set up then? Never thought about someone getting their drinking/tap water from a tank.

 

[WorkshopChris]

The hot water can be gravity fed if the tap is designed for mains and its a tank feed the output is just a dribble.