Ceramic tap valve refurbishment

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andya700

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Our kitchen tap has been dripping very slightly for a while, and last week the slight drip turned into a constant drip. I phoned around for a plumber but got ridiculous quotes of around £70 minimum, so decided to try to do it myself. Fortunately I have isolator valves for both hot and cold and it is the hot which is the culprit. Then I got in touch with the tap manufacturer, to find out if it could be fixed. They said that you can take the tap gland apart, descale it, coat the ceramic discs with silicon grease and if you are lucky it should not leak. Failing that they could sell me a tap gland for £14.
So, yesterday I started the job, and the first obstacle was taking the cap off the end of the lever, which eventually gave way under extreme persuasion (we live in a hard water area, so everything siezes up). As the gland was easy to remove, I decided to try local plumbers merchants and screwfix for a replacement - 6 shops later and no luck, so I arrived home with just a little tub of silicon.
I took the gland apart today, soaked everything in Scale Away, and it came up like new. I then coated everything in silicon grease, put it back together - - - - - and it still leaks:mad::mad::mad:
So, I have now ordered one and hopefully I can fit it on Monday or Tuesday.
Has anyone else tried to clean these ceramic valve/glands up, and did it work?
 
I had a similar problem with a kitchen tap from IKEA. I asked them if they could supply a new ceramic valve and they no, not available - but the old ceramic valve should not have failed, so they sent me a whole new tap, foc.
 
john.margetts said:
I had a similar problem with a kitchen tap from IKEA. I asked them if they could supply a new ceramic valve and they no, not available - but the old ceramic valve should not have failed, so they sent me a whole new tap, foc.
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Lucky man, ours was 6 or 7 years old, and the taps were in great shape, so you were lucky.
Wish we had gone to IKEA.
 
kendo1 said:
They should last 10 to 15 years but I've come across this quite a few times.

B&Q and Screwfix sell replacements for common sizes so it must be fairly common.
http://www.diy.com/search?Ntt=ceramic+tap+
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Thanks for the link. I went in my local B&Q on Friday and asked, and the guy said they didn't have any ceramic valves, just the old style washer type.
The first three valves on that link, have 20 teeth (which refers to the splines for the lever handle fitting), but mine have 28 teeth. My taps are Franke. I hope that the new one arrives tomorrow.
 
Check the washer at the end of the gland, the one that should seal the gland against the tap body. Coat that in silicon grease or if it looks bad find an O ring of the right size and put that into the tap body before screwing the gland back in.
 
Ok, but dont tell the wife that. I trust that you are creative in your photography, now you must be creative in your storytelling, how difficult it was,how long it took etc. !!
Unless of course she was watching you........
 
daveh said:
Ok, but dont tell the wife that. I trust that you are creative in your photography, now you must be creative in your storytelling, how difficult it was,how long it took etc. !!
Unless of course she was watching you........
Click to expand...

That's not creative! I'd have told her I'd paid a plumber £90 cash to sort it & ask her to get me the cash back next time she's in town. ;)
 
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