Ideas from Ed: "O" yes! (Volume 8, Issue 3)
- edwardpetrus
- Apr 1
- 2 min read
Doing your own plumbing can be satisfying. It can also be very frustrating. Some things are “givens”:
- Leaks will occur in the most awkward locations, and at the most inconvenient times.
- Things that look like they should leak often don’t, while things that look tightly sealed often leak.
- Plumbing should never start late in the day or on weekends unless you know that stores will be open so you can buy the extra parts you didn’t think you’d need to replace.
Here’s the faucet on my powder room sink:
With no warning whatsoever, it began leaking very badly, but not from the spout – from under the hot water handle.
Based on the location of the leak, I was hoping that the repair would be (unlike most plumbing work) quick and easy.
Nearly all plumbing starts with turning the water off. This sink has a polybutylene valve in the cabinet (more on replacing that another time) which actually turned easily and shut off the hot side. Hallelujah! Often shut-off valves don’t work well, as after a few years they become corroded, the internals fail, or maybe the handle won’t even turn. This one worked as it should, so my confidence in this being an easy project ramped up a couple of notches!
Here’s the shutoff valve:
The hot side of the faucet was the only one that was leaking, so I began by disassembling that side. First the handle-retaining screw was removed:
That allowed the handle to be wiggled and jiggled upward until it was freed from the valve below it.
That valve was held in place by a “bonnet” with a hex-shaped nut atop it. Sometimes retainers like that can be removed using adjustable wrenches, but that risks rounding/stripping the corners of the nut if it’s very tight. It’s much better to use a deep socket (6 point if possible) so no damage will occur:
With the bonnet removed, I took note of the position of the valve. (Take a photo with your phone if need be.) Valves can often be inserted in either of the two opposing directions, with the “wrong” position being “off” when it should be “on” and vice-versa.
With a bit more jiggling and upward pulling using adjustable pliers to grip things, the valve body was extricated from the faucet housing.
If my logic was correct, all that would need done to correct the leakage was to replace the O-ring on that valve body. I happen to have a pretty good collection of O-rings, so I carefully pried the old one from its position. I used a digital caliper to measure for the O-ring, and found an exact replacement:
Installation was the reverse of removal. I wiped on a bit of waterproof plumbing grease to help the O-ring slip more easily into the faucet housing while being installed.
With it all put back together, I slowly turned on the water and looked for leaks. The O-ring did its job, and this faucet works well again!
I hope all your projects go well. Thanks for reading, and happy restoring!
Ed
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