Fix a Leaky Faucet - PEP BB plumbing.sand.tiny.leakyfaucet

Had a kitchen faucet that the wife has been wanting fixed for a while, so I got it done today after watching the videos yesterday. First time I’ve ever done this, so it was a good experience. My 7 year old son was my helper, as well as he is a big motivator for me coming to the first PEP1 workshop!

I hope it still counts if I had supervision... lol

I plumbed rainwater into my greenhouse the other day.  Instead of buying a new faucet I found an old one in the plumbing parts bin that I had been holding onto.  It was too old for use on a house but perfect for this application.  Unfortunately after I put it in and opened the valve at the rainwater tank, I could hear air leaking out of the valve.  So I took it off and moved into the garage.  I expected to find a worn out rubber washer but the washer was in great shape.  Not that I've seen many of these but it was pristine.  There was some plastic-like junk sitting on the seat where the washer sits though.  I cleaned that out, put it back together and now it doesn't leak!

Pro tip:  The brass nut that I took off was a bit undersized for a standard "English" wrench so I found that a metric wrench actually fit better.  

I guess a shower head would be classified as a kind of faucet.

Slow leak that proved hard to get an action shot of. Thankfully all it took was to loosen things, clean some lime scale , adjust the handle, then tighten it back up. No need to purchase new parts.

I fix a leaking Price Pfister faucet by replacing the o-rings

The faucet in the bathroom had been having trouble for some time, with it being difficult to turn the cold tap all the way down and drips occurring from time to time. Then, one day while trying to turn it off, the knob came off in my hand and I couldn't put it back on! Talk about a leak!

I managed to turn the water off with some vicegrips and then had time to look at what was going on. As you can (hopefully) see, the bolt holding the handle on was totally stripped, taking on a tapered cone shape. This faucet dates back to the 1990s or earlier, and has seen some abuse. I looked at getting a replacement part from the company, or getting a new set of knobs, but with the supply chain crisis, the former was challenging and the latter would have cost $90 for an equivalent pair of metal ones!

So I got a stainless bolt and stainless washers to make the same shape and installed them. Fixed the immediate problem of having no knob, as well as the leak that had been occurring previously!

Fixed a leaky faucet in the bath today. I took a variety of tools as I've had trouble before. Luckily I only needed the adjustable spanner today.

Hmm it was leaking heavily to my eye in the first photo but my phone didn't capture it. Should have used video I suppose.

Fixed a leaky outdoor shower today. It had two problems:
1. The threads on the riser were leaking
2. the washers inside the valves were worn out and cracked from over tightening.  

You’ll notice mold and algae on the decking showing that is staying wet.  The end if the video is scanning the entire fixture just to show that it isn’t leaking.  Sorry about the crappy videography, it had gotten dark by the time I got back from the store with the needed washers and I didn’t have my tripod with me.

Pro Tip: use both pipe joint compound (pipe dope) and teflon tape for threaded connections, it is messy but worth it.  Also use pipe dope where two hard surfaces come together as I did on the union fittings for this fixture.  It makes your work a lot less leak prone. You’ll often find this on slip joint p-trap fittings.  



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