With the new technology in faucet construction, you be might be wondering “why a video on old washer style faucets?” Because their are still millions of these in service today, not to mention these are still readily available.
In the New York City area you can walk into any local hardware store and purchase them.
By now you realize that I do a fair amount of my demonstrations on fairly new products which makes the video move along smoothly. In real life your going to be faced with handles that won’t come off, seats that refuse to come out and bib screws that are frozen in place.
Back in the day, we would go through the motions to get the job done, in todays world it’s more cost effective to replace the fitting. If you check out the video, I walk you through the motions on exactly how to replace the stems and seats in a laundry sink faucet.
In addition to the video, I want to point out some tips to be aware of:
a.when replacing the seat, some guys like to wrap a little teflon around the threads before installing it. I don’t always do this but in an older faucet, it’s good insurance.
b.before you install the new stem, make sure it’s in the fully open position, if you don’t you will damage it and render it useless.
c.Always have some waterproof silicone lubricant available (not the caulking) it’s specifically for lubricating faucet parts. It’s available at any big box store or plumbing supply house.
I fully take apart and lubricate the stems and also place a fair amount inside the handle before putting it back onto the stem. This will insure you can remove it in the future. One more important tip is to make sure you have the correct replacement stems (i.e. hot, cold ,left, right etc.).
If you’re not sure , check out my video titled “How to identify hot from cold water stems.”
If you follow the the steps I’ve laid out in the video your repair should be fairly routine, if you get stuck you can always drop me a line at info@bobsplumbingvideos.com.
HAPPY PLUMBING!
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