Leaky Faucet Help

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Danelle O'Shea

Joined
Mar 22, 2001
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My bathtub faucet is leaking hot water. It is getting progressively worse and neither hubby or I are very house-handy.

The tub has two knobs, hot and cold, a faucet and a disc with a handle to plug the drain. The water leaking is very hot, and is definitely coming out of the faucet. I took the screw out of the hot water knob and took the knob off but I don't see anything obvious.

Some people say "it's the washer" which means nothing to me. In my world, the washer is the big square machine downstairs that sits next to the dryer.

Is this something we can fix ourselves? Or do I need to call the transsexual repairperson that works for my lesbian landlords?
 
Washer is usually a donut of black neoprene rubber held on with a screw.Remove screw, replace washer.You have to remove the visible screw, knob,nut ,shaft.On the bottom of the shaft is the washer. Hot water always leaks before the cold ! If , with a new washer it still leaks ,check the part that the washer seals to ,it may have a little notch -that's a more difficult job and may require a new faucet.
 
Find out the brand name and style of the faucet. So far we've determined that it's a 2 knob bathtub faucet. It should say "Delta" or some other brand name somewhere on it. Once you have this info, go to Lowe's or Home Depot. They have a book (or a hard-card) posted in the faucet section. Look up your brand and style and find the correct repair kit. This kit will include enough stuff to rebuild both the hot and cold sides. Knobs are available seperately and it might not be a bad idea to pick up a set of those also. The hot side knob, if it's plastic, has a limited life and may crumble on the re-install.

Anyhoo, the repair kit will have a sheet of detailed instructions that will list what tools are going to be required. These tools can usually be found in any home. You'll probably have them. If not, visit the tool section and pick up the Chinese cheapo versions as quality isn't going to be much of a concern. This is, after all, a simple task. The simplicity will blow your mind after you've completed this job. Seriously. And you will be quite proud of the job you've done. It will be a special memory that you and your old man can fondly recall from your rocking chairs in your golden years. :)
 
Yep to what Harry said

Trust me i am no handy man either... i had to buy the tools to redo mine .... it isn't as bad as your imagination is making it out to be....

that was 4 yrs ago since then i have "tried" to do other things with varying degrees of sucess. the "leaky faucet" was my first "project" i did it while my wife was away so nobody would know how long it took wife thought it was a wonderful surprise. I was shocked to see my water bill drop $30 after i did it. (mine was leaking for a few months but was getting worse towards the last wk)

anyways GL2U and tell us how it goes :)

Cyck
 
Before you do anything turn the water supply off.
It is always good to work on faucets and taps when the water is not coming out under pressure
 
good luck! I have the same thing going on with my kitchen faucet. But it's no small leak. Hot water just keeps flowing. Had to shut the hot water off. Call the mfgr. They sent me the repair parts for free.

I just need a little hex tool thingie and a simple replacement. Or so the instructions read. Haven't had the courage to tackle it yet.

I HATE plumbing problems.
 
This is very easy. The only possible difficulty is finding where to shut the water off -- usually it's right there, but sometimes you have to go down in the cellar and try to figure out which valve controls the hot water to the bathtub. Trial and error works, or you can turn off the hot water at the heater.

I've always taken it out first and brought the valve to the hardware store to get a washer that fits. It's just a little rubber donut, costs a few cents. Get a few spares while you're there unless you're planning to move soon.

moving-van.jpg
 
I have fixed lots of leaky faucets since I was a kid and we never had "repair kits", it's not that hard but you do have to be a bit handy, A Google search brought up lots of answers, you may find a decent tutorial, here's one with a good diagram of a common faucet, take a look at the washer, which is usually the problem:

http://www.doityourself.com/stry/leakingfaucethttp://www.doityourself.com/stry/leakingfaucet

Sometimes the threads are worn or broken, sometimes the valve seat or the screw that holds the washer is corroded, some faucets use a cartridge that you have to replace completely, some faucets (usually large ones as in kitchen sinks or the ones with handles that go into the wall), have a cylindrical piece with inner threads that tends to wear down (we call it casquillo in Spanish which means casing, I don't know the name in English).

There may be other problems and there are other styles of faucet but let's not complicate it too much, hopefully it's just the washer.

Anything that you need to replace you should take the old one with you to get the replacement so that you get the proper one, if you have to replace something that is threaded check which direction the threads go, there are left and right threads.

As others mentioned be sure to close the water supply and let the leftover water in the pipes out before disassembling anything.

Hope this helps.

Luis
 
I did mobile home repair work for ten years, including plumbing. Nine times out of ten, the seat would be eroded on the hot side of the faucet, so a new washer would last one on/off cycle if you were lucky. Most (but not all) tub faucets have replacable seats. If yours does, by all means replace both of them along with the washers. That should make the faucet as good as new. If it does not have removable seats, you can buy a seat cutter at most hardware stores to resurface the seats. The tool is usually a lot less money than either a new faucet or a visit from a plumber.

Just so you will know, and maybe to help prevent the problem from coming back in the future, the reason this happens is the faucet is made of brass. Brass expands a lot when it is hot, such as when you are running a shower. When you shut the water off, both the seat and the stem are hot. When they cool off, they contract. If the washer has hardened with age or water deposits (we have very hard water here) it may not have enough cushion left to compensate for the contraction of the cooling metal, so it will allow a tiny bit of seepage. Left unchecked, this seepage erodes the seat, and soon you have a faucet that won't shut off at all.

If you get into the habit of going back and giving the hot knob another little turn a few minutes after you get out of the shower, you may not see this problem again for years. The last time I had to put seats in my tub faucet was in 1985 ;)
 
Danno4017 said:
Before you do anything turn the water supply off.
It is always good to work on faucets and taps when the water is not coming out under pressure
Click to expand...

Very good suggestion!

I decided to work on my shower faucet while the water was still on and the entire handle came off and water was spraying everywhere! I learned that most showers do not have a water shutoff and I had to shut off the main water valve at the street.
 
If you look at the faucet after you have taken off the handle, you will see a nut, loosen this, pull out the core, and look inside, in most cases, the seat may be rough from erosion, but if you get a seat cutter, it is easy to redress the seat. Just take enough off to get a smooth seat. The core will have a small screw holding a little piece of neoprene to the end of the core. replace the washer, reassemble the core, and carefully bring up the water pressure, IF your faucet is leaking out of the seal around the shaft. That can be fixed too with a o ring or a winding of seal tape and then tightening the packing nut. If you understand the concept, it really becomes a ten minute job.
 
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