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Loose Handle On Kitchen Faucet

  
  
  

kitchen faucetA kitchen faucet goes through a lot of abuse, and the handle and spout seem to bear the brunt of it. The loose kitchen faucet handle seems to occur most commonly with a single lever-style handle.

The single handle is typically held on by one screw and you need to locate it and tighten it. Then cross your fingers that the problem isn’t something more. On many faucets, the screw that holds the lever on is located under a decorative cap on top of the handle. Use a small standard screwdriver and pry off the cap. A phillips head screwdriver is all that is needed to tighten the screw.

On other types of faucets, you will need to locate a setscrew that is recessed into the base of the handle. Look for a small hole either in the front or the rear of the base of the handle. You will need a small allen wrench to tighten it. This can lead to some guesswork as to which is the correct size of wrench to fit the head of the screw. It will be a matter of inserting the wrench and slightly turning it to see if it fits the hole. A small flashlight can help, but the hole is so small that it won’t totally illuminate the inside of the hole.

Low Water Pressure At Kitchen Faucet

  
  
  

kitchen faucetIf you turn on the water at your kitchen faucet and the pressure is low, you can do a couple things to diagnose the problem You probably have the tools in your garage and it won’t take you much time at all. By the way, if you have really bad pressure throughout the house, and not just at the kitchen faucet, these tips won’t help you much.

The first thing I do with low pressure at faucets is to unscrew the aerator at the end of the faucet. You can probably use your fingers, but may need pliers. Wrap the aerator with cloth or something to prevent scratching it if you need to use tools. With the aerator removed, look into the aerator and see if it has a bunch of debris in it. If it does, clean it out with whatever is at hand. Screw it back on the faucet and turn the water back on.

If the pressure is still poor, go under the sink and make sure the valves controlling the water are fully open. If you still have poor water pressure at this point it will require some more digging. If you have a single handled faucet, you can replace the mechanism inside (either a cartridge or springs and washers), or try removing the water supply lines from the faucet . Turn the water off, remove the supply lines and point them in a bucket and turn the water back on. You want to make sure you are getting good pressure from the water supply. If you are, then you know the problem is with the faucet and you can choose to repair it or replace it.

Cheap Faucet Vs Name Brand Faucet

  
  
  

faucet moenIt always seems to come down to the price, whether you are buying a faucet or a widget. So if you are buying a faucet, should you buy a quality popular brand (Moen, Delta, Price Pfister, etc.) or a cheaper imitation?

It is usually the case that you get what you pay for, and in my opinion that certainly holds true for faucets. I once installed a brand new faucet that was a cheap imitation. I paid 60% less for that faucet than if it had been a name brand. It leaked as soon as I turned the water back on…a seam in the faucet body was leaking and unrepairable. I blew an extra hour of my day replacing it with a quality faucet.

As a person that performs repairs on faucets, it is all about the parts. Cheap faucets have tons of cheap plastic parts. Although the styling is similar, you can feel it and it is inferior with plastic where chrome should be. Name brand faucets usually offer lifetime guarantees and if you contact them they will send you replacement parts for their faucets. For free.

When a problem develops with a cheap faucet, the parts are more difficult to get. In some cases you need to go to a plumbing supply company and possibly order the parts. With the hassle and time involved, you start to consider if it is even worth it. Since you paid so little for the faucet, maybe you just replace it (again). Only this time, you might consider replacing it with a major brand.

Repair Kitchen Faucet Leak With O-Rings

  
  
  

kitchen faucetIf you have a kitchen faucet that leaks around the base of the spout, you should be able to repair it with some new o-rings. We see this most commonly with single handle faucets that control both the hot and cold temperature.

You will need to remove the handle for this. After turning off the water to the faucet, pry up the cap on the top of the handle and remove the screw that holds the handle to the faucet. Lift the handle off of the faucet. Place one hand on the spout and the other hand where the spout mounts to the faucet and gently move the spout from side-to-side while lifting up. The spout should lift off rather easily. You will be looking at the body of the faucet.

There are two o-rings that you need to replace on the faucet body. One is down low on the body, and the other is closer to the top. You will probably have to pry these out of their grooves with a small screwdriver or the corner of a credit card. Don’t scratch the body while doing this. Use dishwashing soap and lubricate the o-rings. Push them into place without twisting them. If they twist the spout will leak. Once the o-rings are in place, push the spout back on and reconnect the handle.

Repair A Loose Kitchen Faucet Handle

  
  
  

kitchen faucetA kitchen faucet gets abused on a daily basis. People hit the handle up to turn the water on, and then slam their hand back down on it to shut the water off. It’s no wonder then that faucet handles take a beating and can get a little sloppy.

You mainly see this with a single handled faucet, but the same can occur with two handled faucets as well. After repeated abuse, the handles will either become loose or damaged to the point that if they can’t be tightened, they have to be replaced.

Generally, there is a decorative cap to lift up. Pry a small standard screwdriver under this cap and pop it off. You will typically see a screw in the center holding the handle to the cartridge or stem. Tighten it down until snug. This should make it so the handle engages immediately rather than waiting for it to move 2 inches and finally engaging. It is seldom that the hole in the handle becomes out-of-round do to force. The handle is metal but the parts it mates to are plastic, and typically the plastic will break before the metal will.

You typically won’t have to replace the handle as it would likely have to be special ordered, and by the time you spent the money on it, you can just as easily buy a new builder grade faucet to install.

How To Repair A Loose Kitchen Faucet

  
  
  

kitchen faucetMany kitchen faucets become loose where they connect to the sink after many uses. After years of pulling out the faucet sprayer or pushing the spout from one side of the sink to the other, the faucet develops a little play in it. Eventually it will grow to a wobble and will seem like it is ready to slide off of the sink. It seems that this happens more with sinks that have a little flex in them, such as a thin stainless steel sink. If, for example, the faucet spout is hard to move, the flexibility in the sink seems to encourage the faucet to become loose.

So how do you fix it? It's actually pretty easy. You are going to have to climb under the sink and get access to the faucet. The faucet is held to the sink by any one of several methods, which all clamp the faucet to the sink with threaded nuts. On more expensive single-handle faucets you may have only one large nut located in the center of the faucet.

Whichever style you have, it is a matter of tightening these nuts. In most cases you can do this with just your fingers, but you may need a wrench if the space is small.

If you have a kitchen sink with deep bowls, you may not be able to get your hands into the small space afforded for the faucet. In this case use a basin wrench and tighten the faucet to the sink.

Kitchen Faucet Sprayer Leak Repair

  
  
  

kitchen faucet sprayerKitchen faucet sprayers tend to leak, especially the cheap ones. This may be a case of you get what you pay for. It seems to be the builder-grade faucets with the side-mounted sprayers that give the most problems. There are 2 problem areas; one where the sprayer connects to the hose, and the other where the hose connects to the faucet body.

In many cases, if you look under the kitchen cabinet and see water dripping off of the hose it may as simple as tightening the sprayer head where it connects to the hose. The builder-grade faucets use a vinyl hose that twists, and in many cases after you use it there is some torque in the hose that causes it to come loose from the handle. This is a quick fix by screwing the handle tight to the hose. If necessary, you can replace the washer in the handle and use some liquid soap as a lubricant to get a good tight fit. The same goes for the connection at the hose to the faucet body.

The worst case is that you have to replace the faucet sprayer. You can buy the builder-grade models at any home center, but the higher quality sprayers may have to be ordered, or you may get lucky at a plumbing supply house.

Fixing Kitchen Faucet Sprayer Problems

  
  
  

kitchen faucetWhile at a neighbor's house, I noticed a very nice kitchen faucet with a pull-out spout that allow them to spray both sink basins. I'm guessing this was a $400.00 faucet. The husband installed it but he couldn't pull the spout out very far and he didn't know why. Looking below the sink told the story. Sometimes it seems that a las vegas handyman never has free time.

Faucets with pull-out sprayers are more expensive as the sprayer pulls out of the faucet itself, not the kind that sits next to the faucet. You end up having the hose run through the faucet and loop into the sink cabinet only to reconnect to the body of the faucet. So you have this hose that loops down to the cabinet floor and back up, and it tends to get caught on everything under the sink. Most commonly, it will get caught on the drain piping or the water shut-off valves.

Most manufacturers will include a small weight that holds the sprayer head into the faucet body. Without this, the sprayer head would typically just pop out of the faucet and dangle in the air. This weight comes in two pieces and just sandwiches around the hose about 6 inches from where it changes direction and begins to loop back upward.

The neighbor had 2 problems. He didn't have the weight installed on the hose (because he didn't read the instructions), and the hose was getting caught on the discharge pipe to the garbage disposal (here are some general instructions on how to install a faucet).Adding the weight was an easy fix, but I also had him add a small section of hollow PVC piping over the hose. Yes he had to take apart the faucet sprayer to slide the 10" pipe over the hose but the problem is solved. The hollow pipe provides a barrier so that the hose can't get tangled when it is being lifted out of the faucet. Since it is under the sink, nobody will ever see it.

Kitchen Faucet Leak At Base Of Handle

  
  
  

kitchen faucetA customer's kitchen faucet leak was driving her crazy. It was leaking around the handle and she was ready to surrender. Kitchen faucet leaks can come from several places which makes fixing them a little more challenging.

If your faucet leaks from underneath the sink, it may be corroded and you will likely be buying a new one, or may be a water supply line in need of repair. If the faucet leaks out of the end of the spout when the handle is shut off (particularly with a single-handle faucet), you probably need a new cartridge in the faucet.

This customer's faucet was a single handled Moen and was leaking when you lifted the handle to turn it on...is was leaking around the handle base very slowly. This usually means a problem with some O-rings that are supposed to keep water leaks at bay.

To access the O-rings, you have to remove the handle. Slide a small screwdriver under the decorative cap and remove the screw. The handle will lift right off. The spout covers the O-rings, one at the top and one at the bottom. The spout assembly will lift off of the faucet body, and you will clearly see the O-rings.

You can buy an assortment of O-rings that will replace these. Match up the correct size and place them into the grooves. I like to slather them up with liquid soap to lubricate them so they won't twist when re-installing the spout assembly. You can test it once you put the handle back on.

Stop Fighting With The Loose Kitchen Faucet

  
  
  

kitchen faucetHow many times have you wrestled with a loose faucet on top of your sink? It seems to happen most often with single handled faucets...as you lift the lever up to start to flow of water, the entire faucet moves to the point you almost have to hold the faucet body with one hand while to lift the lever with the other. That's not to say that is doesn't happen to faucets with separate hot and cold handles, they have their problems too.

Typically, the problem is that the nut holding the faucet to the sink is loose. You will have to crawl under the sink to access this area, but it's not difficult. Once under the sink you will see the water supply lines going up to the faucet. Look just beyond these and you will see how the faucet attaches to the sink. Some faucets have two nuts that hold the faucet to the sink, and some have one large nut that holds it down. Usually it's the faucets with the one large nut that causes the most problems.

Ideally, a basin wrench will fix this in a matter of seconds, but you can use whatever you have access to...pliers, or even a crescent wrench.

I've also seen a cheap sink as the cause. A cheap stainless steel sink (the really thin kind) will allow the faucet to move as you operate it. Although the faucet may be tight to the sink, the thin sink will flex to the point that it seems the faucet is loose, but its not.

For bathroom sink widespread faucets that have two handles, sometimes the handles feel loose. For these types of handles, if the nuts under the sink are tight, try using your hand and turning the handle body clockwise above the sink. That should tighten it up nicely; this also works for bathtub widespread faucets.

If you are tired of the old faucet, here is some information on how to replace a faucet.

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