Hah!

[bunn]

The kitchen tap began to drip, and I thought of the task that is 'Summon Plumber A Week Before Christmas' and quailed.

Instead, having done some online research I decreed that we would take the tap to pieces and attempt to identify the broken bit.

I turned off the water!  I drained out the water!  I looked carefully at the tap and worked out what tools to use!   I learned which bits are the ceramic tap glands and removed one of them (Pp, encouraged by my success removed the other one).  I sourced new ceramic tap glands of the correct size and model and ordered them, while Pp, still feeling encouraged, put the old tap parts back together temporarily!   I turned the water back on, and the kitchen did not impersonate a fountain and leap on high!

The tap no longer drips.  I can't decide if I am pleased or annoyed about this, but at least we have a non-dripping tap, a spare set of ceramic tap glands, and a feeling of having Achieved Something. 

Comments

[alitheapipkin.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

As someone who put up with a dripping tap for *years* because there was no way to take the offending thing apart and I refused to buy a new tap until we were buying a new kitchen, I feel this is definitely an Achievement ;)

[chainmailmaiden]

I think you should definitely be pleased about the no longer dripping tap. You achieved the end goal without having to pay a plumber to do it for you. Plus you now have the parts and knowledge to repair it in the future, also without paying a plumber, that's a lot of money saved! I always feel very smug when I manage to fix things like that round the house, as for me it has the extra bonus of not meaning a day out of my holiday allowance too, while I sit around and wait for a repairman :-)

[topum.livejournal.com]

bunn tomorrow morning:

[timetiger.livejournal.com]

That is very impressive. I was pleased with myself a while back when I repaired the toilet, but that only involved replacing a bit of tubing.

I've just been watching the episode of "Would I Lie to You" where Bob Mortimer claims to do his own dentistry. That might be carrying DIY a bit too far.

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

Huzzah!!

The Consort has a dripping kitchen tap that has been dripping for YEARS, but he has so far shown no inclination to try and take it apart, or replace it, or anything. It makes me crazy, but not crazy enough to want to bother taking *his* tap apart. If I lived there I would probably have taken it apart long since.

[r-blackcat.livejournal.com]

"Achieving Something" - yeah, I know how it feels. (I've "repaired" a refrigerator yesterday and still am going proudly "hah!" about it.) My hearty congratulations! "Take smth apart, then put it back" really work sometimes.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

BUT NO. For the tap is still not dripping!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It certainly is. And the damn thing is still not dripping! (I wish I knew what we'd changed...)

[bunn.livejournal.com]

It's probably as well that we ordered the spare parts, but if I had realised the drip had stopped, I would not have paid 12 quid for next day delivery!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Toilet repair is a scary field with additional risk factors, so I'm definitely giving you credit there!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Blimey! Clearly persistent dripping is more common than I thought. I assumed that dripping would soon lead to taps that would not turn off, and leapt into action!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

There's that feeling of huge relief once you realise you've got all the bits back together and not only have things not got worse, they have actually got better!

[r-blackcat.livejournal.com]

Nononono, it's actually your order of spare parts that makes it working! You should show these new parts to the tap and say: "See? I have it and can change it any time" and then keep them somewhere near so the tap would know it. I would keep it uninterested in dripping for quite some time, maybe years. We Russians strongly believe in this method.

[howlin-wolf-66.livejournal.com]

Well done! Definitely a reason to congratulate yourself. :-)

[pixel39.livejournal.com]

It is veeeeerrrrrry sloooooowwwwwwwwly getting worse. At this point there is one magic position (it's one of those taps where you have a single handle on a ball joint that moves around) that once upon a time didn't drip, and now just drips the least frequently.

[scripsi.livejournal.com]

Yay you!

[apel.livejournal.com]

Wow! I would never dare touch any plumbing repairs. Maybe I've watched too many DIY comedy/horror shows. I'm fine with electricity. Electricity works the same everywhere. Plumbing, not so much.

[songblaze.livejournal.com]

The stuff involving water going in isn't so bad. It's the bits involving the water going OUT that scare me! I've replaced things like flappers and intake hoses and whatnot myself, and they're really not all that bad. After all, you're just dealing with clean tap water at that point.

But things like the lower seal? Oh hell no, I'm not even going to think about touching that!

[bunn.livejournal.com]

Ah but electricity can kill you! Plumbing mostly only makes you wet, and I do know how to turn the water off...