Why is My New Faucet Leaking From the Top?
A leaky faucet is certainly a headache. The dripping sound never stops and you are literally throwing money down the drain, if you pay for your water by the gallon. Before you begin to consider fixing the faucet, you have to know why it is leaking. This makes the repair much easier. Does this Spark an idea?
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Cartridge Faucets
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Newer faucets have a cartridge to control the flow of water to the spout. This part has two tubular discs, one on top of the other. The top and bottom discs each have holes for the hot and cold water, which line up when the top part of the cartridge rotates a certain way, allowing either hot, cold or a mix of the two through the faucet. As you may imagine, damage to this part causes water to seep slowly through, and this results in a leak. Damage to one of the discs is the main culprit here.
Ball Faucets
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Ball faucets use a round ball valve to operate the water flow. It opens the hot and cold valves -- individually or both, to form warm water. A leak occurs in this faucet if one of the gasket seals inside the faucet wears out. If you have hard water or lots of sediment in your water, this speeds up the process in some cases. When these seals crack, the unit is no longer watertight and water drips out of the spout or forms around the handle. To repair it, remove the handle, take off the round cap under the handle and pull out the ball valve and seal gaskets. Then replace the parts and rebuild the faucet.
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Washer Faucets
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A washer faucet has a seat and a washer in the handle instead of a cartridge, to control water flow. This faucet is typical in older homes, as it is an older design. Leaks occur in this type of faucet when the seat washer, a round gasket, cracks or splits because it is worn. To repair this, remove the handle, take out the old seat washer and replace it with a brand new replacement part. Put the faucet back together and test it out. If the leak still pursues, tighten the stem nut and packing nut, underneath the handle with a wrench. This increases pressure on the washer and makes it watertight.
Diaphragm Faucets
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A diaphragm faucet is like a cartridge faucet because it has a disc inside the handle, but it also has a washer to stem the flow of water from the incoming water pipes. When this washer wears out, as is the case in the washer faucet, a leak occurs in your spout. To fix this, take the handle off and remove the round nut under it. Next, pull out the disc. Then replace the seals inside the bottom of the disc with new ones, or replace the entire disc itself with a replacement part. Then, screw the round nut back on and replace the handle.
Improper Installation and Fast Fix Tips
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If any of the above faucets are improperly installed, they will leak. The parts inside the faucet are not properly set in place to form the watertight seal needed to prevent leaks. The cartridge is not seated properly in the base of the faucet, so water seeps through a cartridge faucet. The ball valve is not putting enough pressure on the seat gaskets in a ball valve faucet, and the disc or stem is not pressing hard enough against the washer in a washer faucet. Any of these instances results in a leak, because a watertight seal is not formed. Sometimes, taking off the handle to the faucet and tightening the nut under it in any of the above types of faucets, fixes the problem right away.
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