Home and Family Blogs

00.55 | Label: Cartridge, Repair

Repairing a modern type of cartridge faucet can be one of the easiest home repairs that you can do. In general, anybody can do this, with or without experience with plumbing. In fact, you can even coach someone over the phone about the whole process and still get good results. All you would need is pay close attention, and you would be done in no time!

General Problems
The most common problems encountered in cartridge faucets, is usually caused by a problem in the interior cartridge, which usually wears and tears over time. Nevertheless, there is no need to worry since this type of faucet was created with simplicity of repair in mind.

Getting Started: Purging The Lines
To start off, you need to purge your water lines. In order to do this, you should turn off the entire water source that is running to your faucet. Try looking beneath your faucet and there you can see the shut off valve that cuts of the water source. If you don’t have one somewhere near your faucet, then you would have to turnoff the main valve.

If you have to deal with the main valve, take note that it would take you longer to purge. Most households have a shutoff valve feature that is directly placed under the sink, so it is the least of possibilities that you need to shutoff the main valve.

After you have cut the water source, turn on the faucet. Let the water keep on running. Try to wait until all the water in the pipes has emptied, and before you proceed to the next step, double check first if the water lines are really empty.

Working On The Faucet
Now, to start working on the faucet itself, you need to remove the sink handles. You would have to unscrew them. Locate the protective cap and pop it off. This is where you would usually find the screw. You can use a butter knife or a screwdriver to do the trick.

While doing this, try to be very careful so that you do not scratch it. In this way, it would still look nice after the job. Now you can start unscrewing the knobs until you completely remove them.

If you already know which type of cartridge it is that you need, then the better. If you don’t you can simply bring your old one to your local hardware and people there will be able to help you out.

Once you get the new cartridge, go back and install it. Then, replace the knobs. When you are done with this, try testing out the water. If the test runs smoothly without problems, then you are done.

However, if you experience some water leaks during the test, you have to do some adjustment again. Turn off the water source and take off the knobs once more. Try to check and ensure that you placed the cartridge in the right position. If it’s not, then try to maneuver it into the right place.

Put the knobs back into place and turn on the water source again. Try the water test once more. If this time it runs smoothly, then you have reached success with your repair. If you are still experiencing problems, then you may have a problem coming from a different source.