A faucet at your kitchen will leak no matter how high-quality that faucet is. As time goes by, it tends to leak somehow.
Most notably, the leak results in the wastage of gallons of water each day. For this reason, knowing how to fix a leaky kitchen faucet is essential for everyone.
In this article, I will give you a step-by-step guide to help you deal with the dripping faucet yourself without difficulty.
How to Fix a Leaky Kitchen Faucet
Before You Start
It is a must to determine what type of faucet you have. Each type works distinctly. Hence, finding out what its type is before proceeding with the repairs will avoid any mistakes during the process.
You need to remove the handle to learn about it. There are four typical types available in the current market.
- Ceramic Disk Faucet: There is a ceramic cylinder under the handle.
- Ball Faucet: There is a ball bearing under the handle
- Cartridge Faucet: There is a cartridge under the handle.
- Compression Faucet:There are two handles so that you can determine its type with ease.
After considering the type of your leaky faucet, you should determine where the leak is to fix it quickly.
Before proceeding, I will show you a comprehensive guide on how to fix a leaky standard kitchen faucet.
Step 1: Taking a photo of the order of removal is necessary to avoid any mistakes in the put-back-together time.
Step 2: The most common cause of the leak might be due to the dripping spout. For this reason, you should check it and tighten the adjusting ring before repairing other parts of your leaky faucet.
Step 3: Turn off the silver water supply valves underneath the sink. Then, you should turn on the faucet to let water flow in the lines. Next, it is advised to cover the sink drain to prevent you from dropping any small parts.
Step 4: Before lifting off the actual handle, you should remove the screw cover on the faucet handle. Afterwards, you can easily see the cap and adjusting ring. If the leak starts from here, what you need to do is tighten the ring. If not, let’s prepare to replace the seats and springs.
Step 5: Let’s get the adjusting ring and the cap off by soaking it in white vinegar. This thing will help to loosen the stuck cap without difficulty.
Step 6: If you find out that the leak is under the handle after removing the round metal stem and pulling out the ball and cam and packing, replacing it is the best solution.
Step 7: While looking down into the bottom of the valve, you might see the seats and springs. Then, use a wrench into the rubber seat to catch the spring. The next step is lifting out the seat and spring in both two sides of the faucet.
Step 8: The last thing you have to do is replacing a new kit of seats and springs. First, do on one side of the seat and repeat with the other side.
Then, you had better replace the ball, the cam and packing. Screw on the cap and replace the adjusting ring afterwards. Then, check the faucet to see whether there is dripping.
How to Fix The Ceramic Disk Faucet
Step 1: Use a screwdriver to take the handles out.
Step 2: Remove the escutcheon cap made of metal lying under the handle.
Step 3: Remove the disk cylinder by a wrench and clean the neoprene seals by utilizing white vinegar. If you already soak the seals for several hours but they are still in bad condition, you should purchase new ones.
Step 4: Put the seals back after a thorough hygiene condition or buy new ones. Then, reassemble the handle.
How to Fix a Ball Faucet
Repairing a ball faucet is quite costly as you have to purchase some replacement parts or oven some tools.
Step 1: Take the handle, the cap, and collar out by using pliers or wrench. Simultaneously, you had better loosen the cam.
Step 2: Use some thin pliers to take out the seals and springs as you have to reach into the mechanism.
Step 3: Cut the old O-rings and replace with the new ones after coating them in vaseline or plumber grease.
Step 4: Replace all the old parts with a new kit, including new cam washers, springs, and valve seats. Then reassemble the handle and you can use it normally.
How to Fix a Cartridge Faucet
Step 1: Take the handle out by the similar way to fix other faucet types. Then, you should take out the retaining clip in some cartridge faucets.
Step 2: After removing the circular clip, you should take the cartridge as well as the faucet spout out by using the wrench.
Step 3: Use a thin knife so that you can remove the O-rings easily. Before installing them again, you should coat it in vaseline or plumber’s grease.
Step 4: Reassemble the handle.
How to Fix The Compression Faucet
Step 1: Like other faucets, you have to take the handle out before repairing the leak. Then, remove the nut by a wrench. Right now, you can observe the O-ring obviously.
Step 2: Check that O-ring as well as the washer carefully to see where the faucet is leaking. You had better replace the current O-ring by a new one in case the valve is leaking around the handles. On the other hand, replace the washer in case the body of the faucet is leaking.
Conclusion
Fixing the leaky kitchen faucet yourself is not a hard thing if you have a thorough understanding of the steps
Hopefully, my guide on how to fix a leaky kitchen faucet helps you a lot. If you think it is helpful, please share this article with other people.