If your kitchen faucet sprayer leaks when you turn the water on, it may be time to replace it. Some faucets have a pull-out spout and some have a sprayer mounted on the side of the faucet base. Both are similar to repair or replace.
If your sprayer is leaking where it attaches to the hose, you might be able to unscrew it and clean it up a bit. There is a rubber washer where the two connect (you’ll see it after you unscrew the head). You can try to clean up the washer and maybe flip it over. If that doesn’t work, try installing a new washer, and if that doesn’t work, replace the sprayer head.
For a pull-out spout, the parts are pretty specific to the faucet. If you need to replace the head, you may have to order the part from the manufacturer so that the color and finish is correct. That’s why it is better if you can repair it. If the spout dribbles out of the end, you should be able to unscrew the aerator. It is a delicate job to remove this as it is sometimes flush with the end of the spout. Once you have the aerator out, clean it up with a mild detergent and an old toothbrush. You want to make sure the holes are clear of any debris and scale deposits. Once it is clean, reassemble it and screw it back on to the spout. You should have great pressure and no leaks.
Shower faucets and sink faucets that use separate handles for the hot and cold use a stem and a seat. The stem rotates as the handle is turned and a rubber washer on the bottom of the stem presses down against the seat to stop the flow of water. The flow of water is started when the stem lifts off of the seat to allow the flow of water. When a leak develops, it is usually the case that the washer at the bottom of the stem needs to be replaced, and the seat in the faucet body needs to be replaced.
After shutting off the water to the house, the stem can be removed and serviced by unscrewing it. The seat however can be a problem. You can remove it using a seat wrench but there are times when it seems the seat is welded in place.
Your other option is to resurface the seat. You can buy a resurfacing tool and place it into the valve body until it contacts the seat. By hand you can rotate the tool to smooth the surface of the seat. It will abrade the tiny pits on the surface so the stem washer and the seat will seal out any plumbing leaks.
There are many places a kitchen faucet can develop a leak. One of the common ones is at the base of the spout. Particularly on a single handle faucet, the spout assembly slides over the faucet body and down onto the base of the faucet. Inside the faucet body is the cartridge and the means to hold the cartridge in place. This spout assembly slides over the faucet body.
The most common cause of this leak is the o-rings that seal the spout assembly to the faucet body. To access these o-rings, you have to remove the handle at the top. Pop off the decorative cover on top of the handle and remove the screw that holds the handle. You will then have to unscrew the cap retainer. Finally, grab the spout assembly with both hands and gently move it back-and-forth while lifting it up and it should lift off.
You will see the o-rings it their retainer grooves...one at the top and one at the bottom. It's likely that the o-ring on the bottom has failed, but replace them both while you have the spout off. Use liquid soap and slather up the new o-rings and slide them into the grooves without twisting them or you will likely develop a leak. The soap will lubricate the o-rings and make the re-installation of the spout assembly easier and less likely to damage the new o-rings. Re-install the remaining parts in the reverse order and test for leaks.
Many 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 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.
The other day we were working in a 50 year old house whose bathroom faucet at the bathtub would not stop running. This is a case of replacing (or rebuilding) the stem and seat. The stem is attached to the handle and rises up and down. At the end of the stem is a washer that pushes against a seat to stop the flow of water. Over time, this washer will wear down, or the seat will develop pits that won't allow it to stop the flow of water anymore. These parts need to be repaired or replaced.
So after you turn the water off to the house, prepare for some fun.
1. Remove The Old Handle
This isn't as easy as it sounds. Usually a screw is removed and the handle pops right off. Well in older plumbing, the handle can seem like its welded to the stem. In this case a handle puller can help remove the handle...or break it trying.
2. Remove The Old Stem
Removing the old stem can be a leap of faith. A deep well socket and a breaker bar will usually extract it, but you just hope that nothing else breaks. Once we got the old one out, it was time to go hunting. This stem was nasty and difficult to identify. After searching, we were not able to find a replacement for it. Instead we bought new parts and rebuilt it. But that only solves half of the problem.
3. Replace Or Resurface The Seat
The faucet seat screws into the faucet body and has a hole in the center of it. In this hole you insert a seat wrench to remove the seat and replace it with a new one. If you can't remove the seat, you can use a seat resurfacing tool to smooth out the surface so that the stem washer can stop the water.
Once you reassemble the bathroom faucet, the it should operate as it did 50 years ago. Many modern showers use a single handle to control the hot and cold. Here is how to replace a shower cartridge.
While 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.
A 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.
How 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.
It's Saturday morning and your laying under your sink, cursing your faucet with your scraped knuckles. After all, you just want to replace your kitchen faucet . Sometimes it seems impossible to remove the old faucet. So what do you do?
For starters, it helps to have the right tools. Some deep sinks will leave you only a few inches to access the nuts that hold the faucet to the sink. It is virtually impossible to get your hand and a tool into this small area to turn the nut. For this situation, you need a basin wrench.
A basin wrench is a skinny tool that will fit into these tiny areas. It looks like a thin piece of pipe with jaws on the end of it. On the bottom is a handle. To use the tool, just set the jaws over the nut and turn. It sounds easy , but sometimes it's not. Sometimes the handle will start to bend with the amount of force you have to apply. In that case you can place a length of pipe over the handle and turn it, effectively increasing the amount of leverage you can apply to the nut. You can also use the basin wrench to install the nuts on your new faucet.
If this fails and you have the room, you can try a nut splitter (place the tool over the nut and turn the handle). You can also try to cut off the faucet and or nuts from either on top of the sink or beneath it.