Gaah Leaky Faucet is Driving Me Insane

[Moonbear]

Hey, this could go in the "What's in your man-bag" thread.

 

[Danger]

I don't really want to have a freely spinning knob, but I might have to live with it.

Your girlfriend might appreciate it.

 

[Evo]

Russ, all you have to do is contact TAPS the ghost hunting Roto Rooter guys and tell them you hear a strange tapping sound coming from your bathroom and you think it could be a ghost, because when they investigate a haunting, they also fix minor plumbing problems.

I'm not making this up.

 

[ozgurakkas]

Call kohler.
Order a new piece
When it arrives,
First turn the water supply off.
Open a faucet so you can take the water pressure out inside the pipe.
Go back to the faucet.
Take out the nut at the top of the handle.
Take the inner part out. Be easy...
Then take the new one and replace with the old part.
Make sure new piece placed in correctly.
Put the nut back and tight it.
Turn on the water supply slowly.
Check for leaks.
Hopefully there is no leak.
Also calling a licenced plumber to do this procedure will make your life easy.

Good luck

 

[BobG]

Call kohler.
Order a new piece
When it arrives,
First turn the water supply off.
Open a faucet so you can take the water pressure out inside the pipe.
Go back to the faucet.
Take out the nut at the top of the handle.
Take the inner part out. Be easy...
Then take the new one and replace with the old part.
Make sure new piece placed in correctly.
Put the nut back and tight it.
Turn on the water supply slowly.
Check for leaks.
Hopefully there is no leak.
Also calling a licenced plumber to do this procedure will make your life easy.

Good luck

What is wrong with you?!

A plumber is what you call halfway through the repair when the water level in the basement is halfway up the basement stairs! And then you tell him its your daughter's house or girlfriend's house.

 

[ozgurakkas]

What is wrong with you?!

A plumber is what you call halfway through the repair when the water level in the basement is halfway up the basement stairs! And then you tell him its your daughter's house or girlfriend's house.

What if it's his grandmother's house...

Have fun with that...

 

[Art]

You might be able to tell the temperature. You'd have to figure out the expansion/contraction for the different parts, but the gap allowing the water to drip should change with temperature.

In practice, I guess you could just chart the temperature vs drip rate over a period of time, but since everything is going to be pretty close to room temperature, you probably won't see a huge variation.

I suggest turning off heat to the house. That will create a bigger variation in temperature.

I found the reference I was referring to and it's actually if you know 3 consecutive time intervals then you can predict the fourth, and if you could measure these time intervals exactly you could predict the entire future of the system but as exact measurement is impossible this can't be done. If the initial measurement was made to 10 decimal places then each predicted step drops a decimal place so after 10 drops you can no longer make a prediction. This was discovered in 1978 by some grad students at the University of California.

 

[Janus]

I was joking around a little - my primary concern was breaking a pipe or solder joint. If it starts leaking again, I'll buy a valve stem before doing anything else. Once I have that part, I should be able to see how to get the existing one out. I was at Lowes today and they didn't seem to have one for my faucet, but they were only like $10, so not a big deal even if I just end up using it as an instruction manual.

A piece of advice. If this is not a washerless faucet, replacing the stem/washer might not fix the leak. You might also have a bad seat(this is the surface the washer seals against). If it is worn or pitted, the washer will not seal properly, or even if the leak stops at first, the seat will quickly wear out the washer and you'll soon find yourself replacing it again. So, after removing the stem, shine a light inside and inspect the seat.

Here's what a typical seat looks like and where it is located. You might have to get a seat wrench to get it out. It just screws out, but it is down inside the faucet and not easy to get a purchase on.

 

[Danger]

Let's just simplify the situation. Blow the damned house up and build a new one without leaks.