Wiggly Single-handle Kitchen Faucet
November 11, 2020 4:38 PM Subscribe
Landlord attempted to fix my kitchen faucet's wiggly single-handle without success, and I think he may have reversed the hot/cold.
I asked my landlord to fix my kitchen faucet's wiggly single-faucet handle, as it is so loose it makes it difficult to control the speed at which the water comes out of the faucet. He was here to work on it (it is not repaired and I have not heard from him since, but that's a story for a different day) and after he left I noticed that to get cold water, I had to push the handle toward the left, and to get hot water, I had to push the handle toward the right. I'm pretty sure it was the opposite before he worked on it. For the faucets in my bathrooms, I push the handle toward the right to get cold water and toward the left to get hot water. It drove me nuts that the bathroom handle directions were different than the kitchen handle directions. So I crawled under the kitchen sink and crisscrossed the hoses, so now the faucet directions match those of the bathrooms. My question to you is, what might he have done to cause the faucet handle hot/cold to be reversed??
I asked my landlord to fix my kitchen faucet's wiggly single-faucet handle, as it is so loose it makes it difficult to control the speed at which the water comes out of the faucet. He was here to work on it (it is not repaired and I have not heard from him since, but that's a story for a different day) and after he left I noticed that to get cold water, I had to push the handle toward the left, and to get hot water, I had to push the handle toward the right. I'm pretty sure it was the opposite before he worked on it. For the faucets in my bathrooms, I push the handle toward the right to get cold water and toward the left to get hot water. It drove me nuts that the bathroom handle directions were different than the kitchen handle directions. So I crawled under the kitchen sink and crisscrossed the hoses, so now the faucet directions match those of the bathrooms. My question to you is, what might he have done to cause the faucet handle hot/cold to be reversed??
The wiggly faucet handle can be due to a cartridge that needs replacement. It happens every few years on my kitchen faucet.
posted by ShooBoo at 7:01 PM on November 11, 2020
posted by ShooBoo at 7:01 PM on November 11, 2020
Your faucet probably has a ball in it like this. Different manufacturers use balls with different patterns of holes; that one's a Delta.
My guess is he took the handle off and messed with the ball; he may or may not have taken the ball out, but one way or another, he got it turned around 180 degrees and then put the handle back on. With some ball geometries, that would be enough to make the hole in the ball which was meant to go over the hot water inlet go over the cold instead and vice versa.
The slotted hole on the ball is for a little plastic tab on the socket assembly which is meant to guide and constrain the motion of the single handle, and would normally make it hard to put the ball back in backwards, but part of the wiggliness of your handle could be due to a worn or broken tab.
Handle wiggliness could also mean the little rubber cups in the faucet socket are worn out, and if the guide tab is broken, I bet they are. There are kits specific to each make and model of faucet which contain all the parts you would need to rebuild your faucet, but I doubt your landlord is up to the job, though you sound like you might be.
posted by jamjam at 9:56 PM on November 11, 2020
My guess is he took the handle off and messed with the ball; he may or may not have taken the ball out, but one way or another, he got it turned around 180 degrees and then put the handle back on. With some ball geometries, that would be enough to make the hole in the ball which was meant to go over the hot water inlet go over the cold instead and vice versa.
The slotted hole on the ball is for a little plastic tab on the socket assembly which is meant to guide and constrain the motion of the single handle, and would normally make it hard to put the ball back in backwards, but part of the wiggliness of your handle could be due to a worn or broken tab.
Handle wiggliness could also mean the little rubber cups in the faucet socket are worn out, and if the guide tab is broken, I bet they are. There are kits specific to each make and model of faucet which contain all the parts you would need to rebuild your faucet, but I doubt your landlord is up to the job, though you sound like you might be.
posted by jamjam at 9:56 PM on November 11, 2020
On many single-handle cartridge faucets, if you rotate the cartridge in place 180 degrees, it'll swap hot/cold. Landlord may have accidentally done this while working on the faucet.
posted by xedrik at 9:22 AM on November 13, 2020
posted by xedrik at 9:22 AM on November 13, 2020
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He must have disconnected the supply lines during his attempt to fix it. What he should have done is completely replace it, but having failed to fix it, he reconnected the supply lines backward.
I needed to replace my wiggly single faucet handle a year ago. I bought a new one, took out the old one, installed the new one. It was a bit awkward for some combination of old funky house and I'm not a plumber. Anyways, I got 'er done and then realized that when I had connected the new one, the hot and cold were reversed. Ugh. However, by that point, I was so done with being under that counter I just declared victory. It still bugs me a little....
posted by bumpkin at 6:02 PM on November 11, 2020