Had a pretty heavy day yesterday. We are doing "permitted" childminding of grandchildren a couple of days a week. We look after the youngest (1 year old yesterday) through the day and pick up my granddaughter outside the school (max social distancing being observed) before walking her home to mum who is back around then before then going home ourselves. Yesterday was one of the days but also there was a very small birthday party when we got back, for the one year old (luckily, being so young, he had no idea that there are usually other people at your birthday party!)
Anyway, as we are both in our 70's, getting up at around 6.30 am to drive to just south of the city, looking after a one year old for the day and then driving back into the city, returning home for maybe 6.00 or 7.00 pm we find quite tiring so I was looking forward to a lazy day today. Not to be though. All seemed OK 'till I got washed and turned off the hot tap. Only it didn't, big drips. It'd been fine up 'till now so a bit strange, usually I find taps drip gently for a while first? (all my taps are washer type on a gravity system, Oh, except the new kitchen tap which is ceramic disc). Oh well, must be a new washer needed and I've got a few in my plumbing box.
So, first thing is to get the water turned off from the gravity tank in the roof - commiserations if you've a fully pressurized system - I've been doing my own plumbing repairs since I got married and became poor back in the 70's and I've learned to view isolating stopcocks/gate valves with deep suspicion. Sometimes they are seized and can be very difficult to close off but even when you do there's a "late kicker" waiting to kick you in the teeth when you've finished and that is that the spindle gland often starts to leak when turned back on - especially if the tap hasn't been touched for years, as is often the case with stopcocks. Ok, you can tighten the gland a wee bit but that often only works the first time and, ok, you can pack them with tape, but? I'd rather avoid if possible. Then, one day at work I was talking to our resident plumber who told me about the conical rubber bungs you get in radiator valve replacement kits. I went straight out and bought one - it cost peanuts (relatively):
What you do is climb up into your loft and stick the cone end into the appropriate gravity tank outlet. Now you've stopped the water and never had to involve turning the stopcock/gate valve at all, wonderful! No more leaky stopcocks (unless it's the mains one under the sink of course). He also told me to by a wee tin of "proper" plumbers grease to lube the tap threads etc. In fact I've used the original one I bought back then and now have a new one which you can see at the bottom of the picture. Not sure if the brand name implies it can be used in other areas? Even looks like vaseline!
So, as I'm dealing with a conventional old screw type tap here and having got the water stopped the next thing is to remove the top of the tap (always put the plug in it's hole to stop wee screws etc disappearing down the plug 'ole). If you have metal tops it's a good idea to remove them occasionally and put a minute dab of grease on the spindle or they can corrode in place. (my boy's were so bad we ended up destroying the taps and having to buy complete jumper kits). Then The jumper (main working part of the tap) needs to be unscrewed. This can be a very real problem as if it's tight the whole tap will want to rotate in the basin and you could easily end up with water leaking out from where the pipe joins the tap under the basin. Here's my solution:
What you can't see is the wee bit of rubber tubing I placed over the tap's spout to protect it. The spanner size is 18mm. Holding the big long tube against my left hip I can pull hard on the length of black tube on the end of the spanner and the jumper comes undone quite easily. I took the jumper down to the garage and gripped it lightly in my vice just because it makes it easier to remove the screw holding the washer in place. My washers are "Delta" washers so they have rounded edges and sit in a recess in the jumper but plain flat washers are very similar to deal with. As I levered the old washer out it started crumbling. It was completely rotten. Mind you it could be around 20 years since I changed this one?
A wee clean up with a small screwdriver and the new washer was put in place and the screw tightened securely:
Now for wee tip a plumbing friend gave me. The old type taps, I remember them from my youth, had a spindle with a gland, like a stopcock - and you still see them - but more modern ones are like mine and have an internal threaded part which is sealed with an "O" ring to the outer body in which it slides up and down when you turn the tap. As they age the "O" ring wears/hardens and water creeps past it into the cavity where it now causes a hydraulic lock, stiffens up the action and stops the tap being turned on fully. Just drill a wee hole in the outer part of the jumper like this:
Now the very small amount of water which is bypassing the seal can just leak out and dribble down the outside of the jumper and your tap will work just fine - once reassembled you notice nothing, not even the wee bit of water which is next to nothing anyway.
So, with everything tidied up. The new washer installed and the thread lightly greased, it's time to reassemble the jumper into the tap. Do it up tightly enough that there's no danger of it undoing if someone turns the tap off too tight and then takes a lot of effort to turn back on again, but you don't need to deploy the lengths of pipe again!
Now nip up into the roof and whip out the bung, run the water through the tap for a minute or so to run any air locks through and you're finished.
One wee parting thought, which occupies my thoughts quite often with family, both adults and grandchildren of all ages, visiting frequently (not so much at this time though, boo hoo) concerns people who turn off taps far too tightly - you listening son? If you think about how this kind of tap works, it's the rubber washer, sealing against it's seat in the tap body, which holds back the flow of water. Once that washer is contacting it's seat all the way round it's perimeter, that's it, it's sealed. Further tightening of the tap's screw thread is doing nothing by way of turning the water off, it's just squashing the washer! If you persistently turn taps off very tightly the washer will become prematurely compressed and need to be changed more often. You can feel this compression easily on a new washer if you gently screw down the tap and just as the water flow stops you'll find the resistance to turning increases. This is the washer starting to compress. If you continue you'll find it will continue to compress the washer until it's fully compressed where it'll feel "hard". If you've nothing better to do - and assuming of course you have these types of tap and not the newer ceramic element type you can go round the house trying all your taps. You'll be surprised how some (the ones with washers in good condition) are quite "springy" and others go up solid as the flow stops which indicates their washers are squashed really flat (they'll likely be the ones which will be next needing done). I keep telling the boys not to screw the taps down so tight but, honestly, I might as well not bother. Bit like trying to get the kids not to slam doors.
So there we are. Tap no longer dripping and I shall be taking an unhealthy pleasure in using it for the next few days or until the novelty wears off!
