How to Change a Tap Valve while Fixing a Dripping Tap 🚰 Easy DIY

today i'm showing you how to change a tap valve sometimes referred to as a tap cartridge or a tap gland i'll also cover fixing a dripping tap as well as wear a stuck tap washer means that you can't turn off a tap so what happens with this tap is you can turn it on and it turns on easy enough but when it comes time to turn it off it doesn't want to get it doesn't want to go and i have to really give it some the first step is to turn off the water to the faulty tap now that can be a whole other ball game i'm not going to cover it here but if you would like me to cover it in another video then please comment down below and let me know once you've turned off the water supply to the faulty tap now you need to empty all the pipes do that by turning on the other taps that are on the same water circuit as the faulty one in this instance this is a hot tap so i've already opened two other hot taps upstairs and the hot tap in the kitchen open your faulty tap if you can and wait for the flow of water to subside leave the water off and leave the taps upstairs and downstairs open that way if any water still gets through the stopcock valves that you've had to turn off to cut the water supply then hopefully it'll come out of one of the other taps rather than this tap that you're going to be taking to pieces now we need to take the handle off the tap most taps are very similar to this in the way you do that depends a little bit what type of handle you've got if you've got a fully enclosed handle like this one often they've got a press fit cap in the top of the handle which you can usually prise out with a a small screwdriver or even your nails if you've got this type of tap where you've got the traditional type of handle sometimes the cap in the middle screws in then you'll need a phillips number two screwdriver remove this screw from the top and your handle should lift straight off if you're getting value from this video do make sure to like it down by the title now you'll need to be able to hold tap steady you might be able to do that by hand but i've got a large spanner that just fits over the tap spout nicely 27 millimeters this is and i'm going to use that to hold the tap steady and with a suitably sized spanner 17 millimeters in this case which you can use either a pair of grips an adjustable spanner or even a correct sized open end spanner hold the tap steady and simply unscrew the gland if you find the glands really tight you can use a socket on a breaker bar or a ratchet once you've loosened it off it should come out fairly easy depending on how old it is it may even have corroded into place as water passes through the tap and goes through this brass body it corrodes the brass you can see the green markings on the sides there well that's copper oxide copper being one of the constituents of brass well you get the same effect on the inside when you turn the handle that turns this shaft and on the thread that moves this plunger up and down the plunger of course has a washer on the end here and that's what turns the tap on and off and by moving the plunger more or less away from the seat of the tap then that regulates the water flow now a dripping tap usually is the result of a washer here that's come loose now you can get tap washers and you can buy them and they're quite literally pennies and you can replace them but you've still got to get the cartridge out of the tap to do that and if your cartridge is a few years old it's bound to have suffered from some corrosion inside so once you've got the old cartridge out you really might as well put a new one in this cartridge was only about three pound so it really isn't worth the hassle in my opinion of changing just the uh washer which is easy enough to do these washers are held on with a little nut which you can undo with a small spanner and you can put a new one in put the nut back on some older cartridges have a little like ball end and the washer literally just presses into place those are the type where the washer sometimes will come loose and when you turn the tap on and then to try to turn it back off the washer becomes misplaced and you can't turn the tap off cartridges are normally supplied in the tap open position do not be tempted to hold on to the body and turn the shaft to move the plunger down to the tap closed position that shaft in the middle has got o-rings on it and they can if you move that too far the o-rings will pop out from inside the body then it's very hard to get it back together and you can break it quite easily so leave it in the tap open position and then of course i'm sure you won't be surprised to learn that reassembly is the reversal of removal i know i know that some people do put ptfe tape around these threads but there really is no need because you get an o-ring that seals to the tap body so simply screw it down get your spanner and then nip it down into place no no need to do it any more than hand tight you'll notice that this is a spline shaft and it the splines are in in there match so put your handle back on along with the new screw which again just put down hand tight again you'll need a phillips number two not a posi number two a phillips number two you should now be able to turn the tap and close it check that it operates fully in both directions and return your top trim making sure that the repaired tap is now closed go around your house and close all of the taps that you opened back at the beginning because now it's time to refill the pipes and the taps with water and open up the stopcock for this circuit the same one you closed earlier as you open that stopcock you will hear water rushing through it don't worry about that that's perfectly normal that's just the water rush rushing into the pipes and compressing the air that's already in there once that initial rush has subsided go round starting at the nearest tap to where the stopcock was and open them up and allow the air out and for water to flow out like this do that for all the taps on the circuit getting further away each time from where the stopcock and the source was you might get quite a bit of gurgling and spitting and the water may look like it's stopping and starting but don't worry about that that's just because there's air in there if you've got value from this video and i've saved you time money hassle please consider supporting the channel link in description and i shall see you in the next video

Channel: About the House

Views: 96,396

Keywords: how to change a tap valve, tap cartridge, tap gland, fixing a dripping tap, stuck tap washer, can't turn off a tap, tap cartridge replacement, how to replace a tap cartridge, faulty tap, easy diy, how to fix a dripping tap, dripping tap, leaky tap, leaking tap, tap cartridges, leaking tap repair, leaking faucet

Id: 1f5rp56TDiI

Length: 7min 15sec (435 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 16 2021