Plumber Girl

There has been a leak under the kitchen sink since I moved in. I've had plastic containers under the drip to catch most of the water, but the base would sometimes collect water. It didn't seem to follow a pattern, and I could only sometimes feel/see wetness on any of the lines, so I ignored it the best I could (EX tried to find the leak shortly after I moved in, but it eluded him).

About 2 weeks ago, I finally decided I was going to find the issue and fix it. The impetus was that lately when I turned on the faucet, it was evident there was a little air in there. The weird part was, if I didn't turn on the hot water, the next time I used the faucet, there wouldn't be air. So I emptied out everything under there, grabbed a flashlight, and made myself comfortable laying underneath to watch what was going on. Eventually I found two areas that were dripping (neither consistent). One place was under the sprayer sink cap, a mere sealing issue, the other was at the connection between the main faucet and the spray hose.

The second leak was the biggest issue and was weird because it wouldn't' leak while the water was running - just after the faucet had been turned off. The only thing I could surmise was a weak area had developed at the connection, and as long as the water had somewhere to go, that area was bypassed for the easy route. Once the water flow was stopped, there was just enough pressure to force a little water out thru the weak spot. Another assumption I made, was that the hot water did not shut off right away, creating extra pressure even after the handle was in the off position.

I decided the best route for me was to replace the entire faucet and after much dithering, decided on the style and color that I wanted. I went to several stores (big box and smaller local places) and wasn't impressed with the prices or choices, so continued my search online. I finally settled on one, found the best price, and it was delivered the morning of 2/28. That evening (I had other things to do that day), I decided to dive in.

I had watched a couple of videos online and knew that the removal of the old faucet would take the most time. It did - at about 3 hours. The hardest part was getting the spray head out as the plate underneath was super rusty and I couldn't get ahold of it  very well. When I managed to get a grip, and finally got it to turn some (after spraying with WD40), the whole assembly would turn. Since my arms aren't 10 feet ling, I couldn't both turn the plate and hold the spray assembly. After getting a whole lot of rust in my eyes (yes, I had on safety glasses), I finally managed to get it out.

Underneath the baseplate of the faucet was a nasty mess. I spent some time scraping and scrubbing to get all the crud off (be thankful that I didn't think to take a picture of it - there was a miny swamp under there).

When I went to put the new faucet in, I found the directions left a little to be desired. It told me to take off a pre-assembled from the bottom of the faucet. Um, there was no pre-assembled section, just a bunch of parts in a bag. So, I slept on it and restarted the project on Sunday. After much trial and error, I finally figured out what worked (I'm not saying it was right, just what worked), and got everything threaded thru the holes in the sink and the initial tightening done.

Once again I needed longer arms to hold the faucet while performing the final tightening. Then I realized I hadn't put any plumber's putty under the faucet base, so everything had to come out again while I played with the putty (pretty much play-doh). The putty helped keep the faucet in place, though I still spent a lot of time in frustration as I tried to keep it placed exactly in the position it needed to be, and tighten underneath. Eventually I won the battle, and voila, the faucet is in.

Of course, I never thought the whole thing thru and now am in search of a solution. My old faucet had a regular head on it, and I could use my dishwasher with it. Now, with the spray head on the faucet, I can't use the dishwasher. I thought about putting a small faucet in where the soap dispenser is (it came with the faucet and is just in place at this  point to plug the hole left from the sprayer). But in order to have it swivel out of the way, I can only find another large faucet. And, faucets with the correct head/aerator, don't seem to come in the oil-rubbed bronze to match the other faucet (oh, well, if I want to spend MORE, than I spent on the newly installed faucet, which wasn't cheap, I could probably find one - no thanks).

II can't use a bathroom faucet (small enough), because those don't swivel, and the thread are so different that the connector won't go in. And, I spent an hour at a BBS, trying to find a way to adapt to that kind of aerator without any luck.

So, at this point I am doing dishes by hand. Not a huge deal but it just galls me that A) I probably use close to the amount of water that a load of dishes takes, just to do my measly daily dishes (the dishwasher uses about 3.5 gallons) and 2) that I have this dishwasher sitting in my kitchen that I can't use because I was too short-sighted to get a faucet that fit all my needs.

Comments

[Don T.]

If you're willing to mount a bathroom faucet in there, try looking at bar faucets You may be able to find just what you're looking for!

[bogie]

Don - thanks for the suggestion. All the bar faucets I have seen are way more expensive than the new faucet. It is not worth it for me to buy one, just to run my dishwasher. But, that does not mean I have counted them out - just haven't found one that works for me.

[Rich in NC]

Mount a faucet under the sink to connect the dishwasher line to. Mount a tee in the hot water line to connect the new faucet.

Rich in NC

[bogie]

Rich - that is a good suggestion, I just don't have room to do that. To hook up the dishwasher underneath the sink, at least one of the cabinet doors would have to be open. Sad as it is, I don't have room for the door to be open, and for the cart with the dishwasher to be there.