Never replaced a shower faucet before, so, I got the brand–Delta–got online to see how to not-screw-it-up, and of course, could not find one that looked exactly like it. Naturally.
Still, the principles are the same. I turned off the water, disassembled the sucker–and it's tricky, there's a brass cap that doesn't look like it comes off–and went to Home Depot. Guy said, "All you need is this and some plumber's grease, you're good to go.
This being a pair of springs and rubber cups, three bucks:
Came home disasembled the module, took the old springs and rubber seals out, put the new ones in, greased things up, put it back together, turned the water back on, and voila!
The shower still dripped ...
Not as much, but some, a drop every eight or ten seconds.
Well, drat*. That's not what I wanted. So. I went back to Home Depot and got the entire module, which I should have done in the first place. In theory, these are guaranteed for life and if I had the receipt, I could have gotten it for free, but good luck finding that. Thirty-four-ninety-five.
Home, out with the old, in with the new, and now it works just fine, no drippery. (I needed a T-bar tool to turn the water valve on and off at the street anyhow, another eight bucks, and it makes things a lot easier than using a Crescent wrench and Channellock pliers in combination.)
So, forty-six and change total, a hour and a half, or so, counting the drives. Second time, five minutes to change it out, plus another five to adjust the scald-stop.
Way cheaper than a plumber. I'll take it.
____________
* drat: ORIGIN early 19th cent.: shortening of od rat, euphemism for God rot.
1 comment:
While they sell the parts, if you don't know what you're doing -- you might as well just buy the replacement cartridge. They just get too finicky about being put together just right; the price difference has never been worth the aggravation for me of doing the job twice!
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