Seamus, our General Manager, was talking to me yesterday about the problems we have fixing ceramic tap valves. Most modern taps use ceramic quarter-turn valves instead of rubber washers. Ceramic quarter-turn valves last much longer than rubber washers, and the taps are much more pleasant to use as you only have to twist the handle a quarter turn to get full flow, rather than screwing it around and around like an old-fashioned tap.
But when a ceramic valve tap plays up, it is a mission to fix. The quickest (and therefore cheapest for the customer) solution is to replace the valve. But few valves are the same, so you have to identify and supply a matching valve. If you know the manufacturer's name, and even better the tap name or model number, it is easy. But how many people know who made their taps? Not many.
Plumbers merchants seem to hold only the slimmest range of replacement valves, and in our experience we can only source a matching valve from someone's stock in about 50% of jobs. How do we deal with the other 50%? Our handyman zaps a photo over to the office, and Seamus uses Google Image search to find one that looks to have the right parameters and we order a few in.
So we can usually do it, but I have to say it is never very convenient for the customer, often requiring two separate visits (just to fix a tap!). A rubber washer tap would rarely take more than half-an-hour to fix, if that. But it can easily cost £100 to source and replace a ceramic tap valve, and you can buy a very nice brand new quarter-turn tap for that.
Of course a specialist plumber with a van full of spares might be able to solve this problem more easily, if they keep a large stock of different tap valves in their van. But if plumbers merchants don't even keep a wide range, seems unlikely that a plumber would. I would be interested to know.
Our aim is to identify a set of valves which will cover 100% of replacements. For a while Seamus had thought that three particular ceramic valves would cover all eventualities, but it had just been lucky that those three worked in a long run of tap-fixing-jobs. We soon found a whole load of taps for which our magic range of three valves didn't work. He now has a range of 10 different valves which, since a renewed effort to solve this problem, have worked in all cases.
Still, having every handyman carry even just 10 different valves around is not very efficient. Each handyman probably only does one tap job every couple of weeks (I'm guessing here, haven't checked the stats), so it would take at least 6 months to turn over that stock of 10 valves, not very efficient from a stock-holding point of view.
(Astute readers will be thinking, why replace the valve at all? Why not just take it apart and service it, that should get it working again. Correct. But that also takes a lot of time, and if after cleaning it up (including leaving to soak in a descalant) it still doesn't work you've wasted a whole load of the customer's time. Our view is that it is better to replace to be on the safe side.)
Wednesday, 21 February 2007
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5 comments:
It would be very helpful indeed if you would post a list of the ten inserts for those of us with a dripping tap at home. It is very wasteful of water, and there are many of us who would repair our own taps in the light of the water shortage, but who simply cannot afford £100.
Higher water pressure and 1/2 flow to stop works better to stop these taps dripping. They're first generation designs at present. 10 different types of ceramic washer where's the standards commities for plumbing industry.Stopping the grey market of sub standards components from the far East.Dommestic 13amp plugs are the next target.
The lever tap in the bathroom is dripping, and has been for over 3 weeks. It's connected to a hot water on demand system, and the water is frequently cut off here (once a month this year). Once the kitchen is refurbished, those taps will also be lever taps.
My husband can't use non-lever taps because of a disability. We can't find a single place which sells the replacement ceramic washers (or the valves), and the council doesn't fix trivial faults like this.
Are we going to have to replace the taps every 8 years (the length of time taken for this tap to start dripping)? If so, why weren't we told this when the taps were sold or fitted?
It is clear that these things are purely for manufacturer's profit. We built a new house in 2000, and 8 (yes, 8) ceramic disc valves have required replacement already, three different manufacturers. The kitchen (Atriflo - told it was high quality) has been leaking for weeks now, almost a trickle. We have a Kinetico water softener.
I wish you could still get stylish taps with washers - a few minutes, and a few pence!
I recently needed to replace the ceramic valve on my Blanco tap Borma Lux 2346. Blanco spares are obtainable from Top Brassware Ltd., Maltby, Rotherham, South Yorks on Tel.No.01709819077.
Eventually, though, I had to source my actual valve from S.A. Lunn Ltd on Tel.No.01252548711. Use Google to access their website under "Lunns" where full details and pictures of the wide range of valves they have available can be see. Orders can be submitted online. Please note that I am a householder and have no connection with either of the companies mentioned.
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