Dripping tap - new gland fitted still dripping

valve90210 · 19 Apr 2017 at 10:27

Hi All

For a while now the cold tap in my bathroom sink has been dripping unless you really turn the tap hard which is beyond the strength of my little boy (and seemingly beyond the abilities of his mother too :rolleyes:

) so it's constantly being left to drip.

Anyway, over the weekend I decided to look at sorting it out. Having watched various youtube videos I decided to strip the tap down and expected to find a knackered washer at the end of the gland. With the tap top off I discovered the whole gland was covered in corrosion, so much so that I had to wire brush it so I could get the wrench on it to remove it. I decided it would be as well to replace the whole thing. I got a pair of tap heads and glands from screwfix and replaced both the hot and cold.

Having done so, the cold tap is a bit better but it still requires a strong turn off (more than my little boy can manage) to stop it dripping... I'm not quite sure what to do next to fix it, any ideas?

I don't really want to be completely replacing the taps as they don't have flexible hoses or anything such like so it would be quite an undertaking and more than I want to do at the moment as the whole bathroom really needs ripping out and redoing at some point.

tldr; new gland installed in dripping tap but tap still hard to turn off, how can I fix it? :confused:

haaammit · 19 Apr 2017 at 12:49

What's probably happened is because it's been for a while, is that the bit where the washer presses onto to make a seal has got channels in it where the water has been seeping through. You can get a valve seating tool that screws into the tap and then grinds away the seat, but it may be too far gone for that. Pop it back out and look at the state of the seat and make a choice

http://www.screwfix.com/p/monument-...gclsrc=aw.ds&dclid=CKbE_Oe5sNMCFZAe0wod8hIFXw

valve90210 · 19 Apr 2017 at 13:07

I think that makes sense, though I'm not 100% sure. Do you mean the pipe bit that the washer on the bottom of the gland sits on? If I get a chance at the weekend I'll dismantle and have a look at that.

Burned_Alive · 19 Apr 2017 at 13:10

Do you have high water pressure or a water pump?

valve90210 · 19 Apr 2017 at 13:15

Got decent water pressure but nothing exceptional I wouldn't say, all the other taps in the house work fine, think it's just this one has been there a long time and neglected a bit.

batsy · 19 Apr 2017 at 23:09

Had the same issue recently. Went for these http://www.screwfix.com/p/flomasta-ceramic-tap-glands-24mm-x-2-pack/2611f instead of fitting washers etc. Straight swap although they looked bigger than the old ones. Just check dimensions of current ones and get the same spline length.

Vern1961 · 21 Apr 2017 at 01:26

We had this last year with the kitchen mixer tap. Within weeks of changing the glands it was dripping again even when turned off tight. In the end we had to change the whole tap unit, but needed a plumber with angle grinder to get it off as something had sheared inside - probably what was letting the water through.