Tightening a Kitchen Tap

Martynt74 · 3 Jul 2015 at 14:24

This is going to be a pretty useless post truth be told as I’ve not got a photo to help explain but I’ve been meaning to post it for a while and keep forgetting so hoping this reminds me to upload something.

Basically our kitchen tap is a mixer tap with an additional pipe for filtered water. The fixing has come very loose so when trying to move the tap around the whole thing moves! So I stuck my head under to tighten it thinking it would be a nice easy job.

In other taps I’ve fitted it’s always been a case of 2 rods which come down from the tap unit and 2 nuts under the worktop then are used to tighten the whole thing together.

With this one it seems there are the 3 pipes which come down and then the nut is fitted around the filter water pipe. Sadly this means I can’t use any of my regular long socket things to tighten it. Also there isn’t enough room to move a regular spanner around in the space as it’s very tight (this is where a picture would be helpful). All I can imagine is that the tap was fitted to the sink prior to it being siliconed into place on the worktop.

Based on this very limited rubbish description does anyone know 1. What I’m on about and 2 How I might be able to tighten this?

Lopéz · 3 Jul 2015 at 14:46

My old tap was like this and forever coming loose. I could usually get some purchase on it with some pipe grips bit it was extremely awkward. Like you say, a deep socket is no use.

kae2 · 3 Jul 2015 at 15:06

Tap wrench?

Martynt74 · 3 Jul 2015 at 15:18

Had no idea what a tap wrench was!

Googled it and from what I can see that wouldn't work as there it no way to fit the end over the nut as there is a pipe coming out of it.

fornowagain · 3 Jul 2015 at 15:26

Basin wrench, open ended works on a cam motion.

Martynt74 · 3 Jul 2015 at 15:28

To try and explain further (and not intending for my drawing to look like an angry face!)

The black circles are the pipes which come out of the tap. The red "hex" nut is what I think seems to tighten the whole thing together.

The blue line is the wall at the back of the unit.

As you can see between the wall and the hot/cold pipes there isn't really any room to more a spanner or anything to tighten it. I can "just" about get them to fit. Wondering if perhaps some needle nose pliers might work but don't know if there's even enough room to get them in.

EDIT: Ah a basin wrench looks spot on for what I need!

Finners · 3 Jul 2015 at 16:12

Also look into box spanners, what I would use on a normal tap

Martynt74 · 3 Jul 2015 at 16:13

I've got a set of box spanners but they won't work due to the pipe.

Nedved11 · 4 Jul 2015 at 20:46

what kind of box scanners have you got? the ones I use are specifically designed for these types of monobloc taps. They are thin and should easily fit around this nut.

Something like this

http://www.screwfix.com/p/rothenberger-monoblock-tap-spanner-set/40102

I've not come across a situation where this hasn't tightened up or undone one yet and I do a fair few.

Martynt74 · 4 Jul 2015 at 22:21

Yeah those are like mine but there is water feed pipe with the tightening nut at the top of that so no access for the box spanner.

Hoping I'll remember to get a picture tomorrow!

stephenmarr · 4 Jul 2015 at 23:00

long reach socket set usually does the trick

Nedved11 · 4 Jul 2015 at 23:26

Marvt74 said:
Yeah those are like mine but there is water feed pipe with the tightening nut at the top of that so no access for the box spanner.

Hoping I'll remember to get a picture tomorrow!

Can you disconnect the hot and cold tails, should only be hand tight, should then give you room to get monobloc spanner in.

Martynt74 · 6 Jul 2015 at 08:23

Right some pics!

The fastening nut can be seen at the top of the blue pipe and the gap available at the back is probably between 2-3 inches.

Millwall.FC · 6 Jul 2015 at 08:42

Looks like you have filtered water you'll have to disconnect it to tighten it up but is the black nut for support or can that be tightened?

Martynt74 · 6 Jul 2015 at 09:18

The black nut is just for support. I initially was spinning that round for ages when initially just trying to tighten by feel alone before realizing it didn't do anything

So disconnect the blue filtered water pipe? Then use a box socket to tighten the nut? How do I then go about reconnecting the filter water pipe?

Millwall.FC · 6 Jul 2015 at 10:09

I have a filtered tap myself the blue pipe on that is connected with a push fit but yours looks to be compression really hard to make out

Martynt74 · 6 Jul 2015 at 10:50

Yeah it's tricky. There's such little room to maneuver to which doesn't help.

Maybe i'll try undoing the nut entirely and taking the tap off and see if I can work out the best way to do it.