Third set of bathroom taps in three years

[mrsheckles]

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone can help. When I moved into my Edwardian house three years ago, the bathroom tap was dripping and was slowly getting worse. After botching trying to change the washer myself (trying to save money as I'm a single mum), I called in a plumber and he said the inside was ruined by grit and I needed new taps. He fitted these and they were fine at first but eventually started dripping.

About a year ago, I called in a different plumber (the first was too busy) and he said the same thing. I got a new set again.

Now it has happened again and is steadily worsening. Could there be an underlying reason for this? What should I be asking my plumber to get this sorted once and for all? Or should I just get better quality taps?

Thanks in advance for any tips.

 

[Best]

Hello & welcome. I am wondering were all the new taps 1/4 turn?
Just thinking that because 1/4 turn are a ceramic works tap usually & dirt can ruin them

 

[mrsheckles]

I'm sorry, I don't know. They are cross-head and the cheapest available!

 

[Rickster123]

Buy cheap buy twice. Or thrice in your case!

 

[mrsheckles]

Thought that might be the case. Just wondered if grit was getting in the system but thought then it would affect all taps in the house, not just one.

 

[Ch4 plumbing]

Get some "older" type taps with washers, if they drip they can be reseated and the washers changed.

 

[rocketmanbkk]

Don't by cheap.

Do Bristan have 5yr warranty? I'm sure the chap in screwfix said they did.

Not sure if failure through scale is covered though.

 

[plumben]

Like with anything you buy, you get what you pay for,
You best bet is to buy a set of taps that are the screw down type with a rubber washer that can be replaced, you don't need to spend £100ss on taps but don't buy the cheapest available

 

[drip-dry]

seems if you go for cheap taps you are going to have to grit your teeth and bear it..........

 

[Toggles]

I came across this a few years back myself, I was the third plumber to attend. Could feel a grittiness when I took tap apart and couldn't understand where it was coming from. Long story short after some investigation, turned out whoever previously worked on the H/W Cylinder had managed to chip of some of the solid foam lagging coating the cylinder and had either let some get in cylinder or dropped chunk inside, it had worked its way in the pipework and got stuck at a corner bend feeding h/w to bath (Found a nice chunk of it inside pipe too) Oddly customer only complained of minimal pressure drop ;/ Removed the lagging cleaned out pipe, gave seating a grease, new washers, problem sorted! Rang her weeks later to check, she said all was great . no further problems....... weird the things that can happen ;?

 

[WaterTight]

Quality of most stuff is a lot worse than it used to be and no taps are going to last 20 years like some used to but the very cheapest will last a year at best. The mid range ones may only last a few years more and the guarantees are probably not worth the paper they're printed on but you'll be able to source spare valves/cartridges (as long as you keep paperwork) and it won't cost as much as new taps. In my experience the high end ones you're just paying for the design/appearance. They still fail after a few years. Everything seems to nowadays. Built-in obscelence perhaps.