The hot water tap on our kitchen faucet has been dripping for quite a while.

When we replaced the entire tap and faucet set, choosing a design that allowed us to fit out large stock pot under it, the cold water connector hose needed replacing. There is a lack of shut-off valves in our plumbing, so when I got a new connector hose, I made sure to get the type with a built-in shut-off valve, and hot one for the hot water, too.

The hot water hose, however, was fine and did not need replacing. So the second new hose, with the shut-off valve, was set aside.

You probably see where this is going.

In order to fix the leaking tap, we would have to close the main shut-off valve from the pressure tank. Which means no water for the house.

Which is why the drip didn’t get fixed.

We even took advantage of it and would put containers that needed to soak before washing, under the drip, where the container would soon be filled.

The drip, however, has been getting worse and eventually became more of a trickle than a drip.

So the first thing that needed to be done was to replace the connector hose with the new one with the built-in shut-off valve. That way, the hot water to the dripping tap could be closed, but the rest of the house could still have water.

Of course, this was not an easy job. It should have been, but it wasn’t.

You see, someone – most likely my mother, in her younger days – painted the inside of the cupboard under the sink.

Including the copper water pipes.

And the connectors.

My daughter had to cut through what turned out to be layers of paint to cut the copper pipe. The connector hose may still be good, but it’s painted into place. This was old, oil based paint, too, which gives an idea of how long it’s been there!

Once the connector hose was cut off, she then spent at least half an hour trying to scrub the paint off the end of the pipe, as well as smooth the inside edges of the pipe, which were too jagged from being freshly cut, to install the new connector hose.

My daughter is the only person in the household physically able to crawl under there, but she’s pretty broken, too, so it was quite painful. All I could do was hand her things and keep the kittens away.

It did get done, though. I turned the main water back on so it could be tested, and everything worked.

She could finally shut off just the hot water, and start taking the tap apart.

This is the cartridge she pulled out, AFTER I scrubbed it in the bathroom sink.

The part between the two black O rings was completely black, like what is still in the crevices of the white plastic. The metal inside the hole is supposed to be silver.

When we shock the hot water tank with hydrogen peroxide, which requires shutting the water off to the hot water tank and partially draining it, the water runs black when we next use it. Not only was this cartridge all black, but the space it sat in was all black, too. My daughter cleaned out as much of that as she could, while I cleaned the cartridge.

There was the possibility that it would stop leaking after getting all cleaned up, so after I took a picture of the cartridge, plus the numbers on the bottom, she put it all back together, and turned the water on.

There was nothing.

She turned on the cold.

Nothing.

She had mentioned that the pressure was low when she first tested it, but now, nothing was getting through at all. In fact, she had thought I’d turned the main shut-off valve, off again.

On a hunch, I started taking off the end of the faucet, where the aerator is.

Though the taps were off, water started to spray out as I unscrewed it! Once I got it off, we could see the problem. The screen inside was completely full of black gunk!!

Without the aerator, suddenly water could flow again!

I went and scrubbed the aerator in the bathroom sink while my daughter fiddled with the kitchen sink.

Once the aerator was returned, we ran the hot water for a bit, then shut it off.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip.

*sigh*

Well, it was worth a shot. At least it wasn’t a trickle anymore.

After all that, my daughter went to shower while I headed into town.

There are 2 hardware stores in town. One, I won’t go to anymore, after they kicked me out for being medically exempt from wearing a mask during the illegal lockdowns and mask mandates. (Yes, they actually were illegal, and there are many court cases going through the system now. I don’t think the governments have won one, yet.) I didn’t even want to go into the store to shop, but had gone to the cash desk by the doors to pay for a car wash. The location got blacklisted as unsafe to go to by many others who could not wear masks. After how badly they treated their loyal customers, none of us are going back there anymore.

The other hardware store, however, was fantastic, so I go there all the time now, even though they are a smaller store and have a much smaller inventory.

When I got there, I had someone offering to help me right away, and I showed her the picture of what I needed. She found the part for me on the shelf. The package number was different from the number on the cartridge itself, but they were in clamshell packages, making them easy to open and confirm the numbers there. To my shock, one cartridge cost almost $25!!

Then she realized it was a Moen product.

Moen has a lifetime guarantee on their products.

Which means I should be getting a replacement cartridge for free.

She ended up getting the manager over to talk to me about it. It turns out they have a stock of replacement parts that are sent to them for free, to be used for these sorts of times. What was on the shelf is stuff they have to pay for, so they couldn’t give those out.

He looked in their supply, but they did not have the cartridge I needed.

He then recommended I try the other hardware store, or another place I’d never been to before. As far as I knew, they were mostly a lumber and landscaping place.

When I said I wouldn’t go to the first place, he didn’t even blink, and said to try the other place. I’ve had this manager help me a number of times, and I get the impression he hears that a lot.

Well, I’ve been wanting to check this place out for a while, and if they had plumbing supplies, this was as good a time as any.

Oh.

My.

Goodness.

This is going to be a dangerous place for me to go to, with money!

Yes, their focus is definitely on their huge yard, filled with lumber and landscaping supplies. The store itself is relatively small, but covers all the bases for basic hardware supplies. I had no idea there was a third hardware store in town! And I’ve known about this place for years. I’ve even gone to their website, which turned out basically be a single splash page.

I didn’t see the cartridges I needed in their plumbing section, so I went to the counter. I explained what I needed, and that the other hardware store thought they might have inventory of the free replacement part I needed.

It took him a while, but he did find the part. He’d never had to check the number on the cartridge itself before, and they are darn hard to see when you can’t open the packaging!

Then he asked me how many I needed. I’d hoped to buy a spare, until I’d seen the $25 price tag, so I told him I needed one, but if I could have a spare, that would be great!

So he gave me two! Since I didn’t have the packaging product number, he said to try it out, and if it didn’t fit, bring it back and he’d help find the right one.

He was really nice about it, too.

That done, I ran a couple more errands, then headed home. As soon as everything was put away, my daughter started on the tap.

Which was easy to do, now that it has its own shut off valve!

It took some fussing, but she got it in and put back together. Then there was the test!

She ran the water for a bit, then shut off the tap.

Drip.

…

…

…

Nothing! It’s fixed!!

It was a big, messy, painful and frustrating job for my daughter, but she got it done. I’m so grateful for her being able to do it. Otherwise, we would have had to call in a plumber to replace that connector hose, or keep having to shut off the main water valve and leaving it off until it was fixed.

She did a great job!

As for me, I want to get a look at that aerator and see if I can take it apart to clean it, like we have to do with the one in the bathroom. That one builds up with scale and rust. This one would have that, too, but now we know the black stuff that’s in the pipes after we shock the hot water tank is more of a problem in the kitchen.

Ah, the joys of being on a well! 😆

The Re-Farmer