{"id":5653,"date":"2015-05-17T14:04:57","date_gmt":"2015-05-17T13:04:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=5653"},"modified":"2015-05-17T14:04:57","modified_gmt":"2015-05-17T13:04:57","slug":"dabbling-at-diy-fixing-dripping-taps-and-wiring-bathroom-extractor-fans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2015\/05\/dabbling-at-diy-fixing-dripping-taps-and-wiring-bathroom-extractor-fans.htm","title":{"rendered":"Dabbling at DIY: fixing dripping taps and wiring bathroom extractor fans"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, my blog is in danger of transforming from markwilson.it<\/em> to markwilson.diy<\/em>. Fear not, normal service will be resumed soon!<\/p>\n

As I’ve worked through the seemingly never-ending list of jobs-that-need-to-be-done-one-day<\/em> this week, I\u00a0dabbled in some minor plumbing and electrical work… I\u00a0thought I’d\u00a0blog some notes because I’m bound to have to come back to this again one day!<\/p>\n

Changing the ceramic valve in a dripping tap<\/h3>\n

The Franke Panto<\/a> taps that were installed\u00a0in our kitchen\/utility room have been great – after all, their function is pretty straightforward: all I want a tap to do is look good and dispense water\u00a0on demand!<\/p>\n

Unfortunately the\u00a0kitchen tap had begun to drip on the cold flow. A mini science experiment with my sons\u00a0told me\u00a0it was losing quite a lot of water every day so I turned off the cold supply using\u00a0the\u00a0isolator valve below the sink.\u00a0I couldn’t see how to fix the tap though, so we asked advice from a plumber we’ve worked with before. He didn’t know how to get into the tap but told us it would be the ceramic valve that needed replacing (cue sucking of air through teeth and “it’ll cost you” look) and\u00a0we might as well get a new tap.<\/p>\n

What nonsense! After 3 months of\u00a0confusion about which part to buy based on my Internet “reaseach” and\u00a0putting off\u00a0calling\u00a0Franke’s spares\/service partners<\/a>\u00a0for fear of being bamboozled, Central Services<\/a>\u00a0were really helpful, a\u00a0new ceramic valve cost me just over \u00a315 and I installed it myself in 5 minutes…<\/p>\n

One of the challenges I had was whereas it seems for many taps\u00a0you can prise away the cap on the end of the tap (the bit with the red or blue marker on it),\u00a0ours didn’t work like that as the Panto just has a tiny marker\u00a0on the front of the tap to show which side is hot\/cold.\u00a0Then I realised that\u00a0there was a cap on the end –\u00a0it was on a screw thread, which then exposed the grub screw inside, allowing access to the valve, which was then easily removed with a spanner (after removing the collar that covers it).<\/p>\n

Of course, after I had asked a plumber, procrastinated, and finally done the job myself I found this video (ignore the sexist comments if you view it on\u00a0YouTube…):<\/p>\n