My alleged improvement to the upper bearing ring in our American Standard Elite kitchen faucet didn’t survive nearly as well as I hoped and began leaking through the o-ring seals after the usual year. The 0.4 mm polypropylene shim ring apparently stuck to the nylon bearing ring, wore down to a 0.1 mm thick ribbon against the base, then let the o-ring wear out as usual.
The black gunk around the top of the upper seal area has the consistency of hard plastic paint, although it’s most likely rubber particles from the o-ring burnished against the bronze base by the sliding PP shim ring:
Remember Nisley’s First Rule of Plumbing: Never look inside your water supply pipes.
As before, the o-rings wear on their inner diameters, indicating that they turn with the spout around the base.
For lack of anything smarter, I removed as much of the debris as feasible, installed new seals, reassembled the faucet in reverse order, and ordered another set of parts.
If I hadn’t done such a great job of reinforcing the underside of the sink deck around the mounting rings, to the extent I’m not sure another faucet base else would fit, I’d be far less reluctant to start over.
“Never look inside your water supply pipes” Or the outside? Did you ever run your finger around the faucet aerator while the water was running? Mine flakes off chunks of some sort of alien black crud which I try to not think about too much.
After letting the aerator soak in the vinegar bath for a few hours, I should have blindfolded myself before rinsing it out. Gack & similar remarks.
Like to ask you for some advice if theres a possibility here . I have one of these https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gerber-Kitchen-Faucet-Less-Spray-Chrome/987183057 and was thinking of 3d printing a connector that would screw in to the bottom of the faucet and the top of the baseplte connector…that would elevate the faucets height. I t ried something but … it leaks. This is my first foray into “plumbing”.
Although 3D printing makes it easy to produce complex shapes, the resulting plastic lump is neither strong nor fluid-tight. I’ve had mixed success with epoxy and definitely wouldn’t trust it in a continuously pressurized application.
Bottom line: wrong hammer for the job!