The New Hotness

When I replaced the kitchen counter & installed a new sink, I added a soap dispenser, mostly because the stainless steel sink had three holes that needed filling. After nigh onto a decade, the dispenser pump is now getting sticky: difficult to push down and reluctant to pop up.

The problem seemed to be that the O-ring wasn’t sliding nicely along the internal bore.

The catch is that both ends have ball check valves, so you can’t just squirt lube into the bore. I tried prying the thing apart, but the snap-together cap has a really aggressive closure.

So I shoved the exit valve ball (on the left of the picture) out of the way with a pin punch, wedged it into the end of the spring, and squirted the least amount of silicone lube I could manage into the pump. A bit of fiddling un-wedged the ball and got it back in position.

The pump works fine now, but I have my doubts as to how long the lube will last with continuous exposure to soap and constant sliding.

The thing probably needs a new O-ring and I’m certain of two facts:

1. Getting the pump apart will wreck it
2. The O-ring isn’t a standard size