This is a pretty easy how to. A friend contacted me about a problem with his faucet leaking from both valves. The problem isn’t too bad at this point but it’s something that needs to be taken care of.
After removing the handles to the faucet he was able to see the valve but wasn’t sure how to remove it. If this is the first valve you have removed it may look a little more complicated than it really is.
After removing the handle you can see that there is a retaining nut that must be removed to access the valve. Once the retaining nut is removed the valve can be pulled straight up and out.
Removing the valve will take quite a bit of force. The best tool to use is a vice grip locking plier, the bigger the better and make sure it is very tight around the stem of the valve.
Normally when a faucet leaks it will leak from either the valve or the faucet. When the faucet leaks then the valve is usually bad when the valve leaks then normally it is the o-rings that hold the valve into the housing.
Since both valves are leaking at the same time which is unusual there’s a possibility that the last time the valves were replaced the petroleum grease that was used to lubricate the o-rings was incompatible with the o-ring material.
If the valve is operating properly and the faucet is not leaking then all that needs to be done is replacement of the o-rings and inspection of the housing. If the housing is deteriorated then the entire faucet will need to be replaced.
If it looks like it is in good condition and you can not see or feel any pits in the valve housing you can attempt to repair it with new o’rings.
Unfortunately sometimes parts are hard to find and you may be required to purchase a new valve simply to get new o’rings. It will depend on your manufacturer and the year your faucet was made. But there are generic o-rings that fit most valves if you can not find one specified to fit your exact valve.
Final note
Repairing a faucet is pretty simple there are only a few things that can be wrong with it. Once you have diagnosed what could be wrong it is important that you know you have easy access to the parts necessary to make the repair. If a faucet is still working partially you may want to turn off the feed line to one of the hot or cold sides that is having the problem so you can continue to use the functioning side until you can obtain the parts needed.