When and how to re-seat a tap / mixer .
By
Patrick Gordon - Consultant
Most of us have seen or know of a tap reseating tool . What does the tool actually do ? The re-seating tool does just what the name says , it re-seats the tap . The seat is the sealing surface that the rubber tap washer pushes against to cut off the water supply through the tap .
Why would you need to re-seat the tap , surely the brass is not going to disintegrate ? Unfortunately , from time to time the seat can get damaged . Some of the causes of seat damage is :
• Dirt trapped between the washer and the seat . The seat may be physically damaged by any hard foreign matter that is trapped there . This may be a small scour but with erosion and lack of attention it will get worse very quickly .
• If the maintenance on the tap is neglected and the tap washer is worn out this can also cause degradation of the seat .
When a small leak is left and not repaired quickly , the seat will become further damaged . Due to the pattern that this deterioration takes on , it is called “ Wire Draw ”. If the seat already has Wire Draw evident , the only way to remove it is by re-seating the surface of the seat .
How difficult is it to re-seat a tap ? This is something that requires a bit of time to do it properly :
• Remove the head part from the tap . Change the tap washer while you have it out .
• Remove any scale and dirt that may be present .
• Select the correct size on the re-seating tool . A good quality tool will have three sizes that can be selected .
• Fit the re-seater into the tap and make sure that the cutter blade can rotate freely .
• Gently rotate the blade 360 ° while putting slight pressure on the blade . This will clean the seat surface and give you an indication of how much you should cut the seat down . After each rotation remove the cutter and inspect the seat surface .
• Continue until you have a clean flat surface on the seat .
Your tap can now be reassembled and , with a good maintenance routine last you many more years . PA
For any further information on this topic please contact the writer : PA Gordon on patrickg @ splashworks . co . za