Where can I get a replacement ceramic cartridge for a bath tap?

[ProDave]

As the title says, Where can I get a replacement ceramic cartridge for a bath tap?

It's for a mixer bath tap. It's the right hand, cold tap that needs a new one (they are left and right handed)

AS far as I can tell they are all pretty much a standard size in so far as the part that screws into the tap body. But mine requires a very fine spline pitch for the tap handle to fit onto. I think it may be 50 splines but I haven't actually counted them.

So far I have only found bath tap cartridges with the coarse 20 splines, and the only ones I have found with 50 splines have been for smaller basin taps.

Ideally I need to find mail order or on line as I need it by Thursday to get the bathroom in use again and don't have time this week to go into town to trawl around all the merchants.

 

[Manator]

I have found this link for you some of these may be what you are looking for.

http://www.notjusttaps.co.uk/range-spares-fittings.htm#valves

 

[ProDave]

Nice try but wrong number of splines. This one they sell is 20 splines http://www.notjusttaps.co.uk/spares-valves-three-quarter-inch-quarter-turn.htm

I need (I think) 50 splines which so far I have only seen on basin tap cartridges for sale.

 

[ProDave]

Right, with the aid of a steady hand and a magnifying glass, i've counted, and my cartridges have 38 splines about 9mm diameter and 10mm long.

Still no nearer to finding a source. Looks like it might be a new set of taps at this rate.

 

[ProDave]

Right, I've found a "solution"

Having searched for what seems hours, i'm staggered at the number of different shapes and sizes of these caramic cartridges, but have not found one that matched mine. So I decided to have a closer look to see what was wrong with it.

I found it's a pair of ceramic disks within a brass body. So far so good. But then there's a plastic ring that fits into the end of the brass body. That plastic ring has two grooves and two O rings. One seals to the top most of the two ceramic rings, the other seals to the round orifice of the water inlet from the tap body. The cause of my leak is not a failure of the ceramic disks, but a crack in this plastic ring. Thus confirming my belief that plastic has no part in high pressure plumbing fittings.

So I looked for an engineering solution to get these two parts to mate together and form a seal, without the need for this silly pathetic plastic ring.

What I found was a combination of two washers did the trick. One of the original neoprene O rings (the one with a square section) pushes down snugly into the end of the brass assembly, forming a seal to the ceramic disk. I just needed something to make up the thickness of the plastic ring and seal to the flange of the tap body.

What better thing than a perfectly ordinary 3/4" tap washer. It's obviously the right size to seal to the tap body, I just had to search the few different ones I had to find one that matched the thickness of the original plastic bit.

It went together on the second try and is now working without leaking.

No doubt you will all be ****ing yourselves laughing now, but it's "fixed" and not being reliant on a silly bit of plastic I suspect it will be more reliable.

 

[Apache]

Pro-Dave, I was once in a similar situation as yourself, I just replaced the kitchen tap for less money and effort!

 

[ProDave]

Pro-Dave, I was once in a similar situation as yourself, I just replaced the kitchen tap for less money and effort!

Yes, that would have been my next move.

But what made me sick, was I had a brand new unused set of bath mixer taps that kicked around in the garage for 6 years unwanted and not needed. So I had a clear out last year and sold them on ebay.

It would have been a cruel deed to have had to spend more buying a new set of taps. Thus of course confirming my long held belief, you should never get rid of anything, as most things find a use just after you have decided they are useless and got rid of them.

 

[Apache]

Yes, that would have been my next move.But what made me sick, was I had a brand new unused set of bath mixer taps that kicked around in the garage for 6 years unwanted and not needed. So I had a clear out last year and sold them on ebay.

It would have been a cruel deed to have had to spend more buying a new set of taps. Thus of course confirming my long held belief, you should never get rid of anything, as most things find a use just after you have decided they are useless and got rid of them.

As a Yorkshireman talking to a Scotsman - I feel your pain!