Howdy gang,

I kinda think I remember in a "what do you do for a living" thread that there is a plumber or two amongst us and I'd hoping for some sage advice.

Out kitchen faucet started dripping about two weeks ago and was getting progressively worse and subsequently driving me more and more insane. Since I can't really spare any excess sanity I may possess, today I had to take the bloody thing apart to try to choke out the dripping.

It's a single lever model; i.e., to turn the water on, you raise the single lever and lean it left for hot or right for cold. To turn off the water you move the lever to the centered down position. Once apart I quickly noticed an old decrepit, flattened looking o-ring. It actually resembled a flattened float bowl gasket which had my old CBR leaking fuel way back when. Many moons ago I picked up a "Universal Series O-Ring Assortment" kit containing 407 o-rings of various sizes (the container doesn't readily identify what the black rubber o-rings are made of but it does say "nitrile 70 shore) on the label) which has come in quite handily several times. I replaced the flattened looking faucet o-ring with one from my kit. While I was in there I also replaced the only other o-ring evident in the guts of the faucets innards with one from my kit even though it still seemed okay. I reassembled and hand tightened and all looks good; my drip seems to have stopped.

Question time;

a) are plumbing specific o-rings made of something special?
b) If so should I seek some out and replace the generic auto supply shop ones I just installed?
c) Also, I remember reading somewhere that "plumbers grease" should be used on reassembly. I don't have any such "plumbers grease" and reassembled the o-rings dry. Should I seek out some "plumbers grease" and apply it?
d) Are there any suitable substitutes for "plumbers grease"?

Thanks!

 

CBRClassic is the plumber in these parts.

However, I can attempt an answer as I've done a several myself.

First off, nitrile is fine. Probably more resistant than a standard rubber washer (although I think most are nitrile anymore anyway).

As far as the grease, I've assembled them dry. I think it may be more for threads and stuff. I don't see any reason why you couldn't use any type of food grade grease (or wax) for that.

You should be fine with what you did, imo.

 

A rubber's a rubber ........your orings will be good. Silicone grease works best to
prevent the orings from drying out in any application.

For Diving which I do occasionally, it is the preferred oring protection/lube for regulators and valves etc

 

We all know WD 40 is great for O-Rings too ........kill everyone spray some of that
KilgoreTrout wonder juice on them ........works great for ORing chains

10 . 9. 8 ..........LOL

 

7 . 6. 5 .

That's what they do when they run out of poison kool aid...

 

^^^ Hey Steve the first vid is great!! Vid #2 reminds me of when I used to burn aerosol cans:icon_teet h:

What a dumb fu(k , reminds me of myself when I was a kid

 

If there was ever a reason NOT to use WD40, that first vid is it... LOL..

Yep. One time when I was staying at my friends house an we woke up to .22 rounds popping off at about 6am. I looked out the window to see one of my friends had wrapped toilet paper around a can of hairspray, lit it on fire, and was shooting at it.... getting progressively closer with each missed shot.

 

Reminds me of Aquanet and Spud Guns Dylan