Our water tap in our bathroom turned hard to turn, as well as it kept dripping some seconds after turning the water off. Considering what to do, I asked a group on Facebook, where I was told, it was the so called cartridge that needed to be changed.
This costed approximately 80 Dollar. The company behind VOLA (the brand) warned me to disassemble the cartridge and clean it myself, as it may lead to a leakage, or, I could risk to break the cartridge (WHICH WAS ALREADY BROKEN for crying out loud!). I decided to try and fix it myself!
STEP BY STEP
Follow each step during the process from start to finish
1.
Take the tap apart.
Note: The it takes a special tool to uninstall the cartridge.
2.
Take out the cartridge and rinse the tap
Be careful disassembling the cartridge, as all parts must be 100% fit and tight, and must not be either scratched or bend in any way.
3.
Put the cartridge parts in a bath of acetic acid 1/2 with water for a half a day
4.
Give all the moving parts grease after drying
5.
Put it all back together. You need to tie all the bolts tight!
TAKE A PHOTO!!!
Don’t waste one hour trying to assemble the cartridge again, like me. Take some photos during the process when taking the cartridge apart, so you remember, how to reassemble it again 😉
PERFECT !!!
It worked. And so it still does ONE YEAR AFTER the fix. It still turns smoothly from hot to cold, like new. It does NOT leak, and it works 100% like a charm. Perhaps (in retrospective) the bolt may have come a mm loose, which may have resulted in dirt getting into the cartridge, which is ment to be 100% sealed and tight.
At first, I did not tie the bolt strong enough, so had to disassemble the tap again, as it was leaking from the bottom of the tap. After that, I tightened the umbraco bolt too tight, making the tap hard to lift (adjusting the flow). After a few adjustment and adding a little more grease, the job was done!
The total project (next time) will take no more than 30 mins, using the right tools.
Fuck-ups and Lessons Learned
1.
Take a photo of every step, when you take the tap and cartridge apart. I didn’t and wasted 1-2 hours!
2.
I used grease inside the cartridge, which was unnecessary, and I didn’t think of chemicals in the drinking water. So for next time: Don’t use chemicals and grease inside the tap itself 🙂
