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Plumbing Question (2) - Monobloc Basin Tap Connectors


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If the water you use is hard and limey I 'd be wary of fitting mono block ceramic valve taps. I've had to renew several fairly new ones on boats that were leaking past the discs and dripping white lime from the body. One totally rotted a hardwood worktop.

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It looks to me that the design of Alan's tap completely precludes tightening with any sort of tool, except perhaps some long nosed pliers at a push, indicating the design only lends itself to the tails being hand tight.

Edited by MJG
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8 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

Great - I had just been convinced not to.
Where do I get a spanner I could get in.  Even the one where the nut isn't near the end (left hand in picture) the design of the  bloc makes it nigh on impossible to access.

 

In that case I suggest you take them back and choose a different tap. You won't be the first I bet. 

If you tighten them hand tight relying only on the torque the hose will transmit, they will probably be fine. Especially if you put some LSX on the threads. Is probably good enough for you?

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3 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I’ve installed several and only ever done them up hand tight albeit as tight as my hand can do. Never had one leak. 

Same here, only being able to tighten main nut with a large socket (expensive) necessitates flexies being inserted in situ after, and as there's no room to swing an ant never mind a spanner, only fingertips are possible to screw in flexies (accompanied by lots of naughty shouted words) 

Smear of silicone grease on the rubber o rings helps. 

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1 minute ago, bizzard said:

If the water you use is hard and limey I 'd be wary of fitting mono block ceramic valve taps. I've had to renew several fairly new ones on boats that were leaking past the discs and dripping white lime from the body. One totally rotted a hardwood worktop.

The monobloc tap in our caravan lasted less than 18 months. Even more annoyingly the ceramic valve inside was not removable/changeable, the tap being effectively a sealed unit. Luckily it was covered by the caravan warranty, a new one was just short of £100 fitted.

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19 minutes ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

 

This right hand hose is the wrong one for your tap. You need two like the one on the left.

Bathroom suppliers have an infuriating habit of doing stuff like this. The peeps putting the bits in the box at the factory simply aren't paid enough to give a toss. 

Having tried again, actually the one with the long stand off on the left is the harder of the two to have any chance of spannering.

It brings the nut up to the point you are more or less completely blocked by the lugs with threaded holes used to attach the tap to basin.

And that's even without the other hose in place.  Given if you are going to have any chance of spannering it that the one with the nut buried in deep must be tightened first, there is zero access then to the nut nearer the surface.

I certainly don't have spanners that will work - hard to see how any could, given the geometry of this particular tap.

EDIT: Just to clarify.  In the picture where only one pipe is installed, I an get a spanner on the nut, but I can't actually turn it at all, because of what it is up against.

 

IMG_3953.JPG

IMG_3950.JPG

Edited by alan_fincher
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15 minutes ago, WotEver said:

I’ve installed several and only ever done them up hand tight albeit as tight as my hand can do. Never had one leak. 

Me too.  Hand tight, and not over tight at that, should be sufficient.

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IMG_3937_Resize.jpg.0b7fbb0da87f9731dcf1

Suggestion: This is not wrong.  For some taps, if the nuts were at the same height, they would interfere with each other's rotation. The last speedfit tails I used would interfere.  

You are fitting the tails before installing the taps aren't you?

Edited by system 4-50
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2 minutes ago, MJG said:

The monobloc tap in our caravan lasted less than 18 months. Even more annoyingly the ceramic valve inside was not removable/changeable, the tap being effectively a sealed unit. Luckily it was covered by the caravan warranty, a new one was just short of £100 fitted.

There's a huge range of prices for these wretched taps, starting at about £30 for a kitchen type.

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2 minutes ago, alan_fincher said:

So why put (expensive) products on a web-site advertised as 3 to 4 working days delivery, if when the customer has placed an order and paid their money, you are going to send them an "out of stock" email, with best possible delivery date now 6 weeks away....  :angry2:

 

And so we begin to re-invent the wheel. Buy from 'bricks and mortar' shops then you can see what you are buying. The internet is NOT a good place to buy bathroom products in my personal opinion and eperience, for reasons exactly like this thread. 

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Just now, bizzard said:

There's a huge range of prices for these wretched taps, starting at about £30 for a kitchen type.

And I fitted one that had the pull-out flexi feed pipe with switchable spray or flow in the head and it was dirt cheap. When I replaced it a year later I could be heard muttering something about ‘so-called bargains’..,

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As MTB states, the hoses do need tightening a bit more than hand tight using the hoses. I use extra long thin nose pliers on the nuts. The hose fittings are not always tucked away up inside like that.

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12 minutes ago, bizzard said:

There's a huge range of prices for these wretched taps, starting at about £30 for a kitchen type.

For the boat I decided to lash out £75 for a bit of quality, ceramics discs and a streamlined look. 12 months later it was leaking and wobbly (and that's  just me!) I dumped it and replaced with a £16 job from Argos, not quite as streamlined but still working faultlessly 3 years later when I sold the boat. 

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1 hour ago, Mike the Boilerman said:

Oh and doing them up hand tight is a recipe for a leak. Nip them up good and hard with a spanner. 

As usual, DAMHIK!

Meanwhile 17years on since being installed, the Monotap in the the bathroom has yet to develop a leak.

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