Delta – Life on the Farmlet

It is nighttime, you have locked the doors and turned out the lights. Teeth brushed, jammies on, you are tired and ready to sleep.

Laying your head back onto the pillow, you pull up the covers and try to relax to sleep. The house is dark, your breathing slows and then you hear it. Sometimes it is in the kitchen, sometimes in your bathroom, but wherever it is you will not sleep until you silence that annoying and rhythmic

drip

drip

drip!

There is simply nothing so annoying as a leaking faucet when you are trying to sleep. You may try several methods to temporarily silence the leak, but sooner or later you will have to call the plumber and that my friends is expensive.

Those of you who have known me for a while know how I feel about paying a repairman to fix appliances. Especially when they want to charge $75 to $80 dollars just to give you their opinion about what may be wrong. Really? I would much rather spend that money on parts and do the job myself.

And so it is that I have challenged myself to fix that crazy making, sleep depriving leaky faucet in the shower! It wasn’t so bad in the beginning, but over time it has become unbearable. I have armed myself with Delta’s and others Youtube videos, gone to the Delta website to find the right part, and spent over $20.00 to buy a strap wrench that I may only ever use once. I know that sounds crazy, but I reasoned that expenditure out like this:

The strap wrench – $20.00

The Delta replacement part – FREE (a “$50.00 value on Amazon” [list price $86.00])

Total – $20.00

The plumber plus the part – $150.00 to $200.00

I’m goin’ in!

The offending drip!

The tools:

Manufacturers instructions included with the part
One Phillips head and one blade screwdriver
One pair of needle nosed pliers (not indicated in the enclosed instructions, but absolutely necessary to remove the old adapter assembly!)
One [way smaller next time!!!] *new strap wrench.

Following these instructions it was mostly easy.…

Trust me, the enclosed instructions are lacking some steps. If you should want to try this at your home, then watch the video. A couple of times.

The first and most important step in this procedure is to turn off the water to the house, and then open the faucet in the bathroom sink and the shower to release the pressure in the pipes. Now I am ready to begin! 😉

Cap off, remove screw, pull off lever/handle, slip off chromed sleeve, use strap wrench to loosen the valve bonnet nut (TIGHT) remove old valve, and then reverse the process to put it all back together.

Old parts out, new parts in, and

DONE!

Old parts