About speedball1 Expertise About me: My Plumbing Expertise: I retired from plumbing after a lifetime in the trade. all phases from service and upkeep to construction, both residential and commercial. I am qualified to do anything in plumbing from fixing a leaky faucet to drafting a set of plans for a commercial shopping center and supervising the construction. My last five years were spent as a trouble shooter for a large plumbing company. I took on all my companys complaints. I have been a expert on the plumbing page at Askme.com. In a field of 200 experts my rating was number one. You may also find me at Answerway.com and AskMe Help Desk.com. This is fun for me and if I can help anybody out that`s iceing on the cake. Degrees & Certifications: As for degrees, I don`t have any. Just a Journeymans ticket, but hey! How about fifty years experience?
Experience Life Experience? Hmmmmmmm! Ran away at 15 and joined a carnival, Navy at 17 Merchant marine at 19 I've had a hellava life.
Question Very suddenly, we find ourselves without water coming from the kitchen faucet.
We have a Moen, single handle faucet with a pull-out sprayer, which was installed about 5 years ago. It was working just fine until yesterday when, just like that, it sputtered and stopped.
We can get it to flow very weakly by manipulating the handle, but this doesn't always work satisfactorily.
The man in the hardware store recommended we clean out the strainer assembly, which we did, but it didn't solve the problem.
Can we fix this ourselves or do we need to summon a professional?
Thanks in advance for your quick reply, as I really need my kitchen sink in good working order.
Answer Hi Lillian,
This can be a chore for a homeowner if they have a few tools and can follow directions.
You have had some trash or crud that's been sucked up in the kitchen branch line and is now clogging up the cartridge inlet ports and/or the supply lines.
Shut the water off at the angle stops in the cabinet.
Now pry off the metal plate directly on top of the handle. You will find a screw underneath, remove that and pull out and up at the samre time on the handle. Work it around a bit and it should come free. You will see a brass clip holding in the cartridge. Before you pull that clip, PAY VERY CLOSE ATTENTION AS TO HOW THE CARTRIDGE AND THE CLIP ARE POSITIONED IN THE VALVE BODY, YOU ARE GOING TO HAVE TO INSTALL IT THE SAME WAY. Pull the clip and take the white nylon tool that came with the new cartridge and try to break the cartridge free. If you can turn the cartridge pull up on the stem to remove the cartridge. For those'hard to remove cartridges' Moen makes a cartridge puller that can be purchased at your local plumbing supply house. Check the old cartridge for crud in the inlet ports. Now with the valve body still open turn on the angle stops for a minute. You're flushing out the supply lines. You should get a FULL stream, if not then the entire house will have to be shut down, the4 angle stops removed and the branch lines need to br flushed as well. If you decide to replace the cartridge don't forget to coat the new cartridge with the silicon lube that came with the new cartridge. Never use grease or oil on neoprene "O" rings.
Just follow those directions and you ought to be just fine. Good luck and thank you for rating my reply. Tom. TOM
