Aerators. I hates them.
My kitchen sink aerator has been failing, squirting water at a 45-degree angle. This has been going on for about a week. Today I went down to the local hardware store without taking the thing apart first. That was a mistake, but how was I to know there were both male and female threaded parts? I came back home, got out the vise grips and twisted the thing off the faucet arm, slightly bending it along the way. I put the parts into a sandwich bag and went back down to the hardware store, and the helper there said “Ah, it has a barely visible male thread here, so you need this one,” pulling a card off the wall rack. It looks like this.
“Okay,” I said, and paid my $2.61 (cheapest plumbing part I’ve bought in about twenty years, I think), brought it home, and discovered that it didn’t fit. It seems to be exactly the same circumference as the opening on the faucet head, so it doesn’t fit inside where the threads can catch. I said a few cuss words and put it back in my pocket and went back down the hill to the store. For those counting, that was the third time I’d been in the hardware place today. I found the clerk and said “it doesn’t fit. Maybe I need one that’s 13/16-inch in diameter rather than 15/16-inch?” She took the original part (the one I’d unscrewed from my faucet) and measured it against the sizing guide (you fit the part into it, it’s not just eyeballing) and said “It’s got to be 15/16-inch. It won’t fit inside the 13/16-inch hole.”
So now I have this faucet without an aerator; water comes out of it like it does from an outdoor hose. I’ll have to try again tomorrow with the new part, I guess.
Home repairs stink. They particularly stink when you’re trying to watch the NCAA tournament but have to make several trips out away from your television. Bah.
If the old one isn’t wrecked, all you have to do is clean it and put it back on. The screen gets plugged, but there are no moving parts to wear out. You might have to put it in vinegar if it has scale. Put some olive oil on the threads when you put it back.
I have the exact same situation in our bathroom sink and now the wisdom of my procrastination seems particularly sound. Plumbing is a particular can of monkeys opened. No parts from any sort of item that is more that 20 years old can be repaired by what’s available today because it simply doesn’t fit properly! End of rant. Did you teams win?
yes, clean with vinegar–if really gummed up, vinegar with baking soda. Let it sit for a bit. That is how I clean our shower heads!!
All very sound advice, and I love cooper’s phrasing of “and now the wisdom of my procrastination seems particularly sound.”
You should have given the guy at the hardware store a few words of correction or a request for understanding. “If the part doesn’t fit, then it doesn’t fit, no matter what your sizing guide says.”
I had only one rooting interest playing yesterday, and it was pretty weak. Wichita State had the advantage of not being Louisville with Rick Pitino or Syracuse with Jim Boeheim or Michigan with a 100K-seat stadium, and they scared Louisville half to death before losing.
Because the old one bent when I removed it, I’m not sure I can get it back on. Oh, joy.
Michigan’s Crisler Arena holds 12,000. It’s the Big House that holds 110K for football.