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What Goes Into the Decision

We are not going to make this decision for you, because the inputs sit in your house rather than on this page. What we can do is set out all of them so nothing is left out of the conversation.

Briefly

The decision turns on whether parts are still made for that model, the condition of the seats, how hard the tap is used, and the date on the fixture. A faucet with no cartridge still available is a replacement whatever its condition.

FaucetMend is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect homeowners with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. We carry out no work, we sell no fixtures, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call. Nothing here is a statement about the water at any address; only a test of that water can tell you about it.

Can the parts be got

This decides more faucet jobs than anything else. Cartridges are specific to a manufacturer and often to a range, and a discontinued range can leave a perfectly sound fixture unrepairable.

Conversely a compression faucet with washers and seats available everywhere is repairable almost indefinitely, which is why some very old taps outlive much newer ones.

What condition is the part the new part presses against

A washer is nothing; the seat it closes on is the job. If the seat is pitted or cut, a new washer buys months. Seats can sometimes be dressed or replaced and sometimes cannot, and that is the question worth asking on the call.

The same logic applies to a cartridge going into a corroded body.

What the tap is used for

A kitchen faucet people drink from, an outside tap, and a basin in a spare bathroom are three different decisions with the same mechanical fault, because what replacement buys differs in each case.

For the kitchen one in particular, the 2014 line belongs in the arithmetic. It is not the whole of the arithmetic and this site does not claim it is.

What else is going to be disturbed

If replacement means seized mounting nuts, corroded supply lines and shutoff valves that no longer close, the job is bigger than the fixture. That can push the decision either way — sometimes toward repairing and leaving well alone, sometimes toward replacing everything under there once while somebody is in the cabinet.

Ask which it is before the work rather than during it.

And what we are not going to say

No rule of thumb, no percentage-of-replacement-cost threshold, and no verdict. We decline that on purpose, and we would rather hand you the inputs than a number that sounds authoritative and is not.

Know the maker? Say so on the call.Cartridges are specific to a manufacturer, and the name on the handle is frequently the difference between one visit and two. We route you to a contractor covering your area, chosen on the ZIP code you give, free of charge to you. Faucets are simply our subject; the number itself handles any plumbing request.

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