Faucet upgrades and a word of caution...
Posted: October 10th, 2018, 9:52 am
Swapped out my old bathroom faucet with an exact duplicate. LaSalle Bristol 20373207 Utopia Chrome 4" Center Lavatory Faucet with Diverter and Clear Handles from Amazon.
Scored a beautiful deal on a Kraus kitchen faucet for $91 including shipping which I thought was a steal. Kraus makes some nice stuff. Kraus KPF-2250 Single Lever Pull-Out Kitchen Faucet, Stainless Steel, also from Amazon.
My original plan was just to use flexible hoses with shut off valves. Done lots of plumbing so this was an easy work around except for one thing. In all my years of doing jobs like this, I never knew this to be true. Compression fittings and plumbing fittings are the same 1/2” size in this case but have different thread patterns. The hoses actually connected to the Pex fittings and tightened down but it wasn’t until I tested pressure that the waterworks began to flow. BIG leaks. The TPI or threads per Inch are not the same. Compression is finer and regular plumbing are coarser, see the photo.
When the hoses didn’t work, I went with making actual Pex connector pieces in the end.
The moral of the story is, measure your old copper feed tube lengths first and compare to the new faucet so you know what you are up against. Stick with Pex if possible, as everything fits perfectly
Nice faucet at least
Scored a beautiful deal on a Kraus kitchen faucet for $91 including shipping which I thought was a steal. Kraus makes some nice stuff. Kraus KPF-2250 Single Lever Pull-Out Kitchen Faucet, Stainless Steel, also from Amazon.
My original plan was just to use flexible hoses with shut off valves. Done lots of plumbing so this was an easy work around except for one thing. In all my years of doing jobs like this, I never knew this to be true. Compression fittings and plumbing fittings are the same 1/2” size in this case but have different thread patterns. The hoses actually connected to the Pex fittings and tightened down but it wasn’t until I tested pressure that the waterworks began to flow. BIG leaks. The TPI or threads per Inch are not the same. Compression is finer and regular plumbing are coarser, see the photo.
When the hoses didn’t work, I went with making actual Pex connector pieces in the end.
The moral of the story is, measure your old copper feed tube lengths first and compare to the new faucet so you know what you are up against. Stick with Pex if possible, as everything fits perfectly
Nice faucet at least
I would also recommend as cheap insurance, replacing the tapered gaskets inside each Pex fitting when you have them off anyways. They pop out pretty easy and these things tend to dry out. Now the downside is, I can't seem to find just a bag of gaskets, I think you have to buy new Pex fittings that come with a new gasket. If you are going that way, great, just not so great if you just wanted the gaskets...Dano