No kitchen water pressure

[Kidkraz]

Forgive my failure here, but I do not understand what this means.

[mickmanor]

I have attached a picture of the problem part from the center of the kitchen
faucet. I believe the center piece should move freely up and down, but it is semi-stuck.

I am not sure of its name, and can't find another.

Sorry for my prior posts from remote that were hurried, and with poor internet.
I will also say that I changed the anode, and some grid particles from the worn anode likely contributed to the sticking faucet part.

It's all in a day, right?

[Bill]

If you fixed the problem, good on ya! If you found grit with the assembly that is preventing that small part from sliding, I'm sure you can clean it out.

You might try back-flushing the spout. Using a small hose, or even a mouthful of water and a soda straw, force water into the end of the spout, and watch for grit to come out of the central body of the faucet (and onto your countertop).

If you are still looking for help, we need to know the manufacturer of the faucet assembly (Moen? Delta? who?), a model name or model number of the faucet assembly, and a good picture of the entire faucet assembly. The factory used many different faucets, and your photo above doesn't help us identify yours.

Bill

[mickmanor]

The diverter in the pic is a Kingston Brass KBRP 112D and it is sold by
kingstonbrass.com

I got the center piston working better by cleaning it with isoproply alcohol, but,
I ordered a new part because I could see that some of the plastic is worn away on the bottom, and it might fail again. Total cost via FedEx is $25.

For an on-the-road fix for this problem, a practical solution would be to remove
the center cap on the faucet stem, and use a small flathead screwdriver or needle nose pliers to lift the diverter up and out of the faucet.
Of course, that is after turning the water pump off and pressure down. After putting the center cap back on, and the water pump back on, the hot and cold water will work ok.
The sprayer hose will be getting only partial water pressure, so mostly useless.

I don't know if this faucet was original or changed out.
And, if ever needed, a 1 gallon water jug can be trimmed to fit perfectly into
the bathroom sink for transfer of warm water next door to the kitchen sink.
A little something learned is better than nothing.

[mickmanor]

and if your faucet is the same, well, maybe...

I cleaned the diverter as Bill advised, and put it back into the faucet.
Hot and cold water works, and the sprayer works, although I am not
sure about how it is supposed to work.

I will install the new diverter, all the same. The piston/plunger is still
not moving freely. The water pressure probably makes it move up and
down, if it can.

The faucet is actually an attractive chrome finish.
I can reach the cold water stem ok, but the hot water stem...

Happy Camping!

[mickmanor]

And I installed it with a 3/8” Allen wrench.
Kitchen sink is fully operational.

Moving forward to the next camp site…

[Deb Mac]

Similar problem here, except it is only my cold water that is low flow in the kitchen. And of course the side sprayer is also pitifully weak. All other faucets are great, kitchen hot seems OK, though might be a bit low. This is on the pump, haven't tried using the city water since I figure that would be no help.

Aerator is clean, and the result is the same without it on. I have tried back flushing the cold faucet using a New 60cc syringe (I have a batch that I got for flushing brake fluid in the motorbikes). Opened the hot water (and therefore cold water) drain valve to see if there was any crud jammed in the cold line that I might be able to back flush out. Feel resistance in the line and not much junk coming out.

Pump is working well - no cycling (except when I try to run cold water in the kitchen - pressure build up then release). When all faucets are closed there is no cycling, so at least I have no leaks (yet!). There has to be a partial blockage in the kitchen line, since that pump cycles on and off with kitchen cold.

So I am going to try popping that centre cap off and see if there is anything obvious happening there. If there is no (or little) joy there, I will try taking the cold faucet apart and see if i have something bad going on there.

I do have a question (I have the same faucet set-up as Mike). Where does the line come off to the side sprayer? Of course it is up underneath everything and without pulling the whole sink out (ain't doin' that right now!) hard to know the exactly layout of the water-flow.

This is the first I have been able to work on the plumbing - just moved the TM to my front yard - the storage yard was OK, but no power, no water, so really hard to do anything besides basics. If there any problems with plumbing, or electrical, can't do much there.

I'll be back with my findings after pulling the centre cap.

[Deb Mac]

Popped the cap off, loosened the nylon allen keyed goodie but couldn't get it to come out and didn't want to prying and damage it.

So I back flushed with the syringe, kind of brownish water but nothing to write home about. Then, just for grins n giggles, I turned the pump on for a second. Same thing except water looked pretty clear.

Since I had reached an impasse, and didn't want to take a chance on damaging that nylon goodie, I tightened it back up (just hand tight) replaced the cap and crossed my fingers.

It's all great! Excellent pressure, both cold and hot (and the hot flow WAS low before, just didn't have anything to compare it to beside the anaemic cold flow).

Just like a computer "Have you tried turning it off and on again?"

[Deb Mac]

Originally Posted by mickmanor

and if your faucet is the same, well, maybe...

I cleaned the diverter as Bill advised, and put it back into the faucet.
Hot and cold water works, and the sprayer works, although I am not
sure about how it is supposed to work.

I will install the new diverter, all the same. The piston/plunger is still
not moving freely. The water pressure probably makes it move up and
down, if it can.

The faucet is actually an attractive chrome finish.
I can reach the cold water stem ok, but the hot water stem...

Happy Camping!

Thanks Mick. Managed to fix my problem following your lead. Though I wasn't able to pull that diverter out, I did a syringe back flush and used the pump to REALLY back-flush it. Everything is working now. Even the sprayer.

But the kitchen pressure is better than it was last year, and I thought it was all working properly then! I might look at the bathroom sink and shower faucets to see if there is anything there that could be improved.

[Bill]

Deb -

As noted in #6 above, the center of the faucet assembly, under the cap, is where the hot and cold flows come together after passing through the individual hot and cold valves. The valves themselves are located in the faucet handles, so if only one side of the water flow is faulty (cold in your case), you might check the valve under the cold handle, instead of looking at the center of the faucet. The picture isn't real helpful in telling me how to get the handle off, but they are usually pretty simple. It looks like a piece of the shell unscrews, so perhaps a big pair of adjustable pliers, gently applied and well-padded to prevent marring the surface, is needed. Once you open it up, the valve core should be obvious, and should come out easily.

It seems probable that there was some piece of crud inside the cold water line. As water flowed, the piece was carried into the valve, where it lodged across an opening and reduced or stopped water flow. It was held there by water pressure. As you worked on the problem, pressure was reduced, the crud fell away, and flow was restored. But it is still in there! It may very well re-orient itself and clog the line again. Big sigh.

In the old days, the "piece of crud" was often a small chip of plastic that came from drilling a hole in the fresh water tank to install a fitting. I've not heard of that lately. But nonetheless, it may be that the crud-in-the-valve situation has bitten you. If/when you have time, you might want to open things up and remove it now, while things are handy.

Bill