Bathroom 101 - Get Acquainted With Your Taps

A little foresight while building your home can make maintaining ita breeze. taps tend to be a particular problem area that generally need attention dueto overuse and possible impurities in the water or hard water. To smoothly repair your taps without too much hassle get acquainted with your faucets! 

Read on and next time your tap is giving you a hard time, you'll know what to do.

BallFaucet

This type of faucet has a swivelinghandle and a ball joint mounted in the middle of the post. The design of a ball faucet is rathersimple and can be easily identified. They are commonly used both in bathrooms as well as kitchens. In a ball faucet the one stem handle wheels a metal ballinside the body of the faucet. The position of the ball inside the chamberdetermines the flow of the water and the temperature. They are, however,falling into disrepute with the introduction of newer designs that provide respitefrom leaks that plague ball faucets as they have many small parts that form itsmechanism, causing leaks time and again.

Anatomy of a Ball Faucet

Disc Faucet

A fairly modern offering, disc faucets come with a latest technology. Differentiate a disc faucet by its appearance, a single lever placed over large cylindricalstem. The inside consists of two ceramic discs at the bottom of a chamber, of which one moves and the other doesn't, the rise and drop of the disc controls the water flow. The hot and coldwater mixes inside the pressure balance cartridge of the mixingchamber in the cylinder.  These types of faucets need very little maintenance and come many come with lifetime warranties. However, due to their durability, they are expensive but are sure to pay for themselves in time.

Detailed description of the inside parts of discfaucet

CartridgeFaucet

The cartridge faucet comes with a stemthat moves up and down to regulate the flow of water. Unlike ball faucets, thesingle handled cartridge faucets move up and down and are identifiable by theirmovement more than their look. There are also double handle cartridge faucetswhich are much smoother than the compression faucet. They need greater pressureto stop the water flow unlike cartridge faucets that can be closed with a swiftaction.

Cartridge faucet internal parts

Compression Faucet

The compression faucet is very common. This is an old school two handle design that comes with a valve to regulate the flow ofwater and a washer to control pressure. If your plumber is always looking for the perfect washer to fit into the mechanism and stop leaks, you have a compression faucet. The leastexpensive type, compression faucets have been in use for many years. The one thing that makes thesefaucets a utility despite being weak in performance is that they areaffordable and the maintenance is much easierthan it appears. A washer once replaced can make the tap fully functionalagain.

Parts of a compression faucet

Picking your faucets should be a breeze with this ready reckoner!