When this happens, the tap drips or drools. Some newer types of compression faucets lower and raise the washer without grinding it into the valve seat. Unscrew the bonnet from the faucet base, using slip-joint pliers.
Then remove the valve stem; this has reverse threads, so unscrew it by turning it clockwise. Once you have it out, replace all rubber washers and O-rings. Two ceramic discs regulate the flow of water: a movable upper disc turns or lifts and lowers against a fixed lower ceramic disc. The seal between the two discs is watertight because they are polished to near-perfect flatness. Ceramic disc faucets were first made popular by high-end European faucet makers and now produced by American Standard, Kohler, Price Pfister, and many other American faucet manufacturers.
Ceramic disk faucets are nearly maintenance free and are generally guaranteed not to wear out. Ceramic valves are more durable over the long run in a broader variety of water conditions than any other variety of valve on the market. The discs themselves have diamond-like hardness—they are impervious to line debris, mineral buildups, and other common problems that affect valve life. If this type of faucet leaks, the culprits are usually the inlet and outlet seals or sediment buildup in the inlets.
If a peeling from galvanized pipe or a small rock gets into the valve, it can score the surfaces, but these occurrences are rare.
Ball faucets have a single lever that operates a rotating, slotted metal ball. And, that was the advance implemented by American Standard in the ceramic disc valve. The ball valve is a very simple device, so most of the copies work well.
However, be aware that if you purchase a ball valve replacement from any source other than Delta, there is no guarantee that it is a genuine Delta ball. And, since Delta ball valves are guaranteed for life, why would you buy a valve when Delta will send you one free of charge? The response to the patented Moen and Delta washerless valves was to go its rivals one better and invent the modern ceramic disc cartridge.
The old, pre-breakup, Note 3 was a pioneer as far back as the s in the use of ceramics to make bathroom fixtures, so it seems entirely natural that it should put its industrial ceramics expertise to good use by creating a valve that used nearly indestructible ceramics rather than rubber to control water flow.
But, evidently, the process was not as straightforward as all that. The company, then trailing both Moen and Delta in valve technology, first looked at metal discs to control water flow. But, its engineers were suspicious of metal, fearing that it would not be robust enough for the harsh world of faucet valves and at risk of corrosion.
They decided to replace the metal discs with a technical ceramic made of aluminum oxide — still the standard for ceramic discs today. After much experimentation and development, the company received patent number US A for a "ceramic disc faucet" dating from It was a major breakthrough. The American Standard ceramic disc valve used a pair of ceramic discs that rest against each other to control water flow.
The discs are polished to near-perfect flatness. The space between the closed discs is smaller than a single molecule of water, which is why water cannot flow between them when they are closed.
The technology eliminated wear on rubber rings and seals and vastly extended the service life of the valve. Ceramic discs are very hard — harder than most mineral deposits, which makes them ideal for the rough and gritty environment of a faucet valve.
They resist the effects of hard water better than any other material. An ordinary run-of-the-mill ceramic disc valve easily lasts years, and some super valves using diamond-like-carbon coatings are estimated to have a service life of nearly years.
The discs are housed in a removable cartridge which makes it simple to replace. Just pop out the worn cartridge and insert a new one. But, ceramic cartridges are not without problems. The discs fit so close together that they are actually sticky and sometimes hard to move. To ease movement, most ceramic discs are coated with a durable water-insoluble lubricant.
But, over time the lubricant can be scrubbed away by the friction of water passing between the discs, which makes the faucet stiffer to operate. Ceramic cartridge makers have improved lubricants over the years, searching for formulas that are more durable and last longer. But, there is a limit to this technology, and no matter how good the lubricant, the abrasive effect of water and minerals in the water will ultimately wear it away.
It may take longer, but it will happen. So, the next step in the ever-evolving ceramic disc technology is to eliminate the need for lubricants by making the discs slicker so they won't stick to each other. One approach is to coat the ceramic discs with a material that is slicker and even harder than the discs themselves. Diamond-like carbon DLC is one such material.
A thin coating deposited on ceramic discs is enough to not only improve the disc's hardness but create a very "slippery" surface that slides freely without the need for lubricant. Ceramic cartridge valves mimic the valve technologies they are designed to replace. Single-function stem cartridges are used in place of compression valves, and dual-function mixer cartridges replace Moen sleeve and Delta ball faucets in single-handle faucets.
The single-function or stem cartridge, sometimes call the headworks, is used with two-handle faucets. It exactly duplicates the action of the older compression valve.
Each handle of the two-handle set is attached to a separate cartridge, one for hot and one for cold. Each valve controls only water flow. Temperature mixing is accomplished by increasing or decreasing the flow of hot and cold water inside the faucet. Increasing the flow of hot water or decreasing the flow of cold water makes the mix hotter. Decreasing the volume of hot water or increasing cold water flow makes the mix cooler.
One easy way to tell a single function from a dual function mixing cartridge is the count the ports at the bottom of the faucet. A mixing cartridge has three, a cold inlet, a hot inlet, and an outlet. A single function stem cartridge has two, an inlet and an outlet. A ceramic cartridge has three main parts: the ceramic discs, a stem, and a housing or case. The stem is attached to the faucet handle on one end, and to one of the ceramic discs on the other. Moving the handle to operate the faucet moves the stem which operates the "movable" disc.
The other "fixed" disc is bonded firmly to the housing. The case or housing holds all the parts together. The movable parts of the cartridge — the stem and discs — are the most susceptible to wear and damage. These need to be strong. The housing does not need to be particularly durable. In the best cartridges, the stem is brass or stainless. In economy cartridges it is plastic. Plastic is not as durable as metal and can be more easily damaged by the repeated twisting forces applied when the faucet is operated called "torque" in engineering circles.
Enough torque applied to a jammed cartridge can twist a plastic stem completely off. A housing made of brass, aluminum, or stainless steel holds up very well. These metals are, however, relatively expensive, so it did not take long for cartridge makers to start experimenting with less costly materials: primarily plastics. If anything goes wrong, the result is likely to be a brittle or fragile plastic that will not hold up inside a faucet.
In the example shown in the sidebar Autopsy of a Failed Plastic Cartridge , a minor flaw in the chemistry of the plastic allowed a thin flange to deform at the bottom of the cartridge housing. This permitted hot water entering the cartridge to mix with cold water irrespective of the position of the handle. This caused warm water to flow through the cartridge continuously. The plastic used in cartridges is supposed to withstand the heat of household water without deforming.
This one did not. Some of the plastic used in cartridge cases is truly tough stuff. If it will survive space, it is a safe bet that it will survive in your kitchen. But, most plastics used in ceramic cartridges are not this durable. Many faucet companies use proprietary cartridges that they often design and engineer themselves.
Moen designs its own ceramic disc cartridges, as does Masco for its also owned by LIXIL still uses the ceramic cartridge that it invented in , and it is still a very good cartridge.
But, while faucet companies may assemble their own cartridges, we don't know of a single faucet manufacturer that actually makes its own ceramic discs. Making a ceramic disc requires technologies and expensive specialized ceramic manufacturing machinery that metal-working faucet companies don't usually own.
Ceramics are, of course, the "space-age" material of the 21st century, used in everything from bullet-proof vests to Space Shuttle heat tiles. We're not sure how a material that has been around for 10, years has suddenly become cutting edge, but there it is. Long before recorded history some pretty good pottery was being made, and pottery, for those that don't know, is a form of ceramics.
Many of the companies that now manufacture faucet discs started out in some other areas of technical ceramics. CoorsTek , the American ceramics manufacturer founded by Adolph Coors yes, of Coors Beer fame , makes ceramic discs used in any number of proprietary faucet cartridges but is also makes ballistic armor, ceramic insulators, automobile components, and oven-safe ceramic cookware.
It does not, however, make beer — arguably the most important Coors product. That's Coor Brewing Company. Roughly the same technology is used to make all technical ceramics. The main difference is the composition of the material used for each product.
A ceramic disc for a faucet cartridge usually includes kaolin , feldspar and quartz or silica but also a high proportion of aluminum oxide alumina , something usually not found in ordinary pottery. The mix is shaped into a cartridge blank in a high-pressure press.
The rough blanks are then fired in a furnace at a very high temperature for hours to harden the ceramic and fuse the particles in the mix together, then cooled for up to several days. The cooled discs are finished by grinding the meeting surfaces nearly perfectly flat, and then polishing them in stages: a rough polishing followed by a second, finer, polishing and, for better discs, a third, super fine, polishing. For those unfamiliar with how ceramics are made, see Porcelain vs.
Ceramic Tile: What is the Difference? The difference between good and not-so-good ceramic discs is the quality of the materials used and the care with which the discs are manufactured. Mixtures high in alumina produce harder discs, and alumina with a fine crystalline structure polishes to a smoother finished surface than alumina with coarser crystals.
Some manufacturers add a little zirconia to the mix for even greater strength. Zirconia is very hard. In fact, fused zirconia is nearly as hard as diamonds 78 on the Rockwell B scale, diamonds are Better discs also tend to be fired for a longer period of time which fuses more of the material.
The best discs are very hard, testing at 62 on the Rockwell D scale, while economy discs top out at about For comparison, tool steels used to make chisels and hardened drill bits usually test at Rockwell 55 to 66 on the A or D scale , so ceramic discs are tough stuff. For the first fifteen years of ceramic cartridge history, size and cartridge configuration of dual-function mixing cartridges were not standardized, so if a faucet maker used a particular cartridge in its faucets, it was stuck with that cartridge unless it redesigned and re-engineered its faucets to accept another manufacturer's cartridge — an expensive proposition.
Standardization began about when Galatron Plast S. Most European manufacturers followed, including Kerox, Kft. Not only has the industry settled on a de facto standard cartridge design, but it has also developed more or less standard sizes.
Today a faucet designed for a 35 mm cartridge can use a 35 mm cartridge from any of several manufacturers. And, faucet manufacturers have learned to mount cartridges into carriers rather than directly into the body of the faucet.
Changing cartridges, then, may mean redesigning the carrier but usually not the faucet itself, a feature that dramatically reduces tooling costs.
In premium faucets like the carriers are usually brass or stainless steel, in less expensive faucets, plastic or a zinc alloy. Standardization has been especially beneficial to smaller faucet companies that do not own their own proprietary cartridge designs or technologies. A faucet can be designed for a standard cartridge with some assurance that it can be sourced from any number of suppliers, ensuring continuing production if a supplier fails, reduces quality, or raises prices.
The advent of standardization, resulting in increased competition, is, in fact, one of the primary reasons why the price of ceramic cartridge valves has dropped so dramatically over the past two decades.
Although, you as the retail buyer of a faucet cartridge may not notice the decrease. There are a lot of ceramic cartridge manufacturers. China alone boasts well over ceramic cartridge companies. Most of these, however, manufacture for China's domestic market.
Europe has another fifty or so. The U. For years the general consensus in the faucet industry has been that the best ceramic disc valves are made in Germany and Italy. That may be slowly changing, however. The Chinese ceramics industry, helped along by generous government subsidies and low-interest loans, has improved by leaps and bounds over the past two decades, and some Chinese ceramics are beginning to rival the quality of those made in Europe. KG , also German, that makes superior single function ceramic cartridges out of brass for two-handle faucets.
One company that does seem to be pushing itself to the forefront, and has become the cartridge of choice of many upscale European faucets is Kerox Kft , a Hungarian manufacturer that makes only mixing cartridges. Replacing both cartridges at the same time will save you time, money, labor cost, inconvenience, frustration, and hassle in the future. We offer a bundle of the hot and cold cartridges that costs less than buying both cartridges separately. Also, the bundle qualifies for free shipping, so you save even more.
The function of a cartridge is to turn the water on and off, and to control the quantity of water flowing through a faucet. Many faucet cartridges are integrated within valves, which provide the structural support from within which the cartridge can perform its water regulation function. A cartridge is connected to a handle and resides within a valve, which resides within the faucet. When you turn the handle of a faucet, the handle turns the cartridge within the valve to control the flow of water out of the spout of the faucet.
Volume control cartridges turn the water on and off, and control the quantity of water flowing through a faucet. Thermostatic cartridges are part of mixing valves that mix hot and cold water to achieve a desired water temperature. They also prevent very hot water from scalding your skin.
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