Short Arms

Grunting, groaning and cursing appears to be very helpful when attempting to work in a confined space.  This all occurred after Jan expressed disappointment with the sink mixing valve in her "new" kitchen.  Well, to be honest the kitchen was installed 4½ years ago.  The spout of the expensive stainless steel mixing valve had rusted.  It's her second mixing valve after the same problem occurred with the original and which was replaced under warranty.  This time the distributor refused to replace the mixer claiming it had been damaged by using incorrect cleaner.  Jan only wipes it down with a wet cloth and being accused of damaging the mixer didn't go down well. 

Time to replace it with something different.

The original

with a rusty spout

The original mixer had three outlets.  Hot, cold and filtered cold water.  The filtered water went through a filter fitted in the cupboard under the sink.  Everything is made to a price and this filter is "one piece".  It hasn't leaked but does look expensive to replace.

Jan had identified a plumbing showroom in the nearby industrial park and we went there for her to select a replacement mixer.  Next I visited a separate plumbing distributor where I purchased a heavy duty filter unit and a carbon cartridge.  The idea is this new filter housing may have cost more than the original but the cartridges are significantly cheaper.  As it's the cartridges that get replaced this approach should be cheaper in the long term.

You can see the capped off original filter line (red arrow below) in the photo below.  I then plumbed in the new filter and mixer.  I've not mounted the filter as I want to check for leaks first. 

I'm pleased I did that as one of the connection decided to weep resulting in me having to remove the filter and re-install the weeping brass fitting.

Installing the new mixer proved to be quite a challenge.  It's secured from underneath in a recess behind the sink out of sight and almost out of reach.  I had to do everything by touch stretching my arm.  Grunting and groaning helped.  Do plumber have long arms?  

This mixer only has hot and cold, but all the cold water passes through the new heavy duty filter.

Another job done.

This is a screen shot of my Windows 11 desktop.  As you can see I'm managed to make it look like my original Windows Vista desktop.  Apart from the Windows icon on the Taskbar, which I haven't been able to remove (red arrow) 

I've realised Windows 11 loads faster than windows 8.1.  Perhaps Windows 11 makes better use of the laptop hardware?