LESLIE: Alright. Now we’ve got David from Michigan on the line who’s dealing with a leaky spigot.
DAVID: I put these things on. I swept the copper into them on the – inside the house and put the copper – ½-inch copper pipe into them and sweating them on.
TOM: OK.
DAVID: And every spring, I have a leaker. The last three springs, really, I replaced four of them but I haven’t told my wife I had to do one last August, too. She thinks – and I get all my ideas and tips from you guys and she thinks I’m a home improvement guru, so …
TOM: Alright. Well, let’s see if we can help you maintain your reputation there.
So the spigot itself is leaking. If I understand your problem correctly, when the hose bibb is turned on and the spigot outside is turned off, it leaks, correct?
DAVID: Correct.
TOM: So, what you typically need to do is replace the valve stem.
DAVID: That’s the – it runs all the way down the center of it?
TOM: Well, what you would do is – there’s a nut that’s underneath the handle of the faucet.
DAVID: OK.
TOM: Of course, turn the water off first, right?
DAVID: Yep.
TOM: And if you unscrew that nut, then you can pull the valve stem right out of the hose bibb itself. And then if you take the valve stem apart, you’re going to find it’s got a washer on it; it’s called the “faucet washer.” And if you replace that faucet washer and put it all back together, then that should solve it. It’s really just that washer that leaks.
Now, I wonder if by virtue of the way you keep soldering on new ones of these, if you’re somehow damaging that washer in the process, maybe overheating the pipe or something like that. Just speculating that might be the cause. But that washer is all it takes to have a leak-free hose bibb.
DAVID: That’s awesome. That should get me back on the top of the ladder there.
TOM: Alright. Well, we are very, very happy to help, David. Thanks so much for calling us at 888-MONEY-PIT.
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