Water Butt Replacement Tap

Product Information

The majority of wash basins, baths and sinks are fitted with individual taps, one that supplies the hot and the other for the cold water. Individual supply taps of this nature are called pillar taps. Again, do it up finger tight first and then do a couple of pinches up with basin wrench. As before, don’t go too mad tightening, just a few pinches should be ample.

More information on the types of push fit fitting and how to use them can be found in our project here. What are the Different Types of Tap Mechanism?

What are the Different Types of Tap Mechanism?

Once turned off either at the mains or through an isolation valve, turn the tap on to drain all the remaining water out of the pipe. Once cleaned, take your new tap and drop it through the tap hole. Pay attention to the seal on the underside of the tap that sits between it and the basin, bath or other. To avoid these issues, most add some PTFE tape around the threads of the compression joint body, but this doesn’t always solve the problem. If however you are replacing, say, a full run of pipe to the tap with a flexi pipe and push fit end you will need to chop a little of the existing pipe away. Around 6-8 inches (or 150-200mm) should be fine. Undo it fully and remove it. Once you have, the old tap should now be loose and you can now remove it.

In terms of how your tap gets it’s supply of water, regardless of the type of actual fitting (more on this below) is through what is known as a tap connector.In terms of the actual connection between supply pipe and tap, this will either be a flexi pipe or the copper supply pipe will run all the way up to the tap. As pretty much all taps feature a screw fitting that connects your connector of choice to the actual tap, this in itself is a form of compression fitting, but instead of using an olive, normally a rubber seal is used to create the seal once the connector is screwed up. If you’re project involves working with the latter mentioned above then you are better off cutting off around 150 – 200mm off of the existing pipe and fitting a push fit flexi hose instead of trying to fit your tap to old and corroded existing fittings, much less of a headache! Two discs with matching holes in each sit together. When the tap is turned on, all of the holes are inline allowing water to flow but when the tap head or lever is turned into the off position, all the holes are offset and out of line, preventing any water from flowing.