Daily Home Renovation Tips

Yesterday, I began to outline the steps with pictures which I followed to remove the hot water handle of the Moen laundry faucet which had developed an in ability to completely turn off the hot water from the tap. The purpose of this adventure was to replace the defective cartridge within the hot water handle which was likely preventing the hot water from continuously dripping from the faucet.

The picture below is were we left things yesterday. The hot water handle’s cover, screw, the handle itself, the cartridge nut and the defective cartridge itself have all now been removed.

Remember, before doing any of the above, two required steps must first be done.

1. Turn of the water leading to the faucet by using the (hopefully) shut off valve under the sink or, if one does not exist as was our case, turn off the water to the entire house.

2. Place the stopper in the sink’s drain (which you can see in the lower part of the above picture) so none of the above parts can slip through your fingers and, well, down the drain.

Now, installing the cartridge is pretty easy and can be done by hand. Simply place it back into the  brass cartridge stem, pushing down sufficiently so it goes all the way therein.

However, I know the above picture is a little blurry, however focus on the upper right of the brass cartridge stem. What you need to understand is that there is a notch in the top of the brass cartridge stem on the side facing the faucet. As well, what is not totally apparent (at least it was not obvious to me initially) is that there is a contrasting notch in the cartridge. What you should be able (hopefully) to make out in the above picture is that the notch which sticks out just a little in the cartridge needs to fit into the groove, or contrasting notch, in the top of the brass cartridge stem.

Once this is accomplished, then you can go in reverse order to replace all the parts of the hot water handle back in place. Start with the cartridge nut, turning it clockwise. Then place the hot water handle back on top, followed by replacing the handle screw, seen in the picture below, also in a clockwise direction. The inside of the handle will only fit one way on top of the cartridge.

Lastly, place the handle cover by hand back onto the top of the hot water handle.

Then for the test. First, remove the stopper from the sink’s drain. Then turn, partially, back on the water shut off valve. Then slowly turn on both the hot and cold water of the faucet.

Success?

Yes!

Then turn back on full the water shutoff valve and test one more time.

In all, the steps from the prior article and the above took about 20 minutes, not including of course the trip to the store, time at the store, and so on.

So, hopefully our experience with replacing the cartridge in the hot water handle of the Moen faucet will help you should you encounter  a similar situation in your own home.