The first week of construction school, I was so amped up on handy self-reliance that I learned to fix a leaky bathtub faucet. So this weekend, when a bathroom sink leaked all over my stash of tiny hotel soaps and sewing kits, I thought it would be a simple fix. Not so.
Feeling rather smug in my new skills, I dismantled the sink faucet handles to replace the seats, springs, and cartridges, but I got stymied when the nut wouldn’t budge off the stem on the hot water side. So solid was the coupling that I wondered if there were even two separate parts.
After much brute force and profanity, I took photos of everything, then drove to Home Depot, where I consulted with Robert and Tom. We discussed several courses of action, including one involving a blow torch, but in the end, they sent me home with two flameless products that might free the frozen nut:
- CLR to remove the calcium, lime and rust
- PB B’Laster rust-penetrating catalyst, in case CLR didn’t work
Here’s a picture of my Home Depot purchases:
Here’s a picture of the frozen nut:
Here’s what I did:
I wrapped a paper towel (doubled-over a few times) around the nut, like a funnel. I secured it with a rubber band, then poured CLR into the funnel, until the paper towel was saturated and the stubborn nut was doused with the solvent. Then I went downstairs to make some soup. But I digress.
Not a half-hour later, the once-frozen nut spun off the stem like butter. I guess it was calcium or lime. I never even tried the PB.
From there, it was a snap to replace the seats, springs, and cartridges. The hardest part of the project was parting with all my tiny soaps and sewing kits.
I’ve had this problem and had my strong son tackle it. CLR great tip!
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I was really surprised how well CLR worked. I had thought for sure there would be soldering involved!
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