Rekiwi's Blog

A few years ago, the faucet in our kitchen sink gave up the ghost. After faithfully spewing San Jose municipal water since 1969, it could spew no more.

In the usual way of things around our house, the death of a faucet could easily lead to a totally remodeled kitchen thusly:

1. The faucet is dead, so replace the faucet.
2. Why put a new faucet in that grotty, chipped, painted nasty sink? Replace the sink as well.
3. Why put a new sink in that knife-scarred, moisture swollen particle-board-on-groovy-1960s Formica counter top?
4. Replace the counters.
5. Why put new counters on those cheap, battered, sloppily painted cabinets? Replace the cabinetry.
6. Why expend all this work and money to restore such a basically flawed kitchen with less than two feet of usable counter surface, one tiny work light above the sink, and pitifully little storage? Remodel the entire space.

Instead of Kitchen Apocalypse, I decided to search for a middle ground, a place where I can avoid spending too much money and still have a decent faucet in our kitchen until we could work on a permanent solution.

Silly me.

I bought a Bridgewater faucet from Orchard Supply Hardware. It looked like the Delta single-handle faucet I grew up with, except for the pull-out spray nozzle.

I installed it. It looked great.

It broke in less than two weeks. The diverter valve for spray nozzle didn't divert.

I exchanged for a new faucet.

It's been three or four years of annoyance ever since. It restricts the water flow so much that it takes minutes to fill a pot to cook pasta. The base is seriously pitted and corroded. The little hot/cold indicator button on the underside of the handle has worn off. The entire faucet body has broken loose from the sink.

It took a Christmas gift to reveal the final insult.

My parents bought us a water filter that replaces the aerator on your kitchen faucet. It works like a charm. The water tastes great and it doesn't take any counter or fridge space.

Then I noticed water dripping slowly from the faucet whenever I used the filter. I naturally assumed that the filter or the filter seal was faulty. Then I noticed that the faucet neck itself seemed to be weeping.

In less than five years, the faucet has corroded to the point that when water is under the slightest pressure to push it through the filter, it also pushes through lots of little pinholes in the chromed faucet neck.

So our faucet is actually a lacy block of pot metal held together by a skin of chrome.

I wasn't expecting the moon and stars for my $40. I just wanted a faucet that would work for a while instead of melting down like a sugar cube in hot tea.

So if you're a lowlife and you need something shiny that looks like a faucet to replace the meth lab fixture in that rental you're trying to move, buy the cheapest thing you can find.

In the meantime, I'll be on my back, contorted under our sink, swearing a blue streak.