Even The Simple REPAIRS - Sink Faucet Sprayer Replacement

    Last week, I brought my sleeping "beast" back to life. I know it's not a beast at all, but let a guy have his illusions, will ya? Most everything went well, I had one catastrophic failure. My sink faucet sprayer was completely broken by the threads at the hose end. Looks like there was some residual water in there that froze and shattered the plastic. Of course, when I turned on the pump to test the faucet I received a pretty decent bath, AND the sprayer launched into the ceiling with a fair amount of gusto. Thankfully, it's a relatively easy fix. Now I just have to figure out why the 120V electric element in the hot water heater isn't working....next week!

Instead of a long drive to a neighboring city shopping area, I am "lucky" enough to have a shiny new (well 2 years now) big box store close by so small items for the home tend to be in stock. I figured the RV faucet and sprayer were regular home thread sizes and wouldn't require anything special. At the store, I found a  couple of versions of the sprayer. Both plastic, but one was black and the other had a sort of chrome finish.  I just bought the generic black one...it was $4.99 and the silver one was $5.99. In retrospect, the silver one would likely look better. Probably would work exactly the same though.

The packaging said it was "Universal Fit." I've heard THAT before! Since I had brought the old broken one with me, I did a quick, in the package" size comparison. It looked the same....I hoped that it was. When I got back to the RV and opened everything up it was fairly obvious they were exactly the same, only the brand name on the package was different. In the Package was some Teflon tape. In a TEENY roll....VERY difficult to unroll. It was the most frustrating part of the installation. Once I figured out the Flat washer and plastic plate from the old one had remained on the hose end, it was a simple matter of removing the extra ones from the new sprayer and screwing it on the hose end.

This fix can be done on the road, without any special tools. Well, to be honest, it didn't require any tools at all. Everything goes together by hand. DON'T OVERTIGHTEN!! It is, after all, just plastic. After I got everything back and the extra parts stowed away for when they are needed, I turned the pump on...no leaks. Activated the faucet...no leaks, Tried the sprayer...no leaks! Will miracles never cease? Most of the time, I begin a simple project (like most of you) that goes awry. Fast. What seems simple at the onset then throws curve balls when you get into the project. It can and does get to be annoying. Especially when the open road beckons or you are prepping for a trip.

Every once in a while things just work. I often wonder why this isn't the case far more regularly. I enjoy fixing things, modifying things and figuring out inventive ways of getting things done, Sometimes I go down false trails or something simply doesn't work. Perhaps that's part of the fun?

Be Seeing You...Down The Road,

Rich "The Wanderman"
www.thewanderman.com