Name: Plumberman
Address: 20 Glasgow Street, Tauranga, 3110, NZ
Telephone: 07 571 0625

Dripping Taps – Kitchen Sink Taps

There are two categories of kitchen taps; wall mounted and bench mounted.

Wall Mounted

Tap 1. $258.76 plus GST installed. Methven AWA sink tap. This is a modern replacement for the old standard taps.

There are generally 2 types of wall mounted tap installations. The oldest is the two separate tap style (Tap 1) coming out of the back wall / upstand behind the sink. In that same era some houses had a sink faucet (Tap 2) that is two taps joined with a central spout. Both of the above generally use standard tap washers or O rings. They can be fixed in most circumstances without breaking the bank. Older taps do
physically wear out and in those situations updating is required.

Servicing of these taps could be carried out easily within our minimum charge fee.

Tap 2. $339.47 plus GST installed. Methven AWA sink faucet. This is a modern replacement for an old faucet.

Replacement of wall mounted tap ware is easy and inexpensive depending on your requirements. Check our pricing.

Updating

Old taps like the above can be updated to lever action bench mount types but it does require some pipe work changes, what we have to do is cut a hole in the back of the cupboard where the pipe work run up in the wall to the taps, cut them off and bring the hot and cold water pipes into the cupboard. Remove the old taps and fit chrome stoppers as seen in one of the photographs below. Install a suitable lever tap in the bench that is acceptable for the available pressure in your house. (Keep in mind whilst you are updating to a more modern looking tap you will find the flow rate through the new lever taps is not as good as the old and the reason for this is that the new tap has ceramic discs not tap washers.)

The cost to update the old style faucet to the lever action type is from $479.00 plus GST.

Bench Mounted

Echo Mains pressure entry level sink mixer replacement. $225.00 plus GST installed.

The other type of tap arrangement is the bench mount lever action sink faucet. This has been the standard sink tap arrangement for the past 10 years. They are ceramic disc and in a lot of cases finding parts is difficult unless it is one of the more common brands such as Methven, Greens, Grohe, Ideal Standard or Hansa.

Even with some of these brands the cost of a replacement ceramic cartridge is approaching the cost of a new tap.

There are so many cheap options on the market, but choosing one of these is always a bad decision. Parts are either not available or they may be available but nobody can tell you what the brand is, including your Plumber. They have no markings on them and you are left with having to replace the tap even if it is only a couple of years old. Quality is still available at a reasonable price, they carry good guarantees and these taps have a good service agent network to guarantee warranties are upheld.

Centique sink mixer (suitable for unequal pressure plumbing systems). $267.89 plus GST installed.

Let us supply you with a tap or buy one from a recognised plumbing merchant such as Mico or Plumbing World.

Repair or Replace

If you have a bench mounted lever action sink tap and it is leaking there are a couple of options, if it is a recognised brand. You can check the cost of a cartridge against the cost of a quality replacement tap, remember you get a new warrantee with a new tap, you get nothing with a new cartridge and yet you spend a similar amount.

If it is a non branded lever tap you may find it cheaper to replace the tap with something that has history as by the time a plumber calls out to identify the tap and sources parts, you will exceed the cost of a good quality replacement.

Centique sink mixer with vegetable spray pull out hand piece (suitable for mains pressure only). $518.96 plus GST installed.

We recommend the Methven Centique Sink Mixer range for unequal pressure household systems and the Methven Echo range for mains pressure. Obviously the choices are huge, it all depends on the dollar value you’re after.