"Piers Finlayson" wrote in message
...
I've finally got fed up enough with a cold water tap in a toilet not
working that I think I might fix it. (In my defence it's not utterly
trivial as I'm going to have to freeze the pipe and insert a valve so it's
an easier job in future.)

The fix is probably dead simple (a washer squished into the wrong place I
suspect) but I can't immediately figure out how to dismantle the tap. The
taps look a bit like this:

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/11604/...ps-Chrome-Pair

I'd
have thought that the metal top (inside the red/blue ring) would screw off
with a little downwards pressure, but it doesn't. What's the trick?

As an aside, any recommendations on what full bore valve to use (we have
little enough pressure that I don't want to use a non-full bore one). I
see these from screwfix, but it seems a little pricey:

http://www.screwfix.com/prods/21860/...alve-15mm-Blue

Thanks,
Piers

Re the full bore valve, I'd certainly go for the type you've indicated
(Which is interesting as when I did mine Screwfix only seemed to do washing
machine valves for water so I bought the gas type which only cost about 1.50
then and look neat.). You may find that your ordinary local 'plumb centre'
or similar has the valve cheaper than it currently is in the Screwfix book.
I'd personally avoid the slotted type valve, as just about every time I've
gone to turn one of these the o-ring inside has broken and leaked.

I did for a time have a clever valve with a press button action, on the loo
filler pipe, but I couldn't find any more the last time I looked. I think
this non-turning type - if you can find it - less likely to break seals,
though others may have different stories...

S