In message , Roger Mills
writes
On 27/10/2010 14:04, Ian Jackson wrote:
Apart from the direction of turn, and the red and blue colour coding (of
the top, and of the bottom rubber seal), is there any difference?

I'm asking this because my wife and I both prefer the taps to turn the
opposite way to the 'standard', which is, when off, with the handles
jutting forwards, across the sink bowl. We much prefer the handles to be
parked folded pointing outwards (-o and o-).

I did have the taps arranged this way, but, on two occasions, the hot
tap developed a leak (and another peculiar problem, too long to
explain). The first time it happened (after it had been in service for
three years), I 'cured' it by soaking the insert in Kilrok K for a
couple of hours (as there were signs of lime scale deposits in the
valve). However, after a year, the problem happened again, so I've
replaced the hot and, for good measure, the cold inserts - and, this
time, in their correct positions.

However, although it's over two weeks since I fixed the taps, we still
can't get used to the taps turning the 'correct' way, But before
changing things, I thought I'd ask whether I'm simply going to find that
the hot tap (fitted with cold insert) is likely again to have a
premature problems (and, possibly, vice versa). I really can't see any
obvious mechanical or material differences. I must add that I live in an
area of unbelievably hard water, which does tend to wreck anything
associated with plumbing. Any advice?

I think the innards are the same - so it doesn't matter, you can swap
them if you like.

I already been running them swapped - for over three years, plus the one
additional year - before the hot tap (the cold insert) started dripping
(plus the other weird problem, which I won't complicate matters with).

Mechanically, the inserts look like mirror-images of each other, but I
just wondered if there was some non-obvious subtle difference between
them.

If you're worried, you can also swap the way in which an individual
cartridge works by taking it apart and re-assembling it with the
innards in different positions, to suit.

I can't recall seeing any obvious way to take the inserts themselves
apart. That seems like doing things the 'hard way'.

One of the main problems with this sort of tap is that there a fair
variety of styles of insert. Needless to say, it is an essential design
feature that any one type has to be incompatible with all the others!
Even though I did my best to ensure that the replacements I chose were
identical to the originals, they weren't quite. The splined spindles
were about 1.5mm too long, but, fortunately, easily trimmed to the
correct length.
--
Ian