Fixed leaky shower & learned about liquid wrench

[Dee18]

Last week I measured the water leaking dripping from my shower: 8 cups in 24 hours.  I watched some YouTube videos and decided I could tackle this.  I have a single handle Delta faucet, 1700 Monitor series.  Looked like I could replace a couple springs and seals and that might stop the leak.  Went to plumbing supply store yesterday (where the guy tried to sell me a $50 cylinder...whenever salespeople try to upswell me at stores like this I wonder, is it because I'm female? Who knows.  I said I'd be back if the $5 seals and springs didn't work.) This was only my second plumbing project so I carefully watched two videos before beginning.  Everything was going great until I couldn't get a brass collar off with my wrench,whereupon I learned about the wonders of liquid wrench (and 4 hours of patience).  After using that I was able to unscrew the fixture with no wrench, just a piece of rubber to improve my grip.  I took pictures as I took everything apart, replaced the springs and seals, and put it back together using my photos.  Tested it for an hour with a bowl under it.  Less than 1/2 teaspoon of water.  Success! Actual time to do this repair, not including waiting, was about 45 minutes....and that was working very slowly and carefully.  A lot of fun for $5!

[Metric Mouse]

Congrats! Saving water and saving money - win win.

[sokoloff]

Having done that repair, you might find that your $5 kit fails in a short time. (It did on one of mine and not the other, lesser used one.)

The cartridge is guaranteed for life; I wrote to Delta customer service (on their website, IIRC) and Delta sent me two of them for free.

If you do the job again, consider adding a small jar of silicon grease to your toolkit. (That will be a lifetime supply.) Helps put in rubber parts without leaking.

[Dee18]

Thanks Sokolff!  I may go ahead and request the cartridge to have it on hand. And I'll get some silicon grease.

[paddedhat]

Good job, and don't forget that "less than 1/2 a teaspoon of water"  is probably not a sign of even a tiny leak. Most fixtures drip a bit for a while after they are shut off. It's just the remaining water stuck in the shower head, or neck of the fixture. Shower heads and goose neck style kitchen faucets are famous for dripping for quite some time, after they are tightly shut off.