Hello all. I have an original (1990) builder-grade double vanity in my master bath. One sink works perfectly, the other sink will not run water. I checked the shut-off valves under the sink, they seem fine. There was no reason for them to have been turned off anyway, I was just making sure. The sink control is a single ball-type handle, move it up and down to turn the water on and off, move it from left to right to change from hot to cold, respectively. This just happened out of the blue; there were no previous indications of any problem. The sink worked fine yesterday.

If I move the handle up and down slowly, I can get to one certain spot in its travel where 2 or 3 drops of water will come out, but that's all I can get unless I turn it off and then slowly turn it on again. Then I can get another 2 or 3 drops at that same spot, and so on.

Any ideas or suggestions on what the problem might be? :cool:

Check the ball assembly in the handle, may be plug with something.

Before we can help we have to know the brand name of your faucet. I'll wait on your answer. Tom

Hi Tom, thanks for your help. The faucet in question is a Home Depot exclusive brand called Glacier Bay. It looks like a 4" and it is brass or gold.

Home Depot wouldn't let me pull up any technical data on yout faucet, however I did find repair parts for Glacier Bay Faucets. https://secure.dolphinplumbingsupply.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=22\

Turn off the water to the faucet under the cabinet and open up the valve. Check the inlet ports for any clogs. Now place a pan over the open valve and turn on the water to flush out the supplies. You should have a full stream. Reassemble and test. Working now?
Regards, Tom

Ok, I went home yesterday and performed the following:

1. Tuned the two stop valves for the supply lines under the sink all the way to the right (off).
2. Removed the handle set screw and then the handle. I was left with the "cap". A dome-shaped piece that I needed to remove to get the cartridge out and/or inspect the inlet ports.
3. After some liquid wrench and the twist of a pipe wrench the cap began to turn in spite of the calcification there.
4. Water began comeing out of the top of the faucet at a pretty good rate. The further I turned the cap the faster the water came out.
5. I tightened the cap so as to not flood my bathroom and came back here to ask what the deal is.

I suspect that the stop valves under the sink are corroded and will not stop the flow of water. So now what? I assume I need to replace those valves? If so, how? I replaced a similar one (exact same?) which went to the toilet by using a pipe cutter and cutting the valve off, replacing it with a compression fitting valve and using flex line instead of the hard copper which was there. I would do the same thing here except I don't think there is enough pipe coming out of the wall to cut it off and still have enough to attach a new valve. Is it possible to remove the old one by loosening the fitting and if I do that, would the pipe be suitable to put a new valve on or do I need a fresh piece of pipe anyway, possibly due to calcification and/or corrosion? You cannot re-use a piece of pipe which has hed a compression fitting on it, right? I know I have fairly hard water because I had to put a new gate valve in the hot water side because it was leaking out of the stem due to corrosion and build-up when we replaced our water heater.

Thanks for the help!

" Is it possible to remove the old one by loosening the fitting and if I do that, would the pipe be suitable to put a new valve on or do I need a fresh piece of pipe anyway, possibly due to calcification and/or corrosion? You cannot re-use a piece of pipe which has hed a compression fitting on it, right?"

If the old angle stop was a compression stop then all you need to do to replace the valve is turn the water off to the house and unscrew the 1/2" compression nut from the old stop and attach the new angle stop to the old compression nut and tighten it down. That's how I change mine out. Good luck, Tom

While you're working on your angle valve problem, the rest of us may as well get to work on figuring out your faucet. ;)

Keep in mind that just because the Dolphin Plumbing Parts page only shows cartridges, that doesn't necessarily mean it's a cartridge faucet. I just repaired the bathroom faucet at my local pizza shop yesterday (pretty easy job to do a couple of bucks and a free lunch :D), and it was exactly like your description (except for the color - the one I fixed was silver). It actually turned out to be a ball-type faucet. The good thing is, the faucet I fixed (it looked like this (http://www.glacierbayfaucet.com/833007.html)) uses the same parts as a Delta or Peerless kitchen sink faucet - the #70 ball, cam, cam washer, and housing cap - so the parts should be easy to find.

Which one does your faucet look like (never mind the color - which style do you have)?
http://www.glacierbayfaucet.com/images/169640.jpg
http://www.glacierbayfaucet.com/images/384949.jpg
http://www.glacierbayfaucet.com/images/833007.jpg
Get back to us, and we'll take it from there.

Regards, Moishe

And one more thing: if it indeed turns out that yours is a ball-type faucet, then I have a hunch that I know exactly what your problem is, because as I was fixing the abovementioned faucet yesterday, I noticed the potential for such a problem to occur.

If you indeed have a ball-type faucet, here's a quick test you can do even with the water supply on: remove the handle (but not the housing cap), and look at the small piece of metal sticking out that acts like a computer joystick. It may have a small metal piece attached to it, with a hex nut stabbing into it from the side, holding it to the "joystick"; if this is the case, which direction is the hex nut protruding? I.e. if it were the hour hand on a clock, what time would it show? If it does not have a small piece attached to it, but rather you see the "joystick" itself, the stick should probably have a small notch in the side near its top. Which direction is the notch facing? (Same as above - if it were a clock, what time would it show?)