My bathroom faucet handle snapped clean off this morning while I was washing my hands.

3 comments

3 Comments

Had a kitchen tap do that last year, just crumbled in my hand. Turns out the plastic inside gets brittle after a decade of hot water. Ended up replacing the whole cartridge, which was a weirdly satisfying little project. The hardest part was finding the right shutoff valve under the sink, everything was covered in dust bunnies lol.

butler.abby1mo ago

My landlord installed those cheap plastic cartridges in all our taps five years ago and they're still perfect. The real problem is people cranking the handle too hard and snapping the stem. I saw my neighbor do that last month, he put all his weight into it like he was starting a lawnmower. If you're gentle and don't force it, the plastic lasts way longer than people say. Maybe the dust bunnies were protecting your valve from getting bumped.

black.pat1mo ago

Read somewhere that plastic handles get brittle from UV light if your bathroom has a window. Might explain why it just snapped off like that.