Faucet Stems for Dummy DIY Plumbers

Disassembled faucet

Sometimes when we read through an eHow.com freelancer's how-to posts we sit there nodding, and sometimes we burst out laughing. Once in a while both happen: the freelancer's going along just fine (usually because of good source material) and suddenly hits a snag. That's what happened today, when a staffer in the plumbing division came across Nathan McGinty attempting to explain "How to Remove an Outdoor Faucet Stem" for HomeSteady.com. Actually, the guffaws erupted rather early...

One of our sister blogs addressed a similar problem a while back, so we'll just refer you to The Fixit Zone to get an idea of what the real procedure is. Now, on to what Nathan had to say.

As you might expect, Nathan told his readers to start by turning off the water supply. In fact, of about 190 words beyond his "introduction," Nathan burned up about 80% of them telling you "how" to turn off the water supply; half on finding a shutoff valve (which he calls a "water supply valve") and half on houses built on slabs, for which he says to,

"Look for a water utility box in the street near the front curb of your house."

God forbid there's heavy traffic...😱 The reality is that there may still be a shutoff valve in the house even if it's on a slab, especially in cold climates: look in the utility room or garage near the water heater. If not, the shutoff is (probably) just upstream of the water meter, wherever it is. It will not, however, be "in the street"!

Once that's accomplished, Nathan's instructions devolve into two steps:

1. "Remove the packing nut."
2. "Pull the faucet handle and valve stem out of the faucet."

Sorry, Nate, that's wrong, at least step 2: you don't "pull" the stem out of the faucet, you have to unscrew it from the faucet body. There is often a second nut underneath the packing (or "bonnet") nut to hold the stem assembly in place You're also stupid if you don't open the valve first to release any water upstream of the faucet. It's been our experience that you usually can't get the packing nut off without removing the faucet handle, but that's just an aside.

McGinty clearly had no idea what he was talking about, having harvested all his (mis)information from a post about replacing the water on a frostproof hydrant. What our Dumbass of the Day didn't realize is that there are a lot of other "outdoor faucets" out there, most of which are rather different from the example.

Perhaps had he known that, he would have used some of those 200 words to address those questions instead of telling people how to turn off the water supply.

DDIY - PLUMBING