Sooooo… where we left off… I found the box and the receipt. I haven’t called about getting a replacement yet because I really wanted to get some sort of filters or screens to keep the crud from crudding up a new faucet. I tried several plumbing places and no one had a simple screen, just big filter contraptions, and only one of them was made for hot water and it was like $200. I need to filter both the hot and cold inlets -- or at least I think I do -- I’m not sure if the crud is only coming from one side.

While looking at stuff at my one decent hardware store, I came up with an idea… they make washers with a screen cone for garden hoses. I got some of them, but the screen is really coarse. Old-fashioned faucet aerators have a couple of brass screens, which is where the crud accumulates in my kitchen faucet. If I can get some of those at the inlet, problem solved. You can’t just shove them into the fitting for the supply line, but a garden hose style fitting would work.

So, I got some adapters to go from 1/2" male pipe fittings to male and female hose fittings. I got some aerator screens. The problem is that the screens are about the same size as the internal diameter of the adapter. I could carefully set them in, but I wasn’t really happy with the arrangement.




I tried all the usual plumbing places again to find some larger-diameter screens. All anyone had were the 5/8" ones for aerators. You used to be able to get screens in several sizes, but I sort of recall that years ago, the potheads figured out that they work great for bongs and pipes, and I heard the plumbing stores stopped carrying them so they wouldn't be accused of selling drug paraphernalia. So, where to find larger screen? At the drug paraphernalia shop! A packet of 5 screens was ONE DOLLAR. The faucet aerator ones were like $3 apiece.


I put two screens in each assembly, and aligned them to get an effectively finer mesh.


The washer holds them in place nicely.


A bit of Teflon tape just to be on the safe side.


The shortest 1/2" to 1/2" supply line I could find was 16 inches long. With a 12 inch line on the other end, the whole affair is at least twice as long as it needs to be. But it should work fine.


Viola! No leaks. And I can quickly pull the filter assemblies out to clean out the crud a couple times a year.


Tomorrow's project: Call Delta and see about getting a new faucet.