I don't think this is necessarily a matter of "going green". Going green is as simple as using one less napkin a day and bringing your own canvas bag to the grocery instead of asking for paper or plastic.

If you're wanting a good plumber, ask around at work, ask your friends, family, neighbors. If you're wanting a good brand, check epinions.com.

I totally sympathize macbirch. We have exactly the same problem with our kitchen sink. We have to go out and get a whole new faucet. The replacement parts are only available from the manufacturer, and there is no guarantee you can replace them yourself. Replacing the whole faucet rather than a couple of simple parts is a huge waste. I don't even know if you can recycle an old faucet.

I think manufacturing a repairable fixture/item is very much a green issue. I've worked in both industrial engineering and quality control and can tell you, in an effort to manufacture economical ........read as cheap........products the bottom line is obtaining components living up to a guarantee as cheaply as possible. That means when they are tested they need to work "x" number of years. Anything more, and any more price for it is overkill.

Several members of my family used to purchase a certain brand of pour through coffee maker. It seemed to die for them in a relatively short period of time. It was inexpensive enough that they just kept buying new ones. Repair was done through the manufacturer only and was nearly as expensive as a new one. I tore mine apart, found the nasty little component and ordered a handful of them at one dollar a piece and fixed mine repeatedly until the unit was ancient. It made me very mad to think of all the ones ending up in landfills for want of a one dollar part. I'm afraid this is become way too common. That's a green issue of large magnitude.

g'dau macbirch,

buy a new tap mate.

you will likely find if you do manage to disassemble the tap that the seat is flawed anyway (no quality nowadays).

cut to the chase

len

Here is a link that might be useful: len's garden page

Replacing the whole rather than a couple of simple parts, for want of a one dollar part, no quality nowadays. Yes, exactly!

So we went shopping.

First choice of tap - really good warranty but none on display. To me it's a bit like shoes, it's got to feel right.

Second choice - really nice, really expensive, really pathetic warranty.

Third choice - now we're getting somewhere. Really nice. Half the price of second choice with a much better warranty and a good water saving rating. Catch is they have to order it from Europe and it'll take 2-3 weeks.

Fourth choice - almost as nice, same price, lesser warranty but still very good, slightly better water saving rating. It'll only take 2-3 days to come from the warehouse interstate. It took a bit longer.

And as we face the possibility of Stage 4 water restrictions I don't feel good about how long my tap has been leaking. At least it hasn't been leaking for years, like the tap in the ladies at the local mall. They finally replaced it this year after making excuses that the plumber had tried to fix it.

The tap is a mixer. The @#$% in the shop said it would be fine and even sold us the little caps for the holes left by the old taps. The plumber said it won't work. Back to @#$% square one.

drip drip drip dripcolor=blue> They're talking about possible Stage Four water restrictionscolor=green> drip drip drip dripcolor=blue>