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This question is extremely common. Fortunately, the answer is a simple one! The handle of a toilet has a chain attached to it within the tank of the toilet. This chain’s job is to pull up on a plug when the handle is pushed down. That plug, also known as the flush valve, is what keeps the fresh water in the back of the tank. Then, when it’s unplugged, water is able to rush down into the toilet bowl, flushing your toilet out. So, why is the toilet handle loose? Even worse, why is the toilet handle not working? Let’s take a quick look.

Diagnosing the Problem

If your toilet handle has suddenly stopped working or, perhaps, has never worked, the problem is simple. The chain that attaches your handle to the tank’s flush valve is likely not attached, or is so loose that the handle does nothing at all. Every time you push down on the handle, it’s doing nothing because it’s unable to pull up the plug that initiates a flush.

To fix this issue, start by lifting the lid off of the toilet’s tank and setting it aside. Now, look inside. Is there a chain attached to the extended interior handle? If so, it must be incredibly loose. There may also be no chain attached to the handle. Check if there’s one sitting in the bottom of the tank. If the chain is missing entirely, you’ll need to head to a hardware store to buy one. If it’s just been detached from the handle, your job is an easy one.

Attaching a Flush Chain

Attaching a flush chain is easy. There is usually a hook at the end of the interior handle. Simply hook the end loop of the chain over that hook. Now, give it a flush. Check to see if the last loop is tight enough. Sometimes, a chain is longer than necessary. If the chain doesn’t pull open the flush valve or not enough for a flush, you’ll need to tighten it a bit.

If your flush chain is too short to reach the handle, and this toilet has never had a working handle since you moved in, the short chain is likely the reason for that. Whoever installed it realized the chain was too short to fit and didn’t bother getting a new one. Unfortunately, that’s now your job. Head to a hardware store and get a chain that’s a bit longer.

Tightening a Flush Chain

Tightening a flush chain is simple. Simply hook one of the loops that’s slightly further down the chain and try flushing again. It should only take a couple adjustments to get to the loop that’s just right. When you find the right one, the chain should be long enough to pull the flush valve open, get a successful flush, and then quickly close again when the water level in the tank is low.

Toilet Repair Services

If these solutions didn’t work for you, give us a call at POM Plumbing. Is your toilet handle loose? We’ve seen all there is to see with regard to dysfunctional toilets, and we look forward to assisting with yours.

If you’ve just walked into your kitchen to find a pool of water in front of your dishwasher, take a deep breath and try not to panic. A dishwasher leaking water can happen for some very simple reasons, so you don’t need to start shopping for a new dishwasher just yet. POM Plumbing is here to help you figure out what’s going on.

Soap Mistakes

One of the most simple problems that can cause a dishwasher leaking water is using the wrong kind of soap. This is especially worth checking into if you have children or young teens who help with the dishes. 

Dish detergent is specially designed to work in dishwashers. Using dish soap, hand soap, or other kinds of non-detergent soaps can cause the dishwasher to leak. This is because these soaps are made to create a lot of sudsy bubbles, which your dishwasher isn’t made to handle. The excess bubbles can actually force their way out of the dishwasher, bringing a lot of water with them.

If you used the wrong soap or someone else ran the dishwasher last, try running it again. Turn it on with no soap in it and see if it makes it through a cycle without leaking. You may want to lay down some towels or keep a close eye on it though. If it starts leaking partway through, turn it off and resume investigation.

Door Malfunctions

The next most common cause of a dishwasher leaking water is the door malfunctioning. This generally comes in one of two flavors: your door latch is loose or the door gasket is damaged.

If the door latch is loose or faulty, it won’t hold the door shut as tight as it needs to, allowing water to come out. If your dishwasher opens really easily or the door wiggles around when latched, you should replace the latch.

However, even if your latch works perfectly fine, your dishwasher door gasket might be doing a poor job. As this gasket is the only thing sealing the dishwasher, a small tear, break, or worn spot can leak water. Take a look at the length of the gasket and check for weak spots. If you find any, it’s time to buy a replacement gasket.

Hose and Valve Breaks

If the door of the dishwasher isn’t the site of the leak, the next most likely cause is a break in your water hose or valve. These can be accessed by removing the panel at the bottom, front of the dishwasher. If you can feel a break in the hose, it’s likely the water spilled out before ever reaching the dishwasher. Replacing these parts is a bit trickier than a gasket or latch and may be worth calling us for.

More Complicated Problems

If none of these problems seem to be the culprit of your dishwasher leaking, call us at POM Plumbing. We’ll be happy to come out and have a look. Sometimes problems with a dishwasher leaking are from more complicated issues, such as pipe placement. We have a keen eye for plumbing problems and can make quick work of your dishwasher leak, saving you time.

Tired of your drains clogging? The truth is, you can prevent drain clogging easily with some help from the professionals. Here are some easy ways to prevent drain clogging in your sinks and showers.

Drain Cleaning

If your drains are currently having problems draining, the first step is cleaning them out. Cleaning your drains out will give you a fresh start to prevent drain clogging from.

For sinks, drain cleaning is actually quite simple and can be done as a DIY project, if you’re comfortable removing a pipe from under your sink. If your tub drain is giving you problems, you don’t want to DIY your sink drain, or DIY hasn’t solved the problem, it’s time to get some help from your local drain cleaning professionals.

POM Plumbing can have your drains back in working order in no time. With some help from our power washer or a snake, we can unblock any drain in your home and have it draining like new.

Soap and Water

Once your drains are back to their fully functional selves, there is one simple rule for keeping them clog free: never put anything down them but soap and water. It may sound obvious, but it’s easy to forget or shrug off this simple rule – especially in the kitchen.

When we say soap and water only, we mean it! There are a lot of things that slip down our drains without us realizing, just for lack of attention. For example, grease from cooking is a huge cause for clogs. If you cook something with a lot of grease, like bacon, let the grease harden in the pan and then scrape it out with a paper towel before washing it in the sink.

The same goes for things like rice, flower mixtures, and other tiny remnants of food. If you want to keep your drain from clogging, wipe all of these things out into the trash before washing your dishes. 

Clog Prevention

Soap and water is easy to agree to in your head, but in practice, it’s a bit harder than just keeping the food in the trash. This is especially true in the bathroom. After all, how are you going to avoid hair going down the drain? The answer is simple: you need some clog prevention methods in place as well. Spend a few dollars on a drain trap to keep hair, lint, and other foreign things from entering your tub drain. By dumping the trap out in the trashcan each time it gets a small clump of hair in it, you’ll keep all of that from building up inside the drain and prevent future clogs from appearing.

If you struggle to keep every food particle from entering your kitchen drain, like most normal people do, learning how to remove and dump out the drain pipe yourself can be a great way to maintain drain integrity. Even doing this once every 6 months or so can make a huge difference in draining abilities. If all else fails, POM Plumbing is here to help with any drain clogs that manage to happen anyway. Just give us a call and we’ll be happy to assist!

If you sat through Part 1 with us, you now have all of your supplies and a loosened drain pipe in your hands. Now comes the fun part: it’s time to clean your sink drain.

Step 3: Remove Its Contents

When your sink drain pipe is loosened, you should be able to wiggle it free. It’s recommended that you keep your bucket directly under it while doing this. As you remove the pipe, some of the gunk blocking it may come free from where the pipe was attached and some water may escape where it was settled. This is why it’s wise to keep a towel under the entire site to avoid dirtying the inside of your cabinet.

With your pipe free, pull your pipe and bucket from under the sink and shake out the contents of the pipe into your bucket. It’s likely that the blockages aren’t very compacted in the pipe, and should come free fairly easily. This blockage is likely made up of mostly hair and whatever bacteria and rot has accumulated on it.

With this piece of your drain pipe emptied of its blockage, you’ll also want to check the parts it was attached to. A look up at the vertical pipe leading down from the drain might reveal some more gunk trapped there. It should be easily removed with your pointy object. We’ll assume you’ve got a cheap pipe cleaner on hand. You can use this to knock any gunk from the vertical pipe into your bucket. 

The horizontal pipe leading into the wall may also have its fair share of waste blocking it. If this blockage goes deeper than a couple inches past the edge of the pipe, you may need to employ a snake to remove it. However, this kind of blockage in a bathroom sink drain is unlikely. You should be able to bend the end of your pipe cleaner into a hook and pull out whatever is trapped there with ease.

Step 4: Clean Your Sink Drain

Next up, if you want a job well done to end in your drain feeling like new (and smelling like new too), it’s time to clean your sink drain. Set your bucket aside and use your rag to clean out the removed portion of drain pipe. You can simply push the rag through, pulling it out the other side to remove anything coating the pipe, or you can go all out and use soap and water. Whatever degree of cleaning satisfies you will do. 

Step 5: Return the Pipe

Finally, wiggle that piece of pipe back to where it sat before and start tightening those coupling nuts back on. You may need to finagle it a bit to get it in the right place. If you’re struggling to keep the threads aligned, try turning the nuts counterclockwise until they settle into the right spot, then tighten them into place.

When you’ve got the coupling nuts back in place, go ahead and turn on your faucet. Let it run for a minute and watch to make sure there’s no leaking before calling it a day.

If your sink drain didn’t have almost any blockage at all, or continues to struggle with draining after you clean your sink drain, the problem is likely further down. Give us a call today and we’ll be happy to get your sink back in working order.

Tired of your sink not draining properly? Cleaning your sink drain is one piece of plumbing that is fairly good for beginners and easy to DIY. Not to mention, if you’re satisfied by the removal of gross things, it can be quite fun too. POM Plumbing is here for you, no matter how hard the plumbing project. But, we also love to see our Toronto neighbors expanding their knowledge of plumbing and getting into the thick of things themselves, when it’s safe to do so. So, we’ve put together a little guide to make it easy to clean your sink drain yourself.

Things You’ll Need

To begin, make sure you have everything you need. Here’s what we recommend:

• A bucket. Don’t get a nice mixing bowl; this is going to get gross. You can also opt for a small, lined trash can.
• A monkey wrench, if your drain pipe is attached with metal parts and is tightly secured.
• Something long, like a pencil or a cheap pipe cleaner, that you won’t mind getting dirty or throwing out.
• A rag or cloth, if you want to get things clean like new.
• Rubber gloves, if you’re squeamish about touching gross things.

Step 1: Prepare

This may seem obvious, but make sure you keep your sink turned off. It’s easy to forget while in the middle of things and go to rinse something off your hands. After all, the sink is right there. If you’re the kind of person who might forget, mid-project, put some tape on the handles. The last thing you want is to flood the storage under your sink.

Next, remove anything stored under the sink. Some things may be pushed aside but, if you want to ensure nothing gets wet or covered in sink sludge, it’s best to remove it. You’ve got a whole bathroom floor at your disposal.

Finally, lay down a rag or hand towel that you don’t mind getting dirty beneath your drain pipe.

Step 2: Loosen Your Drain Pipe

Next up, it’s time to loosen that drain pipe. To clean your sink drain primarily means removing the drain pipe temporarily and removing all of the junk blocking it. There are chemical drain cleaners for this, but they damage your pipes and are bad for the environment. It’s best to simply empty the pipe yourself.

Your pipe should have two obvious rings around it. These are often plastic, with some ridges on the outside. As you can see, your pipe should dip down and then curve back up. These rings, called coupling nuts, should be placed, one above, and one after this dip. The piece of pipe between them is removable and these are what hold that piece in place.

Simply twist these coupling nuts counterclockwise to loosen them. If the coupling nuts on your sink are made of metal, they may be more tightly secured and may require a wrench to unscrew them.

Next Up: Clean Your Sink Drain

Ready for the really fun part of cleaning your sink drain? Continue on to Part 2 to get to the nitty gritty with us.

There are a lot of things that homeowners expect to go down the drain without a fuss. However, there are quite a few things that end up giving them trouble later without them realizing the connection. After all, if you dump something into your drain, why would you assume it’s related when your drain stops working over a week later? Today we want to talk about some things that clog your drains that may surprise you!

1. Grease, Oil, and Fat, Oh My!

The #1 thing that people dump down their kitchen drain only to end up with a clog is all of the above. Grease, oil, and fat from meat all love to stick around. Have you ever fried bacon only to find the grease has solidified in the pan within a few hours? When you dump things like bacon grease down your kitchen drain, it will solidify in  your pipes the same way.

While you’re not likely to get enough grease solidified in your pipes to block the entire drain, there’s more. Congealed grease isn’t just a blockage by itself, it’s a glue. Any other food particles that end up going down the drain while you wash dishes will get caught in this greasy web. After a while, half your drain pipe is being blocked off by grease and those things not lucky enough to escape its grasp.

2. Starchy Things

You might not think them a risk, but starchy things ending up down your drain can pose a huge problem. Rice, oatmeal, pasta noodles, and flour can all cause massive problems in your drainage. These things love to stick together. Have you ever gotten wet flour on your hands while baking? It’s like an organic cement. Now imagine what havoc that would wreak on your sink drain!

3. Coffee Grounds

This is one of the leading offenders in sink clogs. Coffee grounds are so small that they seem like they should simply wash right down the drain. Wrong! Coffee grounds may be small, but they’re also heavier than they look. Like sand, when put into water, 90% of the coffee grounds will sink. That means, at the first dip in your drain pipe, the grounds will get caught, settle, and clog your drains.

This is even more of a problem if you already have things like grease lining the inside of your drain pipe. Coffee grounds mixed with grease is a plumbing nightmare!

Unclog Those Drains

If you’re finding that your kitchen drain isn’t doing its job quite how it used to, you probably have an organic blockage. Give us a call at POM Plumbing and we can take care of it fast. Simply cleaning out the drains with one of our specialized pressure washers can bring your drain back to its usual speed and quality.

A common topic of contention these days is whether biodegradable cleaners are really necessary. Because we deal in a related field – plumbing – our experts at POM Plumbing have put together some facts about biodegradable cleaners.  Are biodegradable cleaners really necessary? Let’s put them to the test!

What Are Biodegradable Cleaners?

Biodegradable cleaners have differences and similarities to standard ones. The first thing we have to note is that every company may use the word biodegradable differently. Unless your biodegradable cleaners have stickers or marks on them from earth-friendly organizations, you can’t necessarily trust the word “biodegradable.” After all, everything is biodegradable with enough time.

Likewise, eco friendly, green, and all natural don’t necessarily mean what you think they mean. After all, everything in the world is natural, leaving the margin for how safe something is quite big. Natural things are dangerous for humans all the time. Therefore, we have to look at the ingredients in a product to determine how safe it is.

Product Safety

When wondering if biodegradable cleaners are an important investment for the average household, the topic of safety is one of the first to be brought up. However, there are two kinds of safety. Let’s consider both.

Direct Safety

The first thing is direct safety. As in, are these products safe to handle and breathe in the fumes of. For most standard cleaners, the answer is no. You should avoid getting them on your skin at all and immediately wash them if you do. Many of the products, especially those made with bleach, are also dangerous to inhale. Using bleach-based cleaners in a closed bathroom can lead to passing out. These standard cleaners are also incredibly dangerous to use around each other. Mixing two of them just by using them one right after the other can create toxic, deadly gases. 

Because biodegradable cleaners are still made with chemicals (albeit less harsh ones), you should still be cautious when mixing or using in tandem. However, because biodegradable cleaners are made to be milder, they’re usually not as worrisome when in contact with skin. You should still wash your hands off when you’re done cleaning, but may not need to take immediate action.

Indirect Safety

Cleaners don’t just affect us while we use them to clean; they also effect the environment after we clean. The cleaners we use will get washed down the drain and inevitably end up in a body of water somewhere, or the soil. This will happen even faster if you have cracks in your drain pipes. This is more common than people think, and leads to drained fluids leeching into the soil around your house.

Standard cleaners, with harsher ingredients, will pose more of a threat to local wildlife and flora. The less harsh a cleaner’s ingredients are, the less likely it is to harm animals or plants. Therefore, in that regard, biodegradable cleaners that degrade quickly are better, as they won’t linger in the environment and build up.

Manufacturing

One of the oft-overlooked and most important parts of determining a cleaner’s effect on the environment is its manufacturing process. Manufacturing a cleaner involves combining a lot of ingredients and chemicals, no matter the type of cleaner. However, the harsher cleaners involve harsher chemicals and, therefore, a harsher process. The harsher the manufacturing process, the more likely it is for there to be chemical waste that needs to be dumped somewhere. This process, happening en masse, can be detrimental for wildlife near manufacturing plants (which are everywhere).

Are They Necessary?

Due to the strain standard, harsh cleaners have on the environment, we feel that biodegradable cleaners are something we should all strive to use as soon as possible. Shifting from dangerous manufacturing to something more sustainable is an important step in keeping ourselves and our children safe for generations.

Don’t Miss Part 1

Making the Problem Worse

Now, taking into consideration the aggressive nature of chemical drain cleaner, why can’t it solve the bigger problem, no matter how much it’s used? Well, the truth is, some problems just aren’t meant to be fixed by dissolving drain gunk. Let’s revisit that list of problems from Part 1.

Pipe Width

If your plumbing is so old that it’s not meeting modern plumbing code, using drain cleaner is a bad solution for 2 reasons. The first is that it’s actually increasing the fragility of older pipes and is very likely to cause a burst. Pipe bursts lead to flooding, which can give you a long-term mold problem and cost thousands of dollars in repairs. The second reason is that it’s doing nothing at all to combat your pipes being too narrow to handle your water flow. 

Metallic and Hard Water

If your drain is coated on the inside with iron oxide (rust) or minerals (lime, calcium, etc.), drain cleaner may seem like a great idea. After all, it’s made to clear undesirables from drains, right? The reason drain cleaner doesn’t work for this problem is one of these two reasons:

1. The directed wait time before rinsing is not long enough for it to eat through minerals or metal. Drain cleaner is meant to be used for weaker, organic substances, like hair, dead skin, and so on. The wait time on the bottle is not long enough to noticeably affect minerals and metal.
2. If you let it sit for long enough to break down minerals or metal, you’re letting it sit long enough to begin destroying your pipes.

Collapsed Pipe

It goes without saying that a collapsed pipe can’t be brought back to life by being made squeaky clean. This one is going to need some professional help.

Pipe Invasion

Pipes that have cracked and been invaded by plant roots are also not going to be repaired by drain cleaner. In fact, the problem is exacerbated by it. First, the volume of drain cleaner that you use is not likely to even reach where those roots have invaded. Even if it did, it would take so long that it would soon be time to rinse it away. 

Second, if roots have invaded your plumbing, that means there are cracks in your pipes. Chemical drain cleaner that does reach the invasion site will eat away at those cracks as well, making them bigger and allowing more water to leak into the surrounding soil. Water leaking into the soil is exactly what drew the attention of nearby plants to begin with.

Chemical Drain Cleaner Isn’t Safe

Last, but certainly not least, you should not use chemical drain cleaner because it’s terribly unsafe. If you wouldn’t dump drain cleaner directly onto one of the plants outside, you shouldn’t be dumping it down your drain.

Drain cleaner is made for destroying organic compounds. Therefore, putting those chemicals into the local sewer system can lead to all kinds of problems. That’s not even to mention the kind of damage it can cause closer to home. If you have a pipe collapse or there are cracks in your pipes leading to root invasion, chemical drain cleaner will follow the water, dispersing into the ground around your home. This can kill plants, poison animals, and even contaminate ground water. 

If you care about the environment or the safety of you and your neighbors, please consider the risks before using chemical drain cleaner. Instead, call a professional and get to the root of the problem.

If your drains ever stop draining, you’re probably no stranger to chemical drain cleaner. People from all over love the idea of fixing what is usually a bigger issue by just dumping something down their drain. However, if you’ve spent any time at all looking for drain solutions online, you’ve probably also seen that you shouldn’t use the stuff. The question everyone’s asking now is, “Why?”

The Solution Is Rarely Solved

If your drain usually drains perfectly, a sudden issue is probably an easy fix. This can happen to anyone. A sudden and unexpected problem with draining is usually caused by:

• A rodent getting stuck in the drain (yes, it happens)
• The results of a neighborhood or local clog in the sewage main
• An influx of hair in the drain (like when you shower after a haircut or shave your legs after a few months of ignoring them)

These kinds of things can make chemical drain cleaner seem like a life saver. Even though a plumber can fix the problem just as easily, the quickly available, DIY response of drain cleaner helps pad its reputation.

The problem is, many people then expect chemical drain cleaner to have the same quick results on a bigger plumbing issue. If you find yourself having to buy chemical drain cleaner more than once every few years on average, you aren’t experiencing a drain cleaner sized problem. You’re experiencing something that needs a plumber’s expertise. That brings us to our next point.

Short Term Solutions Are Expensive…

If the problem thats actually plaguing your plumbing system is one that requires drain cleaner every month or two, the chemical drain cleaner is kind of like putting a bandaid on a major skin infection. It’s not going to hide the problem very well and is certainly not going to make it go away.

The tiny improvement in drainage following use of the drain cleaner is a short term solution. For people with consistent draining issues, the problem isn’t usually hair in the drain. It’s more likely something like:

• Your pipes are not wide enough to handle a modern water flow and are likely not up to modern plumbing code.
• You have hard or metallic water that needs softening or a filter. Iron or mineral buildup along the insides of your pipes can narrow them to an inadequate diameter for your water flow. This buildup has usually been accumulating for so long, by the time it affects your drainage, that none of it is loose enough for a bit of drain cleaner to remove to a notable degree.
• There is a collapsed pipe somewhere, likely underground, where rubble is blocking drainage.
• There are plant roots that have grown into underground pipes and are blocking drainage.

Using chemical drain cleaner to solve these problems will usually solve a different problem. For example, there might be some hair in the drain that is contributing minimally. So, it may seem like the cleaner is doing something to fix the issue, but you’re actually just experiencing a slight uptick in performance due to a separate issue disappearing for a while. 

Because drain cleaner isn’t actually solving your problem, frequently spending money on it is a huge waste. The cost of drain cleaner will quickly surpass the cost of hiring a plumber.

… And Cause Long Term Damage

Not only does chemical drain cleaner rarely solve the larger issue, it can actually make things much worse. The chemicals in drain cleaner are extremely potent. That’s why it can dissolve things like hair and grime. It breaks it down in just a half hour, before you rinse it away. But, have you considered what else those aggressive chemicals might be doing while you wait for them to break down drain clogs?

Chemical drain cleaner is so aggressive in its attempts to remove everything it touches, that it can actually damage plumbing. Hard to believe? You may think your plumbing is immune to damage, but pipes are just as susceptible to damage as some organic compounds. If chemical drain cleaner can remove rust, which is oxidized iron, what is it doing to iron or steel pipes?

The answer is, it destroys small layers of the insides of your pipes. One use might not mean long term damage for your plumbing, but repeated use almost certainly will. Drain pipes aren’t extremely thick to begin with. They’re not made for more than water, soap, and your dead skin cells. Therefore, repeatedly dumping cleaner down them that has the power to dissolve metal will weaken them exponentially. This will eventually lead to burst or cracked pipes.

Keep Reading at Part 2

Interested in knobbed faucets? Check out our last guide on bathroom faucet design to get all of the beginning points.

Double-Handled Faucets

The handle design is much more common. Let’s see why.

Pros

The first thing to love about double-handled faucets is the ease of use. There’s no need to get a good grip on it to turn it off or on.

Because of the ease of turning them off or on, double-handled faucets are also great for hygiene. You can touch it minimally, bump it off with your elbow, or turn it off with a paper towel. 

Additionally, cleaning them is much easier. Wiping them down is simply a matter of wrapping a paper towel or cloth with some cleaner on it around the handle and pulling gently.

Plus, because sink handles are typically only touched on the part extending from the base, water doesn’t drip onto the base as much. That means they don’t grow mold as frequently as knobs do. This is especially true if the knobs are attached directly to the sink, If on a raised platform that’s part of the faucet, there are extra corners where water accumulation can be a problem. Therefore, we recommend handles that are installed right on the sink.

The complete opposite of knobs, double-handled faucets are very child friendly. This can be great for when they’ve been taught how to use the sink and know to be careful with hot water or to stick to the cold water handle only.

Faucet handles are also easy to tighten, should they come a bit loose. Because the part of the handle that people touch is a screw-on addition to the actual mechanism, all you have to do to tighten it is turn the handle clockwise. This is a much simpler fix than with knobs.

Cons

Double-handled faucets, much like knobs, have three separate places where they can break. Shower mixer valves repair can sometimes be difficult. There are also a lot of steps to disassembly. Those include unscrewing the handle, removing the decorative cap, which usually has a tiny screw on the side, and then removing and replacing any hardware beneath that.

And, also the opposite of knobs, the child friendly nature of handles makes them easy for small children to mess with before they know how to use the sink properly. At the least, this can make a mess. At worst, they can leave the sink running and flood the bathroom. If your small children are prone to messing with the sink, it’s best to get a childproof mechanism for the sink knobs to prevent problems.

Single-Handled Faucets

Single-handled faucets, like those that are common in the kitchen, are just as good in bathrooms. Here’s what makes them a great bathroom faucet design and where they have drawbacks.

Pros

The first great thing about single-handled faucets is their ease of use. Just by virtue of being a single handle, they’re twice as easy as double-handled faucets to turn on and off.

Likewise, they’re also better for touch hygiene. While turning them on with an elbow isn’t as easy as double-handled faucets, due to the need to lift, turning them off when your hands are wet and freshly cleaned is as simple as pressing down with your elbow.

This bathroom faucet design is also great for keeping clean. There are many designs for single-handled faucet handles, but the best for hygiene are those that are sleek and either straight or curved. Rounded handles that are reminiscent of those outdated knobs pose the same hygiene problems. However, their straight counterparts are very simple to wipe down and don’t have all of those ridges for mold and bacteria growth.

Having a single handle can make getting warm water easier. While double-handled faucets require twice as much contact and a lot more effort to get the correct temperature, single handled faucets can be moved to one place every time you want a certain temperature. This motion can become second nature. It’s very convenient.

Cons

Unlike double-handled faucets, single-handled ones require you to put your wet hands over the handle mechanism. This means a lot of water on the mechanism. This can lead to molding around the faucet as well as mineral buildup in the moving parts. That can be a huge problem if you have hard water. Not to mention the increase in water spots on the spout below, which can be frustrating for people who like their hardware looking shiny and clean.

The downside of the temperature being chosen from one handle is that in for some people or in some older buildings, getting the temperature to be warm, rather than super hot or super cold, can be tricky.

Easy Faucet Repair

If you’re looking into replacing your faucet because your old one has sprung a leak, it might be worth fixing. Save yourself some money and give us a call at POM Plumbing. We can repair your sink faucet in no time at all, no matter what bathroom faucet design you have. However, if you’re replacing your faucet for aesthetic or age purposes, we hope our little guide helped you with your decision! Give us a call if you have any further questions and we’ll be happy to help.