Fixing my faucet, a year and a half later

When we were remodeling our house, we had to pick everything, including the kitchen sink! My wife and I went shopping for a kitchen faucet months before it was ready to be installed so that we could get it ordered and get it out of the way. We wanted a detachable sprayer and wanted it in stainless steel. We went to our local Pacific Sales and looked at all the kitchen faucets (and there were a ton). The one feature we hated on just about all of them was that the detachable spray heads were made out of plastic while the rest of the faucet was made out of stainless steel (or at least some type of metal). The plastic would chip, change color or just not hold up based on past experience. Even though many consumer faucets carry a lifetime warranty, I didn’t want to deal with that (been there, done that).

We stumbled across the Brizo Solna (made by Delta) and thought that the hidden spray head was great as the plastic for the spray head wouldn’t been seen. We ordered it and then picked it up a few weeks later (or so). The plumber installed it when we were ready and that was that. A few days after it was installed (the plumber was still around doing something), I asked the plumber why the spray head wasn’t flush and didn’t retract well and he said it had to do with the weight on the hose and the position of the pipes. Oh well, I guessed I’d have to live with it even though it wasn’t quite a clean look.

A few months ago, I discovered that if I pushed the spray head all the way up into the faucet it would stay. It seemed a little clunky, but it was better than what we had before. This evening, I noticed that the spray head was no longer staying, so I started pushing on a tab to see what would happen and discovered that the MagneDock® magnet was stuck to the spray head when it should have been in the faucet.

Now things were starting to make sense; the MagneDock® piece was never seated properly and I had to get it back in place. I took the neck of the faucet off and the spray head. I then started pushing the magnet back in place. I pushed it down with the handle of a pair of pliers and presto, it stuck. I tried the spray head and it clicked into place; I pulled it off and tried again. Holy cow, I had been living with this problem for 1.5 years and never even thought of investigating it.

So after I put everything back together, I tried again and just like magic, the spray head clicked back into place. Looking at the assembly instructions, it indicated that the magnet was part of the neck, but that it wasn’t a separate piece. I almost feel like an idiot that I didn’t figure this out for so long, but the good news is that I figured it out and as pleased as punch that I feel like I have a new faucet!

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