# Delta Faucet parts conundrum



## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

I got a call this morning from a Delta faucet rep. I had sent a list of parts that I wanted last week. I had ordered from them directly. He tells me from now on all the parts can only be purchased via a supply house. They are no longer providing free internal parts. The original customer of the faucet has to call them with proof to get them free. I said that’s a little stupid because they called me in the first place because they can’t do it themselves. Am I supposed to go there dismantle it to see what’s wrong, shut the customers water for 2 weeks while they wait for parts in the mail and I go back when he receives them??

I get more calls about people wanting to have their drippy faucet fixed. I asked my supply house what other companies do, it turns out not many seem to order parts. How can that be with a shower valve or corner tub. Do they tell the customer sorry we gotta rip your tub surround and your walls to replace it!? 

They are supposed to send me a price list. They have so many parts for different faucets that I’d have to be my own supply store. My supply store has nothing.

My question is should I invest in that. Its going to be in the thousands of dollars maybe as much as 3000-4000$ for only internal parts for a decent inventory. I can’t really go to a customer and only have a few things then saying sorry gotta order stuff. Maybe I can specialize in those repairs. Would that be a good idea?

In my area The majority of faucets are Delta, Moen and Belanger. I have a good stock of the last two. What do you service guys do, do you carry a combination of 100’s of parts or do you replace them?


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## MACPLUMB777 (Jun 18, 2008)

Give the H.O. the choice I can order the parts you need then charge you again to return and complete your repairs, or I can sell you a new faucet and install
while I am here, as far as tub/shower valves you have to make your own decision 

Back in my day it was only a couple repair kits, the main one was springs and washers, the other one was the the ball stem,

once I purchased the master repair kit which was about $100.00 dollars or so
which included the different O-rings


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

Delta and moen are pretty easy to stock up parts for ....I would no tinvest a load of money in having every type of stem going back to the 80s...
you will never use them..... 

I bough tout a bankrupt plumbing company at an auction that had the whole creed inventory of stems and faucet parts going back to the 60s... I got it all for extra dirt cheap ...like for what the brass was worth...


their were some nice dial-ease stems and some odd ball stuff I never have seen before and some gerber 
(do you know what a dial-ease is?)..

some parts were to come in handy on a rare occasion but most everything eventually got thrown in the brass bin .....


you will probably never use the stuff in your total lifetime, or you will need two of them and only have one....


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

Thanks Mac and Mark for the replies.

Balls and stems are no longer code legal with thermostatic laws. A shower cartridge sells for 115$ Tax included. 

There are now like 4 types of shower cartridges. 
There are now like 5 types of single lever cartridges. 
There are now like 8 types of 2 handle cartridges. 

Then O-rings, bonnets so on. I have a list of over 50 different parts that I would need to handle most of their NEW and just recent stuff.

Sometimes the person can't use his tub as it's leaking in the condo underneath, they don't want to wait 2-3 weeks for parts. I sense that I'm about to lose a lot of jobs if I don't have them, I guess I would have to upsell a replacement instead of a repair.

I had one guy call me this weekend to fix a leaking boutique shower faucet. Those faucet that are close to a 1000$ if not more. I lost the job because I didn't have the parts. No one in the region has them. The supply house had a box of that particular brand with 3 cartridges and trash wrapping paper. Not to encouraging!


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

Master Mark said:


> (do you know what a dial-ease is?)...


You mean dialysis? Just kidding.:wink: Nope never heard that term.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Tango, stock a few rebuild kits and some common stems and cartridges.

I love re-build kits.


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Master Mark said:


> Delta and moen are pretty easy to stock up parts for ....I would no tinvest a load of money in having every type of stem going back to the 80s...
> you will never use them.....
> 
> I bough tout a bankrupt plumbing company at an auction that had the whole creed inventory of stems and faucet parts going back to the 60s... I got it all for extra dirt cheap ...like for what the brass was worth...
> ...


...


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

Cool pictures Tommy, I love that! I was thinking of taking pictures of my plumbing parts collection this afternoon. The game is on!

I have many rebuild kits but for example o-rings don't fit. They have their own proprietary sizes and thickness.

Now especially delta have way too much combinations


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## Tommy plumber (Feb 19, 2010)

Tango said:


> Cool pictures Tommy, I love that! I was thinking of taking pictures of my plumbing parts collection this afternoon. The game is on!
> 
> I have many rebuild kits but for example o-rings don't fit. They have their own proprietary sizes and thickness.
> 
> Now especially delta have way too much combinations


 












Stock popular repair parts and kits for your geographic area, and then for the oddball tub valves and such, you'll have to decide whether to repair or replace. Like a former manager used to tell me, we have to lead the customer down the path that we want them to take. Put on the salesman hat and tell them what is needed.


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

Tommy plumber said:


> Stock popular repair parts and kits for your geographic area, and then for the oddball tub valves and such, you'll have to decide whether to repair or replace. Like a former manager used to tell me, we have to lead the customer down the path that we want them to take. Put on the salesman hat and tell them what is needed.





That would mean an hour charge to go inspect and or dismantle just to see if I have parts. At that point if you don't have them they'll want a new faucet. They will shop around the hardware stores and I'll have another charge to install it at a later date. If they go and buy it on the spot the clock keeps running if no other customer is scheduled after that apointment. They won't like that! I'll have to explain that on the phone and they'll try their luck with someone else I think.

I keep 2 different kitchen faucets in the truck basic Moen Chateau, one with a spray the other without and a basic Belanger lav faucet. Most people want something nicer.


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

Tommy plumber said:


> Stock popular repair parts and kits for your geographic area, and then for the oddball tub valves and such, you'll have to decide whether to repair or replace. Like a former manager used to tell me, we have to lead the customer down the path that we want them to take. Put on the salesman hat and tell them what is needed.


I'll be selling all right!

For example this is a popular brand Belanger estimate cost value 1500$ For delta I'd need 5-6 times the variety of parts compared to this kit just for the past 20 years..


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

I got the price list from the rep, I don't know what they're smoking but most parts are half price at Home Depot, ebay and amazon Some are 1/3 less on amazon. Nothing was less than what I could find on the net. That's some crazy numbers, It must be a mistake maybe the suggested retail? I'll have the supply house check the real prices tomorrow.

The most shocking item is a single allen set screw 10$ plus tax. Wait I got more. For 5$ more than their cartridge price. I can get a whole new in the box monitor 13 trim. That means I'd get an extra handle, set screw, escutcheon, shower head, tub spout and the cartridge!

For 30$ more than their cartridge asking price I get a new complete monitor 14


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

I finally got prices back from my supply house and let me tell you its not looking good. If I'd wanted to order only 1 item of each on my list it would be 1500$ but originally I wanted 6 of each item and it would cost me over 9000 dollars! Most items I still would pay less at the hardware store! I just don't get it.

They are not fair at all. I just found on Amazon(another kit compared to my last post) for example they sells the WHOLE SHOWER TRIM kit monitor 13 for less than half the price of a cartridge.

The supply house loses again with my purchases. Instead of ordering parts I'll buy whole trim kits and instead of having different parts I'll be pushing Moen replacement.


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

Tango said:


> That would mean an hour charge to go inspect and or dismantle just to see if I have parts. At that point if you don't have them they'll want a new faucet. They will shop around the hardware stores and I'll have another charge to install it at a later date. If they go and buy it on the spot the clock keeps running if no other customer is scheduled after that apointment. They won't like that! I'll have to explain that on the phone and they'll try their luck with someone else I think.
> 
> I keep 2 different kitchen faucets in the truck basic Moen Chateau, one with a spray the other without and a basic Belanger lav faucet. Most people want something nicer.



There comes a point where you just have to tell them you are 
not gonna play around with their faucet all day long .......

I usually tell them bluntly that their kitchen faucet is probably gonna die on the operating table and they might as well be prepared to get a new one....:surprise:

It looks like you got a serious headache with those pretty plastic cartridges in those faucet boxes.... It would drive me crazy fooling with all those odd ball parts... you never have the right one that you need


Have you ever heard of a crappy tub faucet called MIXIT?? They are junk but many of the tract homes in our area have them and the company is out of business and the parts are made in china now....... 





I finally scrapped out all those creed odd ball stems.... about a bushel basket full of junk I would never use.....there was stuff in that pile I had never seen before....


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

I realized that many faucet brand have the interchangeable cartridges. Looks like they design a faucet around a cartridge that's already out there.

We have many throw away faucets nowadays even for shower and tubs. It will get old saying to everyone on the phone even before I even get there that I may need to open their wall because parts are not available. I just don't want to show up tell them it can't be really fixed and send me on my way without being paid.

The other tough part is people don't know the name brand as they are seldom printed on. Makes it tough again, people think its a cheap fix. Nope.

Never heard of mixit. The most popular are delta, moen, belanger 

All the rest are more rare: pfister junk, american standard, riobel, jalo, peerless back then. And now some chineses counterfeits that people order online.


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## Debo22 (Feb 15, 2015)

Master Mark said:


> There comes a point where you just have to tell them you are
> not gonna play around with their faucet all day long .......
> 
> I usually tell them bluntly that their kitchen faucet is probably gonna die on the operating table and they might as well be prepared to get a new one....:surprise:
> ...


I still see a few Mixets around here. You have to ask the homeowners when the house was built, before or after 1968. That determines the long or short cartridge.


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

Debo22 said:


> I still see a few Mixets around here. You have to ask the homeowners when the house was built, before or after 1968. That determines the long or short cartridge.


That is actually good info to know

I just wont work on them, ....around here its a no-win situation,,, the lime and calcium in the water eats them up ..... we have some of the parts laying in the shop but most of the tract homes that have them around here are falling apart and so are the faucets... handles, and all need to be upgraded .... 

I just tore one out last friday and installed a delta 1700 for 550.


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## CaptainBob (Jan 3, 2011)

Here is some Delta info from my rep.


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## CaptainBob (Jan 3, 2011)

Here's the Brizo stuff if you want it.


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## CaptainBob (Jan 3, 2011)

I keep a separate drawer in one of my tool boxes in the truck just for the Delta and Moen parts, with a little Kohler in there too. Not alot of stuff, works for me for what I see out there.


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## CaptainBob (Jan 3, 2011)

I still see some of the Crane Dialese out there. Here's a repair kit I have








And here it is in action recently








I come across this often, where a repair is a better alternative than replacement... This lady with the Crane would have needed a whole bathroom remodel in order to replace the faucet...The china in the tiled in Crane sink is custom made for the faucet, a standard wide spread 2 handle faucet would not work here..

I also got her the original style handles for the faucet















She was very happy I was able to restore her faucet as it was as she remembers many years ago


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## CaptainBob (Jan 3, 2011)

Here's another one of my customers old classic Crane sinks








I seen somewhere these sinks in original condition are worth big bucks...anyone else heard that?


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## Master Mark (Aug 14, 2009)

CaptainBob said:


> Here's another one of my customers old classic Crane sinks
> View attachment 104913
> 
> 
> I seen somewhere these sinks in original condition are worth big bucks...anyone else heard that?



We run into those crane dial ease faucets every once in a while and most of them look pretty beaten up compaired to the ones you have in the picture..... Half the time the handles just crumble off the stems when you touch them... I have had good luck getting the stems out as long as 
you dont force them it usually goes ok 

those faucets were probably the best brand ever made....



You could be correct about the value of some of the crane stuff...
we have a hardware store in town that has a whole pile of that junk in their back ware house..... He thinks its worth a fortune but when he dies they will probably just get a dumpster and throw it all away... 

He is too old fashioned, grumpy , and set in his ways to post the stuff on E-bay and sell it off and too tight to throw any of it away..... 


https://www.google.com/search?sourc.......0...1.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.gcUQKyVYBGc ..


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## geofd (Feb 17, 2018)

*faucet*

what I do is ask for a pic of the faucet in question so I know

what I'm fixing .
delta makes a nice faucet repair kit it has 
everything you need and takes up little space
you can't have every part I just have the most common ones


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

Do all 2 handle cartridges are interchangeable? There are many model number but they look alike. I don't want to order all sets if they all fit.


You can refer to post 18 picture number 2


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## CaptainBob (Jan 3, 2011)

Not sure if they all fit, I'm guessing there are different 2 handle cartridges for different applications. I carry just three in my truck, 2 that come in the Delta RP63138 kit







Those 2 are the RP1740 and the RP25513







I also carry the RP20496







That is for the deck mounted tub faucets and a couple of the lav faucets. I see a lot of those in my area. Interestingly, it is not on those parts pages.

These are the only 2 handle delta cartridges I've ever needed in over 30 years of plumbing service. I figure if I ever come across any of the others I will have to make a run to my supplier.

Like MM said, you could stock all of them and you will never use them.


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

I compared the 2 handle cartridges that I have and they are similar. The noticeable differences are the the bottom end half moon, the flow restriction and either brass stem or plastic. There are some with ceramic discs. 

There is one time my spare cartridge didn't fit but I was able to use the insides of a new one and fit it with the old. Can't remember exactly what I did but it worked.

As far as shower cartridges and handles that I need more often I bought several trim packages off Amazon. 94$ for a cartridge at the supply house. On Amazon 43$ for all the trim (handle, escutcheon, screws, chrome sleeve and cartridge)

Its a funny coincidence because last week the Moen rep in my area wanted to meet me over coffee and talk about my business. Talk about being front and center. He said no problem with parts, he's got crates of popular parts and if he doesn't have them, it's overnight delivery! He's going to send pamphlets, parts exploded list etc. WOW


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## mtfallsmikey (Jan 11, 2010)

Master Mark said:


> Delta and moen are pretty easy to stock up parts for ....I would no tinvest a load of money in having every type of stem going back to the 80s...
> you will never use them.....
> 
> I bough tout a bankrupt plumbing company at an auction that had the whole creed inventory of stems and faucet parts going back to the 60s... I got it all for extra dirt cheap ...like for what the brass was worth...
> ...


Any...
Aquaseal?
Ceramix cartridges?
Delex? 
Heritage?
American-Standard flush discs?

Crane Dial-Eze - Was a high-end faucet, ledge mount, on an angle as I remember, fit on Crane's kitchen sinks


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## sparky (Jan 8, 2014)

Tango said:


> I got a call this morning from a Delta faucet rep. I had sent a list of parts that I wanted last week. I had ordered from them directly. He tells me from now on all the parts can only be purchased via a supply house. They are no longer providing free internal parts. The original customer of the faucet has to call them with proof to get them free. I said that’s a little stupid because they called me in the first place because they can’t do it themselves. Am I supposed to go there dismantle it to see what’s wrong, shut the customers water for 2 weeks while they wait for parts in the mail and I go back when he receives them??
> 
> I get more calls about people wanting to have their drippy faucet fixed. I asked my supply house what other companies do, it turns out not many seem to order parts. How can that be with a shower valve or corner tub. Do they tell the customer sorry we gotta rip your tub surround and your walls to replace it!?
> 
> ...


I would not tie up thousands of dollars on stuff that will dry rot setting on a shelf waiting to be installed,you will regret this very much I’m afraid


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

sparky said:


> I would not tie up thousands of dollars on stuff that will dry rot setting on a shelf waiting to be installed,you will regret this very much I’m afraid



You are correct, I'm not going to order many parts. I ordered 3 shower trims so I could get the cartridges and handles. I plan on ordering a few roman tub spout o-rings and that's about it. I'll tell customers the situation for their roman tub and it will be up to them if they want to pay 2 or 3 trips plus supply store run to order parts or for not much more money I'll install a Moen faucet.


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## Logtec (Jun 3, 2018)

I’ve been finding that lately(last 4 years) delta faucets are becoming a nightmare to fix even with their genuine parts- to the point that I now refuse to fix/repair delta products...’

Moen is all around a easy fix 99.9% of the time and American standard is mostly easy if you can get the parts.


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## sparky (Jan 8, 2014)

Logtec said:


> I’ve been finding that lately(last 4 years) delta faucets are becoming a nightmare to fix even with their genuine parts- to the point that I now refuse to fix/repair delta products...’
> 
> Moen is all around a easy fix 99.9% of the time and American standard is mostly easy if you can get the parts.


American standard is junk and should be called Mexican standard,their faucets are junk and so is the fixtures


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## Logtec (Jun 3, 2018)

sparky said:


> Logtec said:
> 
> 
> > I’ve been finding that lately(last 4 years) delta faucets are becoming a nightmare to fix even with their genuine parts- to the point that I now refuse to fix/repair delta products...’
> ...


AS faucets in the last 5 years can suck it!!! 
My GF works in high end kitchen and bath, she said AS was bought out by a Japanese complany, and since then their faucets have $hit the bed!
Their toilets(which I think are made in Mexico) are still somewhat decent, IMO.

Maybe add “Japanese Standard” too the mix.


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## The Dane (Feb 19, 2015)

I don't do much repair work on Delta or AS so I can't tell how repair work is on them. I can say that I have started to find delta faucets to be low quality except for their kitchen faucets which are still ok. As far as AS goes, it's junk on par with P-fister.

Sent from my BLN-L24 using Tapatalk


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## Tango (Jan 13, 2018)

I have 2 pet peeves, the delta bath/shower faucet with the 3 tubes that break off if the nut is stuck.

The other one which I'll be attempting tomorrow is to replace the cartridges in a roman tub with a moen faucet. The cartridges are so deep and stuck that I may scrap it and cut out the skirt to replace it athe fooling with it. 

Last moen/roman tub I worked on took 1 hour to remove it and 3 hours to finally put the cartridge in the proper direction!

FUBAR!


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