Cold Tap plastic top failure.

[MrsJ]

We have a cold water single folding tap from C.A.K. Tanks which has a clear plastic on/off knob which has

just broken off as it was turned on. It is a DLT540 with pipe adapter fitted to a Can combination sink/cooker. As this is a pressurised system it was quite dramatic. I have not kept the receipt but I think we have only had it a couple of years and we are not heavy users. This tap is plastic and was not the most expensive, and it says that it is suitable for a pressurised system. I wondered if the plastic top had become brittle causing it to break off, or possibly it was just a duff one. The easy (?) option would be to replace it with the same or I could buy a better one and possibly have to make adjustments to the fitting hole and/or pipe as there is not a wide choice in cold fill taps. Has anyone else got one of these taps and have they had

any problems.

[Derek Uzzell]

DLT540 taps are advertised here

 

https://www.vanbitz.co.uk/Single-Tap-+-Microswitch-(Various-Colours---See-Description)/3127.htm

 

This is a REICH product

 

https://reich-web.com/en/products/water-fittings/faucet-and-water-tap-de-luxe/

 

and readily available on-line with an asking-price from £20 upwards. (example adverts here)

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143299790653

 

https://tinyurl.com/yxah5zhm

 

There are indications on-line that the design may be the only one suitable for certain fold-down wash basins, but it sounds from your description that installing an alternative tap (possibly made from metal not plastic) might be practicable, though - as you rightly say - alterations might have to made to fit the replacement.

 

Suggest you complain to CAK Tanks, saying that you consider a Reich-made tap should survive longer than a couple of years of light use. But, as you’ve pointed out, this tap is not expensive and, being made of plastic, won’t have been manufactured to be bomb-proof.

 

There doesn’t seem to be anything on-line to suggest that these taps are particularly prone to breakage, and plenty of them will have been fitted to motorhomes/caravans. See what CAK Tanks’s response is (they might give you a new tap if you ask nicely) but you’ve probably just been unlucky and, as this tap does not cost the earth, the simplest approach would be to fit the same tap again.