A Kitchen Faucet Valve Guide

The valve is the heart of the faucet and controls the volume of water. There are four types of faucet valves:

Compression valves

Compression valve fittings in use the longest and least expensive kind you can be seen in their separate hot and cold water handles and their action and you have to be close to the handles down the water flow.

Compression fittings work with a compression stem cells, a type of glorified screw with a washer at the end, the press is a valve seat.

If this is enabled raises or lowers a stem handle it. At the base of the stem a washer or seal opens or closes the water passage. You always have two controls, hot and cold. The discs are most often rubber washers and are more prone to leaking and dripping, but are quite easy to fix.

Ball Valves

Ball valves are very common in kitchen sinks and were the first type of washerless faucet. They are recognizable by their single handle, shaped moves over a rounded ball cap right above the base of the faucet spout.

The plastic or metal ball inside the faucet body and under the ball shaped cap chambers or slots in which they control the flow and mixing temperature of the water from the tap. The ball’s slots line with hot and cold water supply seats in the faucet body to regulate the amount of incoming water allowed to reach I mixing spout.

Ball valves have no washing machine, require less maintenance and are cost effective, but because of the number of parts to replace that make this type of faucet, ball faucets tend more than others washerless faucets leak as the cartridge or the ceramic disk type.

Cartridge

Cartridge faucets operate with a movable stem cartridge that moves up and down to regulate. They are identifiable more by how they feel when they operate than how they look. Like a ball faucet that you push back working to turn against a single cartridge faucet handle in a set up / down movement of water volume and left / right movement for temperature.

Similar to handle two stem cartridge faucet looks almost by a compression type washer faucet. But again one can tell the difference by how the handles feel when used.

A compression faucet requires that you pull down (compressed) the disc to close the water flow. With a cartridge faucet, the action is smooth and consistent. When the handle gets to the off position turns off the faucet without required additional pressure as a compression faucet.

Cartridge or washerless faucets use a hollow plastic and brass cartridge insert instead of a rubber disc, which does not take that almost as quickly. The cartridge seals against the inside of the faucet body with O-rings. These valves are reliable and offer better value than compression faucets.

The cartridge washerless faucet eliminates the leaks associated with washers. It also has a one-piece, self-contained assembly. Fewer parts mean that there are fewer things go wrong. Replacement with the cartridge is easy … simply from the old and the decline in the new without the hassle of many complicated components.

Ceramic Disk

This is the highest quality valve. They are recognizable by their single lever over a wide cylindrical body. These faucets have a large cartridge housing two ceramic discs which slide over each other water and mixing to control temperature.

Ceramic disc valves used two fire hardened ceramic discs: an upper plate that moves and a fixed lower disc. The two discs move against each other in a shearing action, blocking or allowing water to pass. The seal between the two discs is watertight because they are polished flatness.
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Hardened ceramic is a durable material that is virtually indestructible and guaranteed not to wear, but of course much more expensive than the ball or pressure valve. If you must solve, your costs will be higher, but the probability is rather low. Go for the most durable faucet with a solid brass base material and a ceramic plate valve.