human error or normal wear-tear?

[Noirish]

My tenant told me the faucet plastic finally gave out. What do you think?

i bought the house a few years back and inherited it. the faucet head works like a spigot too.

 

[balloonshark]

Any other signs of abuse? Are they good tenants?

 

[Noirish]

added one more photo (top one).
good tenants so far.
could've done better protecting my hardwood floor though.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Is that a COMPLETELY plastic faucet control handle? Could you have gone any cheaper with the plumbing? Maybe plastic-wrap-coated cardboard?

I vote "normal wear and tear".

Edit: Is that the spigot, and not the handle? In that case, I would have to vote "not so sure".

Normally, the handle, you hit it and whip it upwards to turn it on, and vice-versa to turn it off. But if that's the spigot, which isn't normally manually moved? Or does it turn left/right to the two sink halves? Still, not impressed at all with all-plastic plumbing.

 

[Jeff7]

Some plastics do get brittle with age.

I had an LCD monitor fail on a machine at work today.
Several wires inside had lost some of their insulation.
The remaining insulation was easily scraped away with a fingernail, crumbling like it had been made of compressed powder.
I'm sure it was flexible PVC at one point in time, but it had become brittle as hell over the years.



I really hate the trend of plastics that are plated to look like they're metal, and the only way to find out is to buy it and then discover that it was cheap garbage. Plastics can be strong and long-lived. It must be the right plastic for the job, it needs to be molded correctly, and the design must adequately account for plastic's strength limitations.

 

[Newell Steamer]

Holy crap.

I could write a book on what is wrong with this.

OP, please buy a metal faucet. You can find a good one for $30. If money is tight, go to a scrap yard, give the guy $5 bucks and fish out a discarded one.

 

[Noirish]

i bought the house a few years back and inherited it. the faucet head works like a spigot too.

 

[Ns1]

My vote is the landlord is one step above slum lord.

 

[pcgeek11]

I voted for Human Error *

* The error is the landlord bought cheap plastic faucet...

 

[Red Squirrel]

Based on how it broke I'm guessing wear and tear. Is it in the sun a lot? Like is there a window in front of the sink where sun would shine on it? Some plastics break down in UV light. Never seen an all plastic faucet before other than in motorhomes/campers though... possibly for that reason.

 

[lxskllr]

Faucet's junk. I wouldn't have wasted my time installing it in the first place. If it lasted a year, I would have considered that exceptional.

 

[flexy]

That's what you get with a $5.99 faucet from the dollar store.

 

[skull]

Thats a moen and its a junk one. Pretty much any faucet that the spigot is the hose end belongs in the trash. My parents have bought two $100 ones that have broke in less than a year. Get a delta, tenants gonna have to do with out a sprayer unless you got a 4 hole thats got a cap or soap dispenser in it now.

 

[bruceb]

Not sure how old that unit is, but it looks like a very low end model. Could easily be caused by just lousy design and quality or the tenant could be very rough on it and caused it to break off.

 

[BxgJ]

Replace this and any others that are like it with something metal at least.

 

[Tweak155]

Given how worn out the button is, I'm gonna say that unit is a piece of junk and needed replacing anyway, regardless of what caused the problem.

 

[olds]

LOL, plastic

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I get that its a rental unit and controlling cost is important however that faucet looks very cheap. Replace it with a low end brand name.
My original home depot special faucet fell apart and needed special not standard sized hoses. Irritating to trash the whole thing because you need a small extension hose.

 

[Strk]

I voted for Human Error *

* The error is the landlord bought cheap plastic faucet...

This

It was a cheap faucet and it broke.

 

[John Connor]

FFS! You could have went to Habitat For Humanity and picked up a better faucet.

 

[waffleironhead]

The sad thing is that faucet was probably over $100, even though it was mostly plastic. It probably was a combination of being weak, and the tenant not taking care of the thing the way you would have. Just replace it with something not fancy, but durable. Single handle Delta faucets IME hold up really well over the long haul and are easy to work on if you need to replace the guts. I keep an eye out for older deltas at the swap store and replace the insides(two springs, two seals, and couple of o rings) and put them into service a lot.

 

[John Connor]

That's crazy! I have never seen an all plastic faucet before. And they go for over $100?! I have a Moan, but it's brass. LMAO

 

[Strk]

That's crazy! I have never seen an all plastic faucet before. And they go for over $100?! I have a Moan, but it's brass. LMAO

I've seen all plastic shower heads and they work fine, but they don't get handled as much as a faucet. You would think they would have used something a little stronger at least on the connections.

 

[John Connor]

Yeah, I have an all plastic shower head. I always have it on mist. LOL

 

[Fanatical Meat]

I've seen all plastic shower heads and they work fine, but they don't get handled as much as a faucet. You would think they would have used something a little stronger at least on the connections.

Nope its Chinese made shit that's main purposes are be cheap & look nice on display.
My home depot faucet that failed was similar metal on the outside but all brittle plastic connectors. Even the extension hose was cheap and thin.