Why Is My Tap Dripping? Causes & Fixes

A dripping tap sits somewhere near the bottom of most people’s to-do lists, right up until the sound starts keeping them awake or the enamel goes brown.

The question we get asked on the phone is always the same one. Is this a washer, or do I need a new tap? Usually it’s a washer or a cartridge. Sometimes the fitting is genuinely past it. Here’s how to tell the difference before you spend anything.

Should I replace the washer or replace the dripping tap?

Repair it if the body of the tap is solid and the drip is coming from the spout. Replace it if the tap wobbles on the sink, water is weeping from the body itself, the chrome has started lifting, or the internal parts are no longer made.

That’s the short answer. The longer answer depends on what sort of tap you’ve actually got, which isn’t always obvious from looking at it.

Why is my tap dripping?

It depends on the age and type.

Older spindle or compression taps (the ones where you turn the handle several times) seal with a rubber washer pressing onto a brass seat. The washer wears, hardens, or gets chewed up by grit in the water.

Quarter-turn taps and most modern mixers don’t have a washer at all. They use a ceramic disc cartridge. When one of those starts dripping, no amount of washer hunting will help.

A drip from the body or around the handle rather than the spout is a different fault again. That’s usually an O-ring or the gland packing.

There’s a local wrinkle here too. Our water is hard enough that limescale gradually scores the brass seat inside older taps. Fit a fresh washer onto a pitted seat and it’ll drip again inside a few weeks, which is why some people conclude that washers “don’t work any more”.

How much water does a dripping tap waste?

At roughly one drip a second you’re losing about 30 litres a day, which works out around 11,000 litres a year.

On a Severn Trent meter that’s money, though it’s not enormous money. The bigger cost is what the constant flow does to the seat and the basin. A tap that’s been dripping for a year is harder to seal than one that started last week, and stained enamel doesn’t come back.

When is a washer or cartridge enough?

Go for the repair when the tap is still tight to the sink, the drip is only from the spout, and you can identify the part.

Washer packs are usually £3 to £8. Cartridges tend to run £10 to £40 depending on the make. If the brass seat underneath is scored, a seat insert or a tap reseating tool sorts it properly rather than committing you to a new washer every few months.

Take the old part with you when you go to buy the replacement. Cartridges in particular vary by length, spline count and diameter, and they all look roughly the same in a photo.

When should I replace the tap instead?

Replace it when the body is loose, when it’s leaking into the cupboard below, when the headwork is seized solid, when there are no spares available, or when you’ve already changed the washer twice.

One thing worth checking before you buy anything: match the tap to your system.

If you’ve got a gravity-fed system with a cold water cistern in the loft, you need taps rated for low pressure. If you’re on a combi or an unvented cylinder, you’re at mains pressure and you’ve got more choice. We still turn up to older houses in Hinckley and Leicester where a good-looking feature mixer has been fitted onto gravity pipework. It looks lovely. It dribbles.

How much does it cost to fix a dripping tap?

A washer or cartridge visit is often somewhere between £50 and £150 depending on what’s involved.

Swapping a tap where there are isolation valves and reasonable access tends to be £90 to £200 in labour, plus whatever the tap costs. Bath taps are the expensive ones, because they’re often behind a panel with no isolators and very little room to get a spanner in.

We give you the price before we start. If it turns out to be a £10 cartridge rather than a new fitting, we’ll tell you that.

Can I change a tap washer myself?

On a simple basin or kitchen tap you can isolate, yes.

Turn the water off and open the tap to drain the pipe first. Take your time getting the headwork out. Two things people get wrong: over-tightening the new washer down onto a damaged seat, which just chews the new one up, and going at the chrome with an unprotected spanner. Wrap the jaws in a cloth.

If there’s no isolation valve, you’re shutting off the whole house at the stopcock, and that’s when a lot of people discover their stopcock doesn’t turn. Worth knowing before you start rather than halfway through.

Why is my mixer tap still dripping after I changed the washer?

Because it almost certainly never had a washer in the first place.

Modern mixers use ceramic cartridges. If you’ve stuffed a washer in somewhere and it’s still dripping, you need the correct cartridge for that make and model. Photograph the old one from a few angles before you order, and keep it to compare.

Why call a WaterSafe plumber for a drip?

Because the drip is often not the whole story.

If it keeps coming back, if there’s also a leak under the sink, or if there’s no isolation valve anywhere near it, you’re better off getting it looked at properly. A tap left dripping for months wears the seat past the point where a washer will help, and any water sitting under a sink will get into chipboard and swell it.

There’s also the supply side. Work on the incoming water supply is meant to use approved fittings and comply with the water regulations. That’s what WaterSafe registration is about, and it’s why we won’t bodge a compression joint onto something that shouldn’t have one.

We cover Hinckley, Burbage, Earl Shilton, Barwell, Leicester, Nuneaton, Bedworth and the surrounding villages.

Not sure whether it’s an £8 washer or a new tap? We’ll tell you before we undo anything. Call 01455 632 030. Clear price before work starts.